Pete Best to retire from drumming.

[herr_oberst]

Say it ain't so!
(Ringo to continue drumming for the forseeable future)

http://people.com/pete-best-beatles-original-drummer-announces-retirement-11711197

[ramonesfreak]

Always thought it was like a cruel joke that his half brother Roag was the son of his mother Mona and Neil Aspinall. Poor Pete couldn’t escape the misery. I hope the Anthology release paid him a ton.

[herr_oberst]

^ I heard it did. I can't confirm it, but remember reading that he got a nice payday from royalties on at least one or two songs.

I always got the 'Jerry Mathers as an adult' vibe every time I read about the Pete Best band out touring.

[ramonesfreak]

Yea he’s been through here a bunch and I never went. I live a mile from a pretty famous music shop called The House of Guitars. Not sure how many times Pete has been there doing drum clinic meet and greets but it’s quite a few and I never bothered to go say hi. I regret that as an obsessed Beatles fan. Oh well.

[Steve Carlton]

Who was the better drummer and singer? I’m thinking it was Ringo, but don’t really know.

[ramonesfreak]

No doubt Ringo. Amazing drummer

[Steve Carlton]

Sounds like they were both excellent drummers and maybe Ringo was more "innovative." No doubt Ringo fit in with the Beatles more. Interesting that Pete was a partner in the group and couldn't be fired, but was duped into leaving the band. Interesting videos (I'm sure there's tons more):

[berettafan]

Every time I read the wiki on a band I think how much it sucked for the guys who left early.

But I guess most of those guys are thinking ‘well at least the boss wasn’t screwing my mom when I got canned’.

What a gut punch that had to be.

[ramonesfreak]

I would call Pete Best a mediocre drummer at best. There are many theories why Pete was fired. We will never know for sure because there is only one person alive who truly knows and that is Paul and Paul isn’t talking. Ringo was already a well known drummer in a well established band. Whether Mona was one of the reasons….no way to verify this without Paul speaking out. Personally, I think between John Paul and George seeing Ringo play and experience playing with him when he sat in on occasion, they simply knew the band sounded complete and right with Ringo. I’ve played with many different drummers over the years. When you have a mediocre drummer, you might think that it sounds and feels pretty good and you are happy that you have a drummer since they are so hard to find. But then when you have an opportunity to play with a truly excellent drummer you tend to go “wow what just happened, I need this guy”. Everything just clicks then. It wasn’t clicking with Pete and I think it’s well documented that his drumming wasn’t the only reason it wasn’t clicking.