The Beatles photographed backstage at Candie Gardens, Guernsey with Liverpool Beat Poet, Royston Ellis on the 8th August, 1963.
“I met John, Paul, Stuart and George, then known as The Beetles, in Liverpool in June 1960 [...] They backed me when I performed Rocketry (rock & roll poetry) to beat music at the Jacaranda Coffee Bar in Slater Steet, Liverpool.
“I wanted to take the boys to London to back me on TV and stage shows and asked John what he called the band. When he said “The Beetles” I suggested that since they liked beat music and I was a beat poet and they were going to play for me, why not called themselves “Beatles” with an A.
“They never did come to London to back me but invited me instead to Hamburg to appear there with them as a sort of poetical compere. I declined, which is why I am happily alive and well in Sri Lanka today.”
[Royston Ellis, 5th June 2010, x]
Royston Ellis’ claim that he gave the Beatles their name. Following the above photographs, John went with Ellis and his girlfriend Stephanie back to their rented flat and spent the night, sharing a bed with the both of them.
“We'd read all these things about leather and we didn't have any leather but I had my oilskins and we had some polythene bags from somewhere. We all dressed up in them and wore them in bed. John stayed the night with us in the same bed. I don't think anything very exciting happened and we all wondered what the fun was in being 'kinky'. It was probably more my idea than John's.”
[Royston Ellis]
This was the inspiration behind Polythene Pam.
(Footnote: George still with his 1963 Maton Mastersound MS-500 guitar here).
