Pre:Fab!

Pre:Fab! is a memoir which tells the story of Colin Hanton’s formative years up to and including his career with John Lennon’s Quarry Men. Colin Hanton related his memories over a period of two years to Colin Hall and as a team they worked together to piece together Colin Hanton’s fascinating story. As such it is an insight not only into Colin and John’s early musical adventures but a vivid social history of war-time and post war Liverpool/ Britain. Colin was a Quarry Man when both Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined the group. Colin tells the story of these heady days and history-in-the-making days in this book. Colin Hanton and Colin Hall were both Liverpool born and bred. Colin Hanton was born in 1938 and became the drummer in John Lennon’s very first group, The Quarry Men. He drummed for three years between 1956–1959, during which time Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined the band. In 1958 Colin Hanton played on the very first single that John, Paul and George ever recorded – their version of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day” and a Paul McCartney and George Harrison tune, “In Spite of All Danger”, which happened to be the only song that Paul and George ever wrote together. Colin Hall is a former and current resident of Woolton and the Wirral. He read Law at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 1970. For 14 years Colin Hall has been the custodian for ‘Mendips’, John Lennon’s former childhood home in Liverpool which is owned by the National Trust. It was donated to the Trust by Yoko Ono in 2003. Before this he managed rock musicians Sam Genders and Liam Bailey (who wrote and sang “Blind Faith” for Chase and Status, and was signed to Amy Winehouse’s record label). For years Colin has written music features and reviews for R2 and before that What’s On In London and Get Rhythm. Colin and his wife Sylvia (who is the custodian for Paul McCartney’s former home) are currently Liverpool City Region ‘Tourism Stars of the Year, 2017’. Colin was a lead member of Bob Harris’s research team on his Sony Radio Award winning BBC Radio 2 documentary, “The Day John Met Paul.”