Courtesy photo

Pete Best with former band mates Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison.

For 20 years, Pete Best's drumsticks didn't get much action.

The man best known for being fired from the Beatles had a family to raise. He stayed in his and the Beatles' hometown, Liverpool, to do it.

Sure, there was a kit set up at his house for the occasional smacking, but for those two decades, they were low priority.

Then came a one-off show in Liverpool with some good, old musical friends. Afterward, his mother and wife had a prophecy for him.

"They came up and said, 'You don't know it yet, but you're going to go back into the music business,' " Best said.

They were right -- and the 66-year-old drummer has spent the 20 years since then back behind his Ludwigs, bashing the Mersey beat with his group, the Pete Best Band. On May 28, he brings the act to Awful Arthur's at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke.

Best spoke by phone earlier this month from 8 Haymans Green, Liverpool, where he grew up. In the basement is the Casbah Coffee Club -- which George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney helped decorate, and then christened with a pre-Beatles performance. Best's mother owned the club and left it to her children after her death in 1988. The Casbah has been designated a British historical landmark.

Best said he'll bring to Roanoke a helping of that history, and a look into his own musical future. He promises a show full of British Invasion tunes, the soul and R&B tunes that influenced the Liverpool set, and original tunes from a Pete Best Band album set for release in September.

"We enjoy playing the shows," he said of his five-piece, two drummer outfit -- second drummer is Best's brother, Roag. "People have said it pins you back against the wall."

Life after the Beatles

If you are a fan of the rock 'n' roll icons, you know about Best.

The Beatles knew Best from the Casbah and from his drumming in bands around the city. They hired him in the summer of 1960. Two years later -- after the band had forged its early identity, solidified its live chops and paid heavy musical dues in Hamburg, Germany -- he was forced out.

There are multiple theories about why he was fired. Beatles producer George Martin has said on film and in print that he did not like Best's playing, but was less concerned with getting rid of Best than with getting a studio drummer to play on record.

In an interview earlier this year with the Beatles Across the Universe fan Web site, Martin apologized for whatever role he had in sparking the change. Some reports have said that other members of the band were jealous of the handsome drummer and the attention he received from women.

Best has said he does not know why he lost the gig, and he never again spoke with anyone in the band. Ringo Starr replaced him. By the middle of the decade, the Beatles were international superstars.

But Best wasn't through drumming.

"You weren't going around as a Beatle, but you were still persevering and striving," he said.

He turned down jobs with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes -- Starr's former band -- and with the Merseybeats. Instead, he joined Lee Curtis and the All-Stars, which eventually changed its name to the Pete Best Combo. Decca, the label that had passed on the young Beatles, signed the band.

Soon, the combo had a single, "Gonna Knock on Your Door." Television and radio appearances followed.

"I think that was one of the highlights," he said. "And the response was national."

It was off to the United States, where the band spent about five months in 1964, recording and releasing records and making in-studio appearances at radio stations.

"We started to build a following," he said.

But the Beatles and other British acts were also tearing through the States, in what came to be called the British Invasion. Musicians unions were concerned about the influx of English rockers and all the work they were getting, Best said. They told him that he could stay, but he would have to work with American musicians, he said. That brought up the kinds of memories that Best didn't want to force on his bandmates.

"Oh no -- I can't do that," he said. "I know what that feels like. I can't do that to my band."

Best said he refused to let what happened with the Beatles keep him down.

"Of course when things like this first happen, there is some bitterness and many other emotions," he said. "But in order to move on and live your life, you have to let that all go."

Family, home, a real job

The Pete Best Combo headed back to Liverpool, but by then, the scene had changed.

"There were different heartthrobs, different No. 1's," he said. "We were caught up in the backdraft of that."

By 1968, he had married, and the first of two daughters was on her way.

"That's when you have to start looking at the security for your family," he said. "Perspectives change and proportions change. You've just got to roll along with the tide."

He got into civil service, working his way up to a job as training manager for Northwest England's equivalent of the unemployment office. He retired in 1988, after 20 years.

Now he's grandfather to a boy and three girls, who he is happy to spoil.

"I am a very big family man," he said. "Always have been. Always will be."

But he was also a Beatle. And Liverpool never forgot. After all, this was the town where fans protested madly about his firing, and let the Beatles know about it.

Over the years Best got the occasional taste of that memory, because his job involved working with the public.

"You'd get the raised eyebrow every now and then," he said. "Someone would look at me and say, 'I shouldn't ask, but I will ... are you?' "

It didn't bother him, he said.

"We laughed and joked over a pint at the pub, but that's just Liverpool," he said. "They always respected the position I had."

All the while, Best's drums were lonely in the basement.

"Occasionally, you'd go down and beat the crap out of them, whether you were in a bad mood or just wanted to energize yourself," he said.

But he had no interest in returning to the stage, even refusing offers for a one-nighter in town. But he was retiring in 1988, and when he got an offer to put together a group for a one-off show, he finally said yes.

"We just jumped up on the stage and played some good old rock 'n' roll," he said.

The crowd loved it, and soon, that prophecy was coming true. But Best insisted on doing it his way.

He said the band breaks up its touring schedule so that it never stays out for more than a month, leaving plenty of time to tend to family and business matters at home. The Casbah has a recording studio, and the Best family is grooming musical acts there.

The Pete Best Band has changed members, as bands do, over the past 20 years. Best said he is really happy with the latest incarnation -- he and younger brother Roag on double drums, Phil Melia on lead guitar and vocals, Paul Parry on bass and vocals and Tony Flynn on rhythm guitar and vocals. Not only are the shows great, he said, but the group also has collaborated to write and record an album of original material.

"It's a credit to the lads themselves," he said. "They're great onstage. They're great offstage, and I'm glad to be associated with them."

Best said he's looking forward to meeting fans and making new friends in Roanoke.

"I enjoy the travel, and meeting people," he said. "If what we're doing is bringing happiness to people, then I'm glad to be a part of it."

WANT TO GO?

Who: The Pete Best Band

When: 9 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Awful Arthur's, Towers Shopping Center, 2229 Colonial Ave., Roanoke

How much: $15

Info: myspace.com/awfularthurs, petebest.com, casbahcoffeeclub.com