Mona Best
A Topic Post
“Mo threw the pebble, that made the ripple, that caused the wave, that shook the world.” – Roag Best
Every story, of everything and everyone, is made up of countless components. If one thing hadn’t happened, then another thing wouldn’t have happened, then another thing, and on and on ad infinitum. It’s just that some stories are more well-known than others. In the story of The Beatles, those things that happened, one after another, some related to each other, some not, added up to one of the most remarkable stories ever told. It is commonplace for people to suppose that if one particular thing, whichever one they choose, had not happened, that The Beatles would never have been the phenomenon that they were. How true is that? It’s impossible to say. Are some particular events more important than others? Who knows? But it’s hard to deny that the events of their lives, when put together, seem to make a perfect storm (a term I borrowed from David Bedford). A not so insignificant player in that storm was Mona Best.
“Mo”
Mona Best was born and grew up in India, where her first two sons, Pete and Rory, were born. Everyone in the family, including her sons, called her “Mo.” The family, including her husband, Johnny Best, moved to Liverpool around Christmas of 1945. In 1954, she bought a house at 8 Hayman’s Green in West Derby, Liverpool, using winnings from a bet on a horse named Never Say Die, which won as a 33:1 longshot. In August of 1959 she opened The Casbah Coffee Club in the basement of that house, and the first house band was The Quarrymen, featuring John, Paul, George, and Ken Brown, all on guitars and vocals.
Mona was a shrewd and fair businesswoman, but the opening of The Casbah was not solely a business venture. Mona had a very close relationship with her sons and they idolized her. As Pete would say, “she is a marvelous champion of a woman who let me choose my own path in life and has supported me like a pillar whether times have been good or bad.”1 She was extremely supportive of her sons’ interest in music. When Rory Best admired George’s Futurama guitar, Mona bought him one. When Pete showed an interest in playing the drums, she bought him his first kit.
The Casbah became extremely popular very quickly. In order to stay open late, Mona had to register the venue as a private club and sell memberships. They had soon sold 2000. While The Casbah was open, artists such as Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Derry and the Seniors, The Searchers, Cilla Black, and Gerry and the Pacemakers all played there. During the Spring of 1960, the house band was The Blackjacks, featuring Mona’s eldest son, Pete Best, on drums. When Pete was asked to join The Beatles and go to Hamburg in August of 1960, Mona was again, completely supportive. She told Pete “Hamburg’s a wild town. Watch your step, Peter! You’ll probably come back educated – a further education of a different type!”2 Indeed.
She wasn’t done by simply having The Beatles play at The Casbah, either. As we’ll be talking about over the next few months, our boys found themselves in great demand as 1961 progressed. Pete was generally the one who handled the bookings for the band, but if he wasn’t available, Mo would take care of them. All of The Beatles’ equipment was stored at The Casbah and it was Casbah employees who transported the band and equipment to their gigs. In addition, The Casbah itself was too small to hold the audiences that wanted to see the bands that she had playing there, The Beatles and others. So Mo started up Casbah Promotions and became the first woman rock promoter in Merseyside. Using the same bands that regularly played at The Casbah, Mo set up shows at dance halls and larger clubs. The first “Casbah Promotion” was held on February 17, 1961 at St. John’s Hall in Tuebrook, Liverpool, and featured The Beatles along with Gene Day and the Jango Beats.
How important was Mo to The Beatles career? Well… If you’re not familiar with a map of Liverpool, you need to know that The Casbah is located in West Derby, a suburban area almost five miles from Liverpool’s city centre. It occurred to Mo that The Beatles could reach a larger audience on a regular basis if they could play closer to the city centre. With that in mind, she contacted Ray McFall, the owner of a jazz club that, due to a decline in attendance, had started booking beat groups for lunch sessions. That club happened to be called The Cavern. McFall told her that he would ask Bob Wooler what he thought. A stroke of luck, since Wooler was a friend of The Beatles who had worked for Allan Williams and was currently working for Brian Kelly, who had booked our boys to play at Litherland Hall on the 27th of December 1960. And so The Beatles began what would end up being an estimated total of 292 performances at the legendary Cavern Club. Thanks, Mo!
There will be a lot more about Mona Best to talk about as we get through the next year and a half. I do want to say that if you really want to know what it was like for the young Beatles in Liverpool, you can, and should, visit The Casbah Coffee Club, which remains open for tours and the occasional show: https://www.petebest.com/casbah-coffee-club/. And don’t miss the affiliated Liverpool Beatles Museum:
https://liverpoolbeatlesmuseum.com/
I’ve been to both (The Casbah twice!) and will always go back if I ever get a chance to get back to Liverpool.
As always, thanks for being here and reading. I really do appreciate it. Please leave comments to let me know what you think and to add any relevant information to the discussion. Please follow or subscribe to
Though Substack is a subscription service, my content at this point is absolutely free.
Next week the subject will be the origins of the Beatles haircut. Looking forward to that.
- Adamson
Photo: Casbah Coffee Club Original Stage by Andrew Martin Adamson, 6th of June, 2017.
Quotes:
1) Beatle! The Pete Best Story, by Pete Best and Patrick Doncaster (Plexus, London, 1985), p. 13.
2) Ibid., p. 29.