Before Beatlemania swept the world, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were just three kids trying to make it in music. Lennon was just 16 years old when he formed the Quarrymen, a skiffle group comprised of his school friends, in 1956. Bassist Paul McCartney came aboard the following year when he and Lennon met at a gig, and George Harrison later joined on guitar at McCartney’s recommendation. In February 1958, the Quarrymen added pianist John “Duff” Lowe—another friend of McCartney’s—to the mix. Although Lowe, who died two years ago on this day (Feb. 22) in 2024, didn’t make music a lifelong career, he still remains an integral part of the Beatles’ early history.
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More About John “Duff” Lowe
In 1953, John “Duff” Lowe met Paul McCartney during a choral audition at Liverpool Cathedral in 1953, when they were mere boys of 11. Reconnecting later that year when they both attended the Liverpool Institute Grammar School, their friendship grew. Five years later, McCartney invited Lowe to join the Quarrymen.
July 12, 1958 – The Quarrymen, featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John “Duff” Lowe on piano and Colin Hanton on drums, recorded a vanity disc at a small studio in an electronics shop owned by a man named Percy Phillips. Their first ever recording, the band recorded ‘That’ll Be The Day’ and ‘In Spite Of Danger’ in one take each. McCartney wrote the song, likely around January 1958 and possibly at George Harrison’s family home in Upton Green. The song uses the B7 chord, which McCartney discovered with Harrison after a multi-bus trip across Liverpool to the home of a stranger who knew the chord. Harrison wrote both of the song’s guitar solos, and so McCartney gave him a joint credit. In The Beatles Anthology, McCartney describes it as, “a self-penned little song very influenced by Elvis.” In an interview with Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, McCartney further explains that the song is very similar to a specific Elvis song, though he avoids mentioning which particular one. Lewisohn writes that, though McCartney wrote the track on his own, it is heavily based on the melody of Elvis’s “Tryin’ to Get to You”, which also includes the similar lyric, “[in] spite of all that I’ve been through.” Musicologist Walter Everett agrees, writing that “its cadence comes close”. Chris Ingram says it was “clearly inspired” by it, and John C. Winn says it was “fashioned after” it. Recording was achieved with a single microphone suspended from the ceiling, no volume balancing possible. Curtains and carpets were put in the downstairs living room to dampen the noise of traffic from the street outside. At nearly three and a half minutes, the song is much longer than most pop recordings of the time. Lewisohn writes, “anecdotes have Percy Phillips waving his arms at them, hurrying them to a finish, because he could see the disc-cutting lathe reaching its ultimate point, almost at the center label.” The recording was cut directly to a single two sided shellac-on-metal 78-rpm disc. The disc cost the group 17s 6d. In a 1977 interview, Phillips recalled that the group initially only paid 15 shillings and someone returned a few days later with the remaining amount. #TheQuarrymen#thisdayinmusic#1958#1950s#inspiteofallthedanger#johnlennon#paulmccartney#georgeharrison#percyphillips#colinhanton#johnlowe#musichistory#memorylane#thebeatles#elvispresley @The Beatles @John Lennon @Paul McCartney @George Harrison
Lowe played with the Quarrymen for just under a year, recording two tracks—”That’ll Be the Day” and “In Spite of All the Danger”—at Percy Phillips’ home studio in Liverpool. Holding onto that record for 23 years, Lowe eventually sold it to McCartney in 1981.
After leaving the Quarrymen, he played piano in a band called Hobo Rick & the City Slickers, headed by Ricky Tomlinson, now a well-known British comedic actor. However, his primary career had nothing to do with music. Lowe got a job as a stockbroker with a Liverpool firm, although he still frequented the Cavern Club, known today as the birthplace of the Beatles. During one visit, he ran into John Lennon, who quipped to a friend, “This is Duff. He breaks stock.”
After a couple of years, Lowe grew tired of “breaking stock” and switched to banking instead. After working as banking hall manager for Hill Samuel Bank in Bristol, he opened his own financial services company in 1980. Lowe continued to work in finance until his retirement in 2007, still moonlighting as an equity release adviser afterwards.
John “Duff Lowe” died on Feb. 22, 2024, at 81 years old.
Featured image by Phil Noble – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
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