Nigel was a childhood friend of John Lennon from the age of five. John often referred to him as ‘Whalloggs’.

Nigel was born in Woolton, Liverpool on 30 June 1941 and lived in Vale Road, to the rear of where John lived in Menlove Avenue and in the same road as another friend, Ivan Vaughan. The other member of John’s gang was Pete Shotton, who also lived in Vale Road. John and Ivan went to Dovedale Primary School while Nigel and Pete went to Mosspits Lane Junior School.

When John formed his group the Quarry Men, Nigel, who was now attending Bluecoat Grammar School, was invited to play tea chest bass, although he says he only played it occasionally, with Ivan being the main bass player.

At the time Nigel was apprentice golf professional at Lee Park Golf Club. There was an incident, which put him off playing tea chest bass for good. This happened when they’d finished a gig one night and had traveled home by bus. As they got off the bus they were approached by two aggressive local youths, Rod and Willo, who threatened to beat them up. Everyone fled, leaving the tea chest bass in the road. After that, Len Garry took over on tea chest bass.

The group needed someone to get the gigs sorted out and promote the group. No one really wanted to do it, but John asked Nigel who then set about getting them work. He placed a card in the window of a Woolton sweet shop at 2d per week, took small ads in the Liverpool Echo and the Daily Post and even had professional cards printed. The name on it was ‘Quarry Men,’ he says, “and the correct name is two separate words, not one, as people these days seem to think.”

His printed card read:

COUNTRY. WESTERN. ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. SKIFFLE

THE QUARRY MEN

OPEN FOR ENGAGEMENTS

When the Quarry Men were deciding on their repertoire, Nigel says, “They picked out records by Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and popular rock and roll numbers of the time. Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ was a number John was particularly struck on. We saw Buddy Holly live with the Crickets when he appeared on the Liverpool Empire. It was one of the highlights of my life.

“We picked the tunes from records that were readily available in the shops. That story about Liverpool groups getting their repertoires from records brought in by merchant seamen is a myth, although lots of Liverpool men went to sea. Pete Shotton’s brother Ernie was in the Navy.” 

When Nigel used to go round to John’s house and ask his Aunt Mimi “Where’s John?” “Where do you think, in his bedroom playing his guitar”, she’d say. Nigel would go up and sit on the bed while John would be playing. “He’d write a song in a few minutes” said Nigel. “I didn’t think much of it at the time.

At one time John and Nigel intended enrolling at a catering college in Hampshire and had even bought railway tickets – but when John told his Aunt Mimi, she put a stop to it.

Lee Park Gold Club was a Jewish golf club; if you weren’t Jewish you couldn’t get in.

One of the members was Dr. Sytner, whose son Alan ran the Cavern Club, which was then a jazz venue that occasionally booked local skiffle groups as supports. Nigel asked Dr. Sytner if he could persuade Alan to book the Quarry Men on the Cavern. He was told that they’d have to see the group before they could be booked on the Cavern and he suggested that the group perform at the golf club first. If they were any good, then Alan would book them on his club.

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