“I got to know the Quarrymen originally through their drummer, Colin Hanton. I started to knock around with them – going to practice sessions and gigs for a couple of years.

“I last saw John in 1962. I was sat at the front of a double-decker bus and as I got up to get off the bus John was sitting on the back seat, he was the only other person on the top deck. I asked him how it was going, he said ‘I’m knackered, I just got back from Hamburg’.

“My mum organised the Rosebery Street party, I asked the Quarrymen would they come and play there. I remember it was a nice warm sunny day.  I took a number of photos of the group playing that day.”

[Charles Roberts, photographer]

The Quarrymen playing on Rosebery Street, Liverpool on the 22nd June, 1957. They were performing as part of a street party to celebrate the 550th anniversary of Liverpool receiving it’s charter from King John (which happened on 28th August, 1207 and gave Liverpool - or ‘Liuerpul’ official ‘town’ status).

"I got to know the Quarrymen originally through their drummer, Colin Hanton. I started to knock around with them – going to practice sessions and gigs for a couple of years. 

“I last saw John in 1962. I was sat at the front of a double-decker bus and as I got up to get off the bus John was sitting on the back seat, he was the only other person on the top deck. I asked him how it was going, he said ‘I’m knackered, I just got back from Hamburg’. 

“My mum organised the Rosebery Street party, I asked the Quarrymen would they come and play there. I remember it was a nice warm sunny day.  I took a number of photos of the group playing that day.”

[Charles Roberts, photographer]

The Quarrymen playing on Rosebery Street, Liverpool on the 22nd June, 1957. They were performing as part of a street party to celebrate the 550th anniversary of Liverpool receiving it’s charter from King John (which happened on 28th August, 1207 (my birthday! 28th Aug, not 1207!) and gave Liverpool - or ‘Liuerpul’ official ‘town’ status).