John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time
On this day · 6 July 1957
A suburban church fete in Liverpool quietly hosted the most consequential introduction in pop music history.
On July 6, 1957, 16-year-old John Lennon stood on a makeshift stage at the St Peter’s Church garden fete in Woolton, Liverpool, fronting his skiffle group, the Quarrymen. Among the crowd was 15-year-old Paul McCartney, brought along by a mutual friend.
After the afternoon set, the two met inside the church hall. McCartney picked up a guitar, ran through Eddie Cochran and Little Richard numbers, and impressed Lennon by actually knowing how to tune the instrument and remember the words, things Lennon often improvised around.
Two weeks later, Lennon sent word inviting McCartney to join the band.
That decision set in motion the songwriting partnership at the heart of the Beatles, who would go on to sell hundreds of millions of records and reshape popular music. A parish fundraiser, complete with a fancy-dress parade and a police-dog display, had unknowingly staged the start of it all.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
