Rare Quarrymen Photo Unearthed!

L-R: Paul, John and George, circa 1959. Image: PA Media

A rare photograph of the Quarrymen has emerged. The grainy image is believed to have been taken in mid-1959 in Liverpool and shows John, Paul and George playing their guitars.

Pete Best confirmed on Twitter that the photo was taken in the living room of 8 Hayman's Green, which is above the Casbah Coffee Club and the photo may have been snapped by his mother, Mona Best. This may have been one of the first times they started performing at the venue and the photo could have been during a rehearsal. It would seem that it was taken while they were performing as a trio before Stuart and Pete joined them and the band came to call themselves the Beatles. A marvellous and rare photograph of three friends who couldn't know they'd go on to shake the world just four years later....or perhaps they did? Is that a knowing smile from John in the picture?

The photograph emerges on the 50th anniversary of Paul McCartney announcing he was quitting the group in 1970.