PRE FAB - CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL
Life isn’t fair if it were then, maybe we would’ve heard of John, Paul, George and Colin! And then again, maybe not. Colin Hanton was one of the original, Quarraymen, a bunch of young lads, all friends and school pals in the south Liverpool area of Walton. The teenagers, if they were called that in 1956, got together to form a Skiffle band. In 1956, Skiffle was the new craze sweeping among the new generation of post-war British youngsters. Lonnie Donnegan was their hero. Elvis had not yet surfaced in the still gloom of austerity England. But he soon did and Skiffle rapidly became old hat. Rock and Roll was about to burst on Britain and the market was wide open for good Rock and Rollers.
THE ORIGINAL QUARRYMEN BACK TOGETHER
This fine new documentary by American Beatles fan Todd Thompson, stars Hanton, now in his early 80s but full of beans and dry Liverpudlian humour. He was called to join the Quarraymen because he had the means to buy a simple drum kit. Eventually the band started to make a name for itself in the nascent Scouse music scene. Soon other local teenies joined the band – lads by the name of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
What happened to Colin and why he never became Ringo Starr makes for a thoroughly entertaining and warm-hearted 92 minutes. Colin is a wonderful tour guide taking us back down Memory and Penny Lanes. Other former pre-Beatles are interviewed each with funny, poignant and very Liverpool stories to tell. There’s the time the lads got so drunk in the interval of a gig in a local club that they totally messed up their set and were told never to darken the doors. There was the gig in a village field in the which the future Beatles were upstaged by a troupe of performing police dogs.
We hear how the arrival of Paul started to professionalise the group and many of the early starters were dropped. Not Colin. He left of his own accord. It was his work as an apprentice upholsterer or the vagaries of playing in a band – he chose the former. And in his dewy eyes as stomps the old haunts, you can feel more than tinges of regret. It is all very touching but Colin and the other rejects have had a late laugh. We seem them re-forming and playing right up to the present day.
There are funny anecdotes from Paul and the recorded voices of George and John. Thompson makes excellent use of archive footage, old photos and some well-judged animations recreating the Quarrymen’s early exploits that were never photographed or filmed. The result is much more than a nostalgic appeal to children of the late 50s and 60s (like your reviewer). Yes, there is a large dose of ‘what ifs’ but Colin and his very unceleb Liverpool cronies prove that though life is indeed unfair, it can still be fab.
