Beat Makers by Hogan Anthony

Author:Hogan, Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2017-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

The Chants. (Courtesy of Joey Ankrah)

On 12 October 1962, Joey Ankrah made his way to the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. As he walked towards the venue he bumped into Sugar Deen. Both guys were trying to get into the ballroom to watch Little Richard perform. They went to the stage door, knocked, and Brian Epstein opened it, then put his arm across the entrance before saying ‘not tonight boys’. The guys protested, ‘Come on Brian, let us in.’ As they did, Ringo Starr came past and saw Joey and Sugar. He leant over Brian, grabbed hold of them and dragged them inside. They were in, and after watching the concert Joey got talking to Paul McCartney who asked him to bring the band along to the Cavern.

The following day, Joey Ankrah and Sugar Deen went along to the Adelphi hotel in Liverpool, where Little Richard was staying. Black people were still banned from staying at the hotel (unless they had a lot of money of course) so the sight of Joey and Sugar walking up to the reception must have worried the staff. They informed the receptionist that they were there for a meeting with Little Richard. Amazingly, it worked, and they were led upstairs to his room. Upon knocking, the door opened, and they could see Little Richard sitting in bed. He called to them ‘come on in boys’, and they entered. There sitting next to the bed were Lawrence Areety and Derry Wilkie, who had also managed to find a way in to meet their hero. As they all chatted, Little Richard reached for a large book and opened it up. The middle had been cut out of it and was stuffed with pound notes. He said, ‘I asked them for dollars and they gave me this shit.’ The guys just looked on, stunned at the amount of money that was inside that book.

The Chants turned up at an afternoon Cavern session and the Beatles asked them to sing. They left the Beatles stunned with their version of ‘A Thousand Stars’ and were asked to perform that evening at the club. The Beatles informed Brian Epstein that evening that they would be backing the Chants. He was not happy and told them that he was refusing to allow them to do so. However, the band went against their manager and played the music for four songs that the Chants performed: ‘A Thousand Stars’, ‘Sixteen Candles’, ‘Duke of Earl’, and ‘Come Go With Me’ – the crowd went wild in appreciation for them.

The members of the Beatles convinced Brian to manage them, which he did, but under no contract. The Chants soon realised that his time was taken up with his other acts and so removed themselves from his management. They then signed a contract with Ted Ross, which led to a recording contract with Pye Records.

The band was going along well on the local circuit and were being backed by groups of the calibre of the Undertakers and the Big Three.

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