What is Reddit's opinion of Savage Young Beatles - Interview?

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Very interesting, and thanks for getting back to me. I wonder what Norman's source is there, though, because Pete told Terry Gross on Fresh Air in 2003 that he's never talked to any of the Beatles since being fired. You can hear the relevant portion of the interview here, starting at about 36:59:

> Terry Gross: And, um, I've read that you haven't spoken to the Beatles since that day [you were fired]. Is that true? > > Pete Best: That's quite true, yes. It's, uh, y'know. A lot of people turned round and said there must be animosity, y'know, no one's picked the phone up and, y'know, contacted one another or tried to, y'know, resolve our differences. At the end of the day, there are no differences as far as I'm concerned. The door's always been opened. Y'know, picking the phone up, a lot of people don't realize how difficult that is in this particular business...

Pete did say in a 1965 interview in New York City that he talked to them briefly at a Liverpool "homecoming" gig in 1963 where the Beatles played on the same bill as Pete's new band, Lee Curtis & the All-Stars:

> Pete Best: In fact, it was at the time when 'Please Please Me' was in the #1 slot in England, at the top of the Hit Parade. The Beatles had a 'welcome home' performance at the Cavern, and the group I was with then, Lee Curtis & The All-Stars, were, y'know, were billed as second to the top with the Beatles. That was the first time we played with them. > > Interviewer: Did anything happen when you were in the same club. Did they talk to you? > > Pete Best: They only said, 'Hello,' that was all. The conversation was [a] short and sweet type of thing. > > Interviewer: How about Ringo? Did he say anything at all? > > Pete Best: He said hello, with a very sheepish look on his face. > > Interviewer: Did they ask how you'd been? What you'd been doing? > > Pete Best: No. Y'know, it was just, I should imagine a case of them having to say hello to be polite. So that was all, and I had to say hello to them to be polite, so we both said hello.

You can hear the audio clip here, and Pete goes on to say that he played on the same bill with them at the Tower Ballroom when "Love Me Do" was at #17 in the charts, so his statement that it was the "first" time he played on the same bill with them when they said hello to each other must be wrong. In fact, it was probably the last. According to Mark Lewisohn's day-by-day calendar of the Beatles' activity published in The Complete Beatles Chronicle, the Beatles played with Lee Curtis & The All-Stars four times after Pete joined them: at the Tower Ballroom in Wallasey on Oct 12, 1962; at the Queen's Hall in Widnes on Oct 22, 1962; at the Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead on Dec 15, 1962; and one final time at the Cavern in Liverpool on Feb 19, 1963.

Pete's memory is of it being at the Cavern at a "welcome home" gig when "Please Please Me" was in the charts, and that coincides with that last gig. At the time, the Beatles had just returned from their brief tour with Helen Shapiro, so it being a "welcome home" gig makes sense. That means the only conversation they had, if Pete's 1965 memory was correct, was on February 19. 1963, and all they did was politely exchange pleasantries. He did retell the story in another interview from 2004.

In any case, according to Pete's memory in 2003, several years after the release of Anthology, he never spoke to them again. It seems he may have at least mentioned receiving a phone call from Paul in about 1995 if it had happened, seeing as Pete specifically mentioned that "no one's picked up the phone" and "picking the phone up, a lot of people don't realize how difficult that is". But he didn't, so I wonder if Pete was just glossing over it, or if Phillip Norman was relying on second-hand information that wasn't based in fact.

That said, Pete gave this interview at Beatlefest in 2004 where he said:

> ...Because of the Anthology, because of certain things which have gone on behind the scenes at the present moment, and that's all I'm going to say, there's a strong warning that possibly some time in the future, and don't ask me when 'cause I can't turn round and tell you that either, all I will turn round and say is that we may meet up again and it might be on a playing level, it might be on a social level, it might be just on a friendship level, even though I've never fell out of friends with them but it's just that, y'know, sort of, y'know uh, meet up with one another again and say hi before we leave this planet and pass on to different pastures.

So maybe he's insinuating there that he did once speak to Paul during the Anthology days? But it sounds more like he was dealing with an intermediary--probably Neil Aspinall--who may have passed along Paul's message about "righting wrongs" and maybe meeting up again one day in the future. So it's possible he did receive a phone call from Paul, but it sounds more like he just got some kind of second-hand message from Paul that Pete interpreted as being hopeful for some kind of future get-together.

It would make sense for it to be Neil--he and Pete remained friends, he was the father of Pete's brother, he was the President of Apple at the time of Anthology, he was interviewed in the Anthology documentary, and he was also interviewed in Pete's own documentary he made in response to Anthology, 2005's Best of the Beatles. I don't have access to the Best of the Beatles documentary at the moment, but if I recall correctly, Pete once again does recall the backstage "hello" story, saying that's the only time he ever spoke to any of them again.