The Club Where The Beatles Played Is Transformed Into a B&B
Pete Bestthe original drummer of the Fab Four (replaced by Ringo Starr), transformed the Casbah Club Liverpool – where the band used to play – in a place where fans of the Beatles they will be able to “eat, sleep and party”, just like the not yet famous quartet did.
Today, at 82, on the top floor of the house where he lived, Pete Best has a collection of photographs that tell the story of the younger version of the former drummer. Shots in which his former bandmates, George Harrison, Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon, are easily recognizable next to him.
Had things gone differently, he too would have grown old as part of music’s most famous quartet.
Although Best was dropped from the line-up (after two years) and replaced (in August 1962) by Ringo Starr The former Beatles member says, six decades on, he’s had time to reflect on one of pop history’s biggest “what ifs.”
“I’ve had 60 fantastic years as both Pete and a Beatle. It’s part of your life, it’s nice to be associated with it, but life goes on,” he said in an interview with Sky News.
“There were a lot of difficulties and financial embarrassments at the beginning, but life makes up for it. Maybe it was my karma, maybe it wasn’t meant to be.” or maybe he was just too different from the other band members.
In addition to taking time to think, Best has devised business initiatives based on his connection to the group.
The latest, launched by Pete and his younger brother Roag, offers the public the chance to stay in their old family home, one of the places where the Beatles began taking their first steps in the music field.
The Casbah Club is a listed Victorian mansion purchased by Best’s mother Mona, who had the idea of creating a members-only club where her children and their friends could meet to listen to music and play.
The footprints of the Beatles, who still called themselves The Quarrymenare present throughout the basement where they played.
The band themselves helped decorate the space and you can still see where John Lennon carved his name on the walls with a pocketknife. Back then, on the nights of greatest success, hundreds of people would flock to attend their concerts, an audience at the time unaware of what would happen next and what the fate of these young boys would be.
Now that place has been transformed into an exclusive Bed & Breakfast where users can stay in the rooms on the upper floor.
The five available suites are named after Paul, John, George, Peter and original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe (they started out as a quintet), but not Ringo.
The quartet referred to by the first drummer is in fact the one that sees his presence and therefore Ringo, does not have a “dedicated” room. “The Beatles played here, the Beatles partied here and the Beatles slept here,” Best said, adding that the accommodation was a “projection” of his mother’s dream (who also acted as their manager).
In addition to being a job opportunity, the house, in its new “intended use,” takes on several meanings. The first is a reflection on how close Best came to being part of Beatlemania, and the second is that the nostalgia of the Fab Four still has a charm and commercial value.
The various suites are furnished with memorabilia of the individual musicians. The Paul McCartney suite, for example, features several photos of the baronet to whom it is dedicated as well as a replica of his guitar.
Interviewed by British broadcaster Debbie Greenberg, who ran the Cavern Club, another Liverpool venue famously linked to the group, still remembers when Pete Best was dropped from the line-up.
“Pete was a very nice guy and had a lot of fans. Word got around that he had been replaced by Ringo and we all started chanting ‘Pete forever, Ringo never.’ To be replaced all of a sudden, when they were on the verge of doing something great, must have been so devastating for him. So,” Greenberg added, “he deserves everything he has today.”
Best’s is not the only B&B linked to the Beatles. Another one is located in Liverpool, at number 25 Upton Green, in the suburb of Speke and it is the house where George Harrison spent his childhood from 1949 to 1962. The property, available on the online rental platform, can accommodate up to five people at a cost of around £200 per night, for a minimum of two nights.
From 2014 to 2021 the house was owned by Jackie Holmes, ended up at auction and was purchased at the end of 2021 by Ken Lambert, a Beatles fan, who made the apartment available for tourist stays.
