On his latest album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, Paul sings about going on a hitch-hiking journey with George Harrison. They headed down south, and also hitch-hiked to Harlech in Wales.
They set off with their guitars, of course, and spotted a sign for Harlech, made famous in the Welsh anthem, “Men of Harlech”, that they both knew well. Harlech, an ancient town famous for its castle, was welcoming to the Liverpool wanderers, and they settled into a local cafe, listening to the jukebox in the corner.
Paul and George rehearsed with local group The Vikings in the basement of a barbershop, and Gerry Brookes, who owns the Seasons and Reasons General Store on the site of the barbershop, told me about the famous visit to the town.
The two visiting Liverpool musicians decided to camp in a field belonging to John Brierley’s family and, as Brierley was in a local group, the talk soon turned to music. Paul and George moved from their tent into the Brierley’s house and so, in return for bed and breakfast, they agreed to play with the group. John Brierley and his friend Aneurin Thomas were members of The Vikings, and they were performing regularly at the Queens Hotel, which was run by Thomas’ dad.
The group often played on JULY 1958 Saturday nights, and so one evening, Paul and George stepped up and performed with John and Aneurin as a quartet in Harlech. According to Brookes, the lady who lived in the flat above the barbershop remembers the group rehearsing and making a terrible noise, and local man Bill Crews had kept hold of the tea-chest bass that George played, though eventually he ripped it apart and used it for firewood!
After this story was published in my book, The Fab One Hundred and Four: The Evolution of The Beatles, Aneurin Thomas got in touch with me to talk about the trip and his fond memories of meeting Paul and George.
With the new song on Paul’s new album, Aneurin got in touch again and we are hoping to get him in touch with Paul, which would be so good! Let’s hope!
If you haven’t got my book, the follow up to Liddypool, then you can get it on sale now! It is the favourite of my books, because of what I uncovered people and stories that nobody had done before – that is so exciting as a historian!
David
