Former Beatle Pete Best interview, Ireland 1996

Pat Kenny chats to ex-Beatles drummer Pete Best about his time with the band. In August 1960 Pete Best joined Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison and became the drummer for The Beatles. A short time later they were off to Germany. Pete Best tells Pat Kenny about the wild time the band spent in Hamburg. When we got there we were like school kids... you know... looking at sweets in the window. The neon lights appeared on the reeperbahn, the strip clubs, the prostitutes and the hookers... 24 hour bars and it was like wow... dreams have come true. Returning from Germany the band played a number of shows including at the Casbah, a club owned by Pete’s mother. The band mainly performed covers at this stage and it wasn’t until mid 1961 that they began to play their own songs. In August 1962, with Brian Epstein now on board as manager of the band, Pete Best was kicked out of the band and replaced by Ringo Starr. This episode of ‘Kenny Live’ was broadcast on 13 January 1996.