Thomas Henry Moore (12 September 1931 – 29 September 1981) was an English drummer who played with

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

from May to June 1960. Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, Moore worked as a fork-lift truck driver and part-time musician. He first played drums with the Silver Beetles in May 1960, at the suggestion of

Allan Williams Allan Richard Williams (21 February 1930 – 30 December 2016) was a British businessman and promoter who was the original booking agent and first manager of the Beatles. He personally drove the van to take the young band to Hamburg, Germany, i ...

, and later that month travelled to Scotland with

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian ...

and

Stuart Sutcliffe Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe (23 June 1940 – 10 April 1962) was a Scottish painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist of the English rock band the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a paint ...

, when they acted as a backing band for singer

Johnny Gentle John Askew (born 8 December 1936), known as Johnny Gentle, is a British pop singer best remembered for having briefly toured Scotland with the Silver Beetles (later known as the Beatles) as his backing group in 1960. Life and career John Ask ...

. During the tour, he was injured and lost his front teeth when the band's van, driven by Gentle, had a minor accident. However, Lennon and the Scottish organiser of the tour took him out of hospital and insisted that he perform with the rest of the group. After they returned to Liverpool, Moore had already decided that he had 'had enough of Lennon'; when he did not appear for a gig one night, the rest of the band went round to his flat, and were told by his wife, Veronica (Vera) Hughes that he had gone back to his steady job at the bottle works. When they tried to persuade her otherwise, she apparently shouted 'you can all piss off!' He undertook one further performance with the group, before they left for Germany with

Pete Best Randolph Peter Best ( né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is an English musician known as the drummer of the English rock band the Beatles who was dismissed immediately prior to the band achieving worldwide fame. Fired from the group in 196 ...

as their drummer in August 1960. Moore continued to work in Liverpool and died of a

brain haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

in 1981 at the age of 50. The death record for Thomas Henry Moore in the September quarter of 1981 in Liverpool states that he was born in 1931 rather than 1924 as sometimes stated; this made him 28 when he played with the Beatles, rather than 36.

References

English rock drummers 1931 births 1981 deaths 20th-century English musicians Musicians from Liverpool 20th-century drummers The Beatles members {{UK-drummer-stub