Sir Paul McCartney's brother Mike McCartney was The Beatles original drummer but lost out on the gig of a lifetime.
Mike McCartney was almost The Beatles drummer
Younger sibling Mike, 78, has revealed that he was the first person to pick up the sticks behind two of the eventual Fab Four - Paul and John Lennon - when they started out as The Quarrymen, but after he broke his arm at Scout camp he was left with nerve damage which meant his drumming days were over.
When asked if he had been The Beatles original drummer in an exclusive interview with BANG Showbiz, he replied: "Yes."
Further explaining the situation, Mike has said: "I was The Beatles drummer, but I broke my arm in the Scouts. It was when John used to come to the house in Forthlin Road with The Quarrymen, before George was even there. I broke my arm at camp and it affected the nerves that control the wrist. They were dead.
"I had to have electric shocks and hot stuff put on my arm to get the nerves back. For a couple of years, I had to wear a support strap with a wire.
"If I hadn’t broken my arm, I’d have been a Beatle. But I did break my arm and I’m not a Beatle. You always have to deal in reality, not dreams."
After guitarist George Harrison joined the band it was drummer Pete Best who got the job of performing with The Beatles when they went to Hamburg, Germany, before he was being fired from the group in 1962 and ultimately replaced by Ringo Starr who completed the line-up as Beatlemania swept across the globe.
Rather than regret what could have been, Mike reinvented himself with the stage name Mike McGear and formed the trio The Scaffold with Roger McGough and John Gorman, performing comedy, music and poetry.
The Scaffold had several chart hits between 1966 and 1974, including the 1968 UK Christmas Number One 'Lily the Pink' and 1967 single 'Thank U Very Much', which was the favourite song of the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
Mike spilled: "I wrote 'Thank U Very Much' . It was The Queen Mother and Prime Minister Harold Wilson's favourite record. And then I wrote his most hated ... it was a song called 'Yesterday's Men' about his deposed government."
Mike is also a renowned photographer and has published books documenting the early years of The Beatles and the group backstage and on tour, and in 2005 he exhibited a collection of photographs that he had taken in the 1960s entitled 'Mike McCartney's Liverpool Life'.
His latest book, 'Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool', is an insight into the rebuilding of Liverpool post World War II and how, due to the cultural explosion of the Merseybeat scene and nightlife, Liverpool was firmly put on the UK cultural map. Mike documented this pivotal time period as he experienced it, and now reveals many unseen/unpublished images from his personal collection and artistic works.
Discussing his life-long passion for photography at the Atlas Gallery in London at a preview of photographs from the tome, Mike said: "I take photos everyday. Because you can't not take photographs. Photography is something that is part of your very soul."
The Collector’s Edition of 'Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool' is available at Mikemccartneybook.com now.
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