Before forming The Beatles, John Lennon found himself in a complicated position with a bandmate. He founded the group The Quarrymen in the 1950s with some of his school friends. By the time Paul McCartney joined the group, it was clear that Lennon was ready to move on to other, bigger things. He fired one of his bandmates and longtime friends by smashing an instrument over his head.
John Lennon worked closely with a bandmate in The Quarrymen
Lennon spent some of the earliest days of his music career in The Quarrymen, a skiffle band he formed with school friends. The original lineup was Lennon, Eric Griffiths, Bill Smith, and Pete Shotton. They named the group after their school song.
Lennon and Shotton were particularly close friends, having met in school and discovering that they had similar senses of humor.
“My memories of the two of us go back so far that I barely remember a time when there was no John Lennon in my life,” Shotton wrote in his autobiography, per The Times.
The pair were also frequently getting into trouble together. Their offenses reportedly included “insolence,” “throwing blackboard duster out of the window,” “cutting class,” and “gambling on school field during house match.”
Lennon also relied on Shotton for advice on a number of things, both musical and otherwise.
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“John went to Pete for advice on lots of things,” writer Bill Harry said. “He respected Pete because he stood up to him and could be a bit like John — a bit sarcastic and moody.”
John Lennon violently fired his bandmate
Lennon formed The Quarrymen in 1956. In 1957, McCartney joined and had an immediate impact on the band. What had previously been a group of school friends messing around on makeshift instruments turned into a more serious band with his influence. Suddenly, Shotton, who played the washboard but didn’t have much musical ambition, seemed out of place.
Shotton himself was aware of this, but he knew Lennon wouldn’t fire him due to the closeness of their friendship. At a party one night, though, his time with the band came crashing to an end. Lennon grabbed the washboard and smashed it over Shotton’s head, breaking off the metal part and leaving the wooden frame hanging around his neck. Shotton was not angry, though. In fact, he recalled bursting into tears of laughter and relief.
“I was finished with playing but I didn’t want to say so, nor did John,” he said, per the book John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman. “This way let me out and it let John out.”
His friendship with Shotton reflected many of his relationships
Lennon and Shotton remained close friends for years. In their relationship, Lennon relied on Shotton for advice, and he gave Shotton a lucrative job when he was in need. At the same time, though, he didn’t always treat Shotton well.
When Lennon hired him as a personal assistant, Shotton eventually quit because he felt that Lennon was using him as a servant. In addition, even though Shotton was relieved to be done with the band, having a washboard smashed over his head wasn’t the best way to reach this decision.
Lennon’s relationships with the most important people in his life fluctuated like this. He swung between kindness and casual cruelty. The people who loved him reflect on him fondly but also seem to recognize that he was an extremely complex figure in their lives.
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