Although they hadn’t won the regional final of Carroll Levis’ TV Star Search in Liverpool in October, Johnny and the Moondogs nonetheless qualified for the final round.
The group had much riding on their appearance. Success at the event, which was held at the New Manchester Hippodrome Theatre in Ardwick, Manchester, would guarantee them a television appearance and resulting fame.
Voting in the contest was based on a ‘clapometer’ registering audience applause. Johnny and the Moondogs lacked the local support they enjoyed in Liverpool, and anyway couldn’t have made much of an impact: lacking a place to stay in Manchester, they’d caught the train back home by the time the audience was required to cast its judgement.
By this time John, Paul and George had renamed themselves Johnny and the Moondogs and their hopes were high, but they came back despondent: they had failed the audition, mainly because they lacked a drummer. It was a setback, but it didn’t put them off. When something didn’t work out John would be down for a day or so, then he’d carry on, determined to be the best and to show anyone who didn’t believe in the group how wrong they’d been.
John
The Hippodrome was built as the Ardwick Empire Theatre in 1904 by renowned architect Frank Matcham. In 1935 it was refurbished and renamed the New Manchester Hippodrome. The building was demolished in 1964.
While the date of the Moondogs’ appearance is generally agreed to be 15 November 1959, the precise date has been disputed. At the time it was unusual for live music events to be held on a Sunday, a day when shops, cinemas and theatres were normally closed across the land. An alternative date for the final has been suggested as Monday 24 November.
Also on this day...
- 2013: Paul McCartney live: Fukuoka Dome, Fukuoka, Japan
- 1993: UK album release: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest by The Fireman (Paul McCartney and Youth)
- 1974: UK album release: Goodnight Vienna by Ringo Starr
- 1971: UK album release: Wild Life by Wings
- 1968: George Harrison appears on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
- 1967: Mixing: Hello, Goodbye
- 1965: Mixing: I’m Looking Through You, You Won’t See Me, Girl, Wait, The Word, Michelle
- 1963: Live: Colston Hall, Bristol
- 1962: Travel: Hamburg to Liverpool
- 1961: Live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1961: Live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1960: Live: Kaiserkeller, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
Regarding the date of this actual performance, some help may come from this recent interview Graham Nash gave to Stephen Colbert during a Late Show appearance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hPgzptEMT4
Nash, a mancunian, said he first met The Beatles before they were known by this name, when they used to call themselves Johnny & The Moondogs, on 19th November 1959.
The fact he recalls such a date with that precision means to me he might have took note of it some time.
Given the fact he’s from Manchester and such an occasion for different bands to gather together, I assume the setting for the aforementioned meeting might have been this Carrol Levis’s qualification round.
Just my two pennies.
W
In Graham Nash’s autobiography ‘Wild Tales (highly recomended) on Page 36 he goes into some detail about this competition on the 19th and he would definitely remember it because he and Alan Clarke were the winners ! No shame in losing to the embryonic Hollies 🙂 He also states that John, Paul and George brought Johnny Hutchinson along on drums. I’ve read about this competition in a few Beatles biographies and it also gets a mention in the big Anthology book, but no one ever mentions who won that night. Nash’s autobiography is the first book I’ve found to go into detail about the young Hollies victory.
AnthonyH
I wonder if The Beatles’ story would have been any different if they had won the tournament (for lack of a better word).
John Lennon, after losing, stole the guitar that stood at the exit, said then that they did not lose the competition at all, it was found by workers in his childhood home in the attic, it was a Dallas Tuxedo that was sold to a sotheby for several hundred thousand pounds
The Levis competition in Manchester was in November 1958, not 1959.