#rory storm and the hurricanes

[scourgiez]

based on the story klaus said about ringo waiting patiently as rory fussed with his hair <3

i love them sm

[tavolgisvist]

From all accounts it seems that Harrison thought a lot about guitars - and especially about acquiring new ones. During the group's second stay in Hamburg, Harrison was once again on the look-out for a new guitar. Had it not been for an incident with a rival band, Harrison may well have played a Fender Stratocaster in the early days of The Beatles. For the second half of the group's engagement in Hamburg they once again shared the stage with fellow Liverpudlians Rory Storm & The Hurricanes. A distinct rivalry had developed between the two outfits. Harrison was finding his Futurama difficult to play, not least because of its very high "action", a technical term for the height of the strings from the fingerboard. "Nevertheless, it did look kind of futuristic," Harrison recalled recently. "Then when I was in Hamburg I found out that some guy had a Stratocaster for sale, and I arranged that I was going to go first thing the next morning and buy it. I believe it was a white one. And this fellow who was the guitar player in Rory Storm & The Hurricanes … found out about it too, and he got up earlier and went and bought it. By the time I got there it had gone. I was so disappointed it scarred me for life, that experience. I think after that happened I got [my] Gretsch - it was a denial kind of thing." Johnny Guitar, lead guitarist in Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, remembered arranging to meet The Beatles in Hamburg's Steinway music shop. Storm was going to lend them 1300 Deutschmarks to buy Harrison a Fender. "I asked Rory why he was lending them the money when our own guitarist, Ty Brian, needed one. So when we got there Rory told them he'd changed his mind and we were buying the guitar for Ty. All hell broke loose and Lennon went mad, but Ty held his own, rolling around the floor. They ignored us for a few days after, but it all blew over."

(Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio Hardcover by Andy Babiuk, 2010)

[rorystormandthehurricanes]

the hurricanes (from left to right) ringo starr, lou walters, and johnny guitar, ty o'brien. most likely in butlins (1960)

[ludmilachaibemachado]

Sam Leach and Joan McEvoy's Engagement Party, 17th March 1962🖤

Earlier in the evening, The Beatles performed at the Village Hall in Knotty Ash, Liverpool. The evening was billed as a "St. Patrick's Night Rock Gala". Sam Leach, (Liverpool concert booker) booked The Beatles and Rory Storm and The Hurricanes to draw a big crowd so that he could make enough profits to pay for his engagement party, scheduled to follow the night's show. Both bands attended Leach's party, which didn't end until the following afternoon. Also present at the party was Mike McCartney, Paul's girlfriend Dorothy 'Dot' Rhone, Brian Epstein, Bob Wooler and Ted 'Kingsize' Taylor. Hurricane Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne diary entry for 1962 mentions the party🖤

Via @inmylifeiloveyoujohnlennon on Instagram🖤

[kichisaburo3]

Ringo Starr Before Joined BEATLES Photo Rory Storm and The Hurricanes about 1960 Twitter Reblogged

TAG of BEATLES in my Tumblr https://kichisaburo3.tumblr.com/tagged/BEATLES

#RingoStarr with Rory Storm and The Hurricanes circa 1960#TheBeatles pic.twitter.com/qjM5feW8Zv

— Laurent The Walrus (@SgtPepper1710) February 10, 2024

14 FEB 2024 Wednesday

[dadrockconfessions]

[ilovedig]

This is Ringo and Johnny Guitar who was one of the guitarists in the Hurricanes

The first photo is Ringo with his hands on Johnny's stomach and back

And the second photo is ringo wrapped around Lu, I think, holding Johnny's hand (the one in white)

I do not want to hear anyone say that Ringo has a "straight vibe" ever again.

[imagine-mokey]

Ringo. Starr, with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes!

[markusrings]

Favorite Ringo Starr photos 🐙🐙

[beatle-stories333]

[scourgiez]

im scared to finish this, lol! some small doggy ringo to compensate

[tavolgisvist]

By the end of the 1950s Rory Storm and The Hurricanes were Liverpool’s top band. The great peculiarity of Storm’s character was that he spoke with a severe stammer, which always disappeared when he was performing. A flamboyant Teddy Boy, he had a vast blond quiff that he would ostentatiously comb on stage: in old black-and-white photographs he seems to be built entirely of silver. He was an athletic man, a natural extrovert, given to daredevil stage leaps (he once broke a leg jumping from a balcony for a photograph). He’d wave the mike stand around and, strangely, pour lemonade over himself.

I’m told he was once apprehended by a railway porter on Bootle station for writing ‘I Love Rory’ on a wall. The other groups worshipped him; George Harrison longed to join the Hurricanes but was told he was too young.

Rory found a local drummer, another refugee from skiffle, called Richard Starkey. He lured the boy with promises of a summer season at Butlins holiday camp in Pwllheli, where each week brought a fresh coach-load of excitable girls. In line with the Hurricanes’ big-thinking policies the drummer was allocated a new name, Ringo Starr. (This era would be lovingly re-created in a 1973 him featuring Ringo with Billy Fury and David Essex, That’ll Be the Day.) Starr’s reputation grew so fast in his time with Rory, that he was eventually poached by the Beatles to replace Pete Best. <…> Gerry Marsden, like Ringo, came from the docklands of Dingle. He got a job on the railways, he played skiffle and then got himself a beat group, the Pacemakers, who served their time in Hamburg. They were game entertainers, these boys, who could play anything in that week’s Hit Parade if it’s what the crowd wanted. Having a piano-player made them a bit different, too, and offered them some range. Gerry had a funny way of holding his guitar high on his chest: it was so he could see his fingers.

