On May 10, 1960, an unknown Liverpool group auditioned at the city’s Wyvern Social Club for a chance to back the singer Billy Fury on his forthcoming tour.
They failed the audition but Fury’s manager, Larry Parnes, offered them the consolation prize of backing Johnny Gentle, another of his singers, on a series of dates in the Scottish Highlands billed as the “Beat Ballad Show Tour”.
Ten days later, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, their then-bandmates Stuart Sutcliffe and the drummer Tommy Moore met Gentle for the first time — only half an hour before taking the stage at Alloa Town Hall.
Harrison and Moore had taken time off work, Lennon and Sutcliffe had skipped college and McCartney had somehow persuaded his father that
