(Gibson) When Rod Davis joined The Quarrymen as a skiffle-crazed banjo player in 1957, he had no idea the group would evolve into the biggest band in rock and roll history, The Beatles. Speaking to BBC News on the occasion of the anniversary of the group's first date at the legendary Cavern Club, Davis recalled leaving the group for a holiday in France that summer and returning to find his seat had been filled by a younger kid named Paul McCartney."The famous meeting with Lennon and McCartney was 6 July and, a couple of weeks after that, I remember practicing at [John's] Aunt Mimi's [house] and it was the only time I ever remember being there," he recalled. "I turned up at Mimi's and there was this guy there, who I didn't know. So I said to John, 'Who's this, John?' And he said, 'That's Paul; he's come to listen to us practice.' By then obviously they'd offered him the banjo player slot; so if I hadn't been such a rubbish banjo player, Paul McCartney wouldn't have got in the group."
Davis disputed the date assigned by Beatles historians for The Quarrymen's first show at the Cavern Club, long reported to have been August 7, 1957. "No question about it, I played three or four times at The Cavern and it was definitely before August," he said. "I have my dad's passport which says, 'Entry to Boulogne 29 July, 1957,' so I was definitely not [at the Cavern in August]." more on this story
