Colin Hanton

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Colin Hanton was born in Bootle in 1938 and grew up in Woolton, a district of Liverpool. He is an English musician, best known as the drummer of The Quarrymen, the 1950s skiffle band led by the young John Lennon. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1950, after which he went to live with his grandparents together with his brothers and sisters. He trained as a carpenter and later worked as an upholsterer. In the summer of 1956 he helped found the Quarrymen, together with Lennon, Eric Griffiths, Pete Shotton and Rod Davis. He was allowed to join mainly because he had just bought a new drum kit.

Music and breakthrough

Hanton played on the group's first recordings in 1958, a cover of That'll Be the Day by The Crickets and a song written by Paul McCartney and George Harrison, In Spite of All the Danger. On 1 January 1959 he left the band after a quarrel on the way back from a failed gig at the Speke Bus Depot Social Club. By then Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were already in the group. He later heard that Pete Best was the new drummer, and lost contact. In 1997 he came together again with the surviving members of The Quarrymen for a concert marking forty years of the band. After that the group toured the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Japan, among other places, and he played on the albums Get Back, Together, Songs We Remember and Grey Album.

Influence

Hanton shows how The Beatles emerged from an ordinary skiffle band in Liverpool. His drumming belongs to the very first recordings of the group around Lennon.

Listening