Mona Best
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Alice Mona Best (née Shaw; 3 January 1924 – 9 October 1988) was a British music club proprietor, best known as the owner of The Casbah Coffee Club, a club in Liverpool which served as a venue for
rock and roll music Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
during the late 1950s and 1960s. Among the bands to play at The Casbah was
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 ...
, for whom her son
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 1962 ...
(b. 24 November 1941) was a drummer at the time. Mona also had two other sons, John Rory (b. 29 January 1945), and Vincent "Roag" Best (b. 21 July 1962). It was later confirmed that Roag's father was The Beatles' associate, music executive
Neil Aspinall Neil Stanley Aspinall (13 October 1941 24 March 2008) was a British music industry executive. A school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he went on to head the Beatles' company Apple Corps. The Beatles employed Aspinall first as th ...
, although he was not registered as the father on Roag's birth certificate. After moving to
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 popul ...
from India, where she was born, Mona used gambling winnings to buy a house in 1957. Mona later opened The Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar of the house. It was planned as a members-only club for her sons and their friends. The club was often referred to as The Casbah Club, or The Casbah. In 2006, the property was accorded a Grade II heritage listing. Mona died in October 1988, after a heart attack following a long illness.


Early life in India

Best was born on 3 January 1924, in
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
,
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, to English parents, Thomas (a major in the Irish regiment) and Mary Shaw. She was the youngest of four children: Brian, Patrick and Aