Though Mersey Beat later reports that Pete Best left the band “amicably,” that’s far from true. Pete had been in the Beatles for nearly two years, and to have been dismissed by Brian Epstein right when the band got its record deal…it cut deep.

“I knew the Beatles were gonna go places, I knew we were going to be a chart group—and to be kicked out on the verge of it actually happening upset me a great deal,” Pete later tells an interviewer. “And the fact that they weren’t at the dismissal hurt me a lot more. It was vicious and backhanded and I felt like putting a stone round my neck and jumping off the Pier Head.”

*  *  *

On August 18, 1962, Ringo Starr lugs his drum kit into the Cavern for a two-hour rehearsal.

John is the first to notice how different Ringo looks. Not only has Ringo shaved off his beard, he’s also restyled his hair to look like the rest of the band—something Pete never did.

John has always liked Ringo—has been, truthfully, a little bit in awe of him. Neither of them suffers fools, and both are quick and sharp with the tongue; and they both grew up with absent fathers. Both enjoy drinking and flirting and laughing, generally having a good time. Ringo hasn’t had much formal schooling, yet he’s very intelligent. Sharp.

John describes feeling a little intimidated by Ringo to a journalist. “To be so aware with so little education is rather unnerving to someone who’s been to school since he was fucking two onwards.”

The rehearsal goes amazingly well. They have great fun together.

And the chemistry is perfect.

“We were all very happy to have him,” George will later say. “From that moment on, it gelled—the Beatles just went on to a different level.”

Not all the fans see it that way.

Pete’s a local favorite, and his firing is the talk of Liverpool’s music scene. When the Beatles return to the Cavern on Sunday, the audience is buzzing with gossip—mainly theories that the rest of the band was jealous of Pete. As the Beatles take the stage, some people start shouting, “Pete Best forever, Ringo never!”

“The birds loved Pete,” Ringo explains. “Me, I was just a skinny, bearded scruff. Brian didn’t really want me either. He thought I didn’t have the personality. And why get a bad-looking cat when you can get a good-looking one.”

Brian declares himself “the most hated man in Liverpool.”

Granada TV shows up three days later, for the band’s lunchtime session at the Cavern. It’s the first time the band will be on camera.