Brian Epsten watched them in action at the Cavern, and saw in Gerry something of the same star potential he perceived in the Beatles and Cilia Black. He brought George Martin to see them play in Birkenhead, and they were duly signed to an EMI label, Columbia.

Once in the studio they were more compliant than Lennon and McCartney, and readily agreed to cover the song, ‘How Do You Do It?’, that the Beatles had rejected. Good thing, too. It got them to Number 1 straight out of the traps, and a month before the Beatles at that.

Paul McCartney would recall much later: ‘The hrsj: really senous threat to us that we felt was Gerry and the Pacemakers. When it came time for Mersey Beat to have a poll as to who was the most popular group we certainly bought and filled in a lot of forms, with very funny names , . . I’m not saying it was a fix, but it was a high-selling issue, that.’ <…> …Cilia’s first job in show business was to make the tea in the Cavern office. She was in fact the quintessential Scouser: a docker’s daughter from the Catholic enclave Scotland Road. In the family parlour stood a piano from the Epsteins’ North End Music Stores, just up the road.

When the 60s started she was a typist in town who spent her lunch hours watching the beat groups at the Cavern, where she picked up some spare-time work. Soon she was to be found on stage as well, performing guest spots with Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, the Big Three and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. (Sometimes she would duet with Ringo on his big number ‘Boys’, but turned down a chance to go with the band to Hamburg.)

One night at the Iron Door her girlfriends urged the Beatles to give Cilia a go. ‘OK Cyril,’ John Lennon said. ‘Just to shut your mates up.’ She sang Sam Cooke’s version of ‘Summertime’, and her career was on its way. It was Lennon who recommended ‘Cyril’ to Epstein. ‘I fancied Brian like mad,’ she recalled. ‘He was gorgeous. He had the Cary Grant kind of charisma, incredibly charming and shy. He always wore a navy-blue cashmere overcoat and a navy spotted cravat. I know now it was a Hermes but then I still knew it was expensive.’ She failed an early audition for him, backed by the Beatles, but he saw her again at the Blue Angel and changed his mind.

(Liverpool - Wondrous Place by Paul Du Noyer, 2002)

Part (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IX), (X), (XI), (XII)

[rorystormandthehurricanes]

Rory Storm and Johnny Guitar, possibly 1961 in Butlins

“Rory Storm was far more show than substance. He learnt his tricks from watching Elvis Presley and Gene Vincent. He had little originality but was a very good copycat. He would cock his leg over the mike like Gene Vincent and cover his songs like ‘Rocky Road Blues’. I will never forget him knocking the Reslo mike over at Holyoake: his foot hit the mike, which was the only one we had. I thought, ‘Oh god, I hope he hasn’t ruined it’, and, fortunately, he hadn’t. I told him that he must never do that when we are down to one mike. If you glanced at some of the early photographs of Rory Storm doing tricks with his mike stand, you might think it was a young Rod Stewart.” - Bob Wooler

[aunti-christ-ine]

Brian Epstein

September 19, 1934 - August 27, 1967

Aug 28, 2022 — Brian Epstein statue unveiled in Liverpool

The statue, depicting a striding Epstein on his way to the Cavern Club holding a management contract, was sculpted by Andy Edwards and Paul McCartney’s cousin Jane Robbins.

The 1.94m bronze piece is situated on the corner of Button Street and Whitechapel, close to Epstein’s former NEMS store. Its unveiling coincides with the 2022 International Beatleweek, which runs in the city from 24-30 August.

[tillthereweretangents]

Do either of you have thoughts on Ringo’s song Electricity? I’ve been wondering who other than Johnny Guitar could be the ‘gangster of love smiling from above’ and what that means about the song in general.

Not so long ago back in Liverpool Playing every show while working in the factory Music was the scene, I was on my way Chasing my own dream with Rory and the Hurricanes Before he became the keeper of the plane And by the name of Johnny Guitar Electricity coming through his fingers Every time he plays, everybody lingers On the verge of a serious power surge Electricity, and I still remember back in the day No one there will forget the way he played Electricity As it turned out good Made it here to Hollywood Playing just the same I guess there's things that never change Just like from the start Every night I gave my heart Trying to make it good Just like I know I could The gangster of love Is smiling from above So we play this one to Johnny Guitar Electricity coming through his fingers Every time he plays, everybody lingers Electricity, and I still remember back in the day No one there will forget the way he played Electricity Electricity coming through his fingers Every time he plays, everybody lingers Electricity, and I still remember back in the day No one there will forget the way he played Electricity

First off, thank you so much for the comment!

We're sure this song is about Johnny Guitar (he's named right there in the chorus). Did you have other ideas who Ringo might be thinking of?

Johnny died in 1999 and the song was released in 2017, almost 20 years later, so it makes sense that Ringo is talking about Johnny looking down on him from heaven as it were.

Gangster of Love

This is in reference to a 1957 recording by Johnny "Guitar" Watson"

It didn't gain traction in 1957, but he rerecorded it in the 70s, which is what you see here, and then it did chart.

He could have chosen a different song from a different year. I find it quite interesting he chose a song from 1957, which was before he and Johnny met, but is the year that John and Paul met.

With this information we can absolutely say that "gangster of love" refers to Johnny Guitar and only Johnny guitar.

One other lyric we'd like to note, even though you only asked about this one.

Keeper of the plane

The Hawker Hurricane was a very famous plane from WWII. It would have been well-known to all the lads in Liverpool.

When Rory died, Johnny took over as leader of the Hurricanes. We're pretty sure that's what Ringo is referring to with "keeper of the plane".

So those are all our thoughts on "Electricity"

Ultimately, it's very clear Johnny held a special place in Ringo's heart even many years after his death. To us it sounds fairly romantic, maybe even akin to "Here Today," but it could also just be an ode to a good friend who had passed.

What do you think?