The Casbah Story – by Pete Best

Tune in to Pete Best’s account of the Casbah Club story

Over at BBC radio, a two-part series of the story of Liverpool’s Casbah Club narrated by ex-Beatle Pete Best is still available for your listening pleasure. The Quarrymen, in August 1959 consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown—went to the club to arrange their first booking, to which owner Mona Best agreed, but said she needed to finish painting the club first. All four took up brushes and helped Mona to finish painting the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars. In addition to the four boys’ artistic contributions, Cynthia Powell, later to become Cynthia Lennon, painted a silhouette of John on the wall, which can still be seen today. The group often played at The Casbah as other venues, like The Cavern Club, had a jazz-only policy at that time. The cellar—with its original decoration—still exists. Every Beatle Week for the past years, Pete Best have been hosting a “Best fest” of his own at the basement club.

The programme is a reprise from 2012, and was part of BBC Radio 2’s Beatles Season that year.

Link: The two episodes at 30 minutes each are still available for 20 more days.

Pete Best’s brother Roag is currently working on a Beatles museum of his own in Mathew Street, just opposite the Cavern Club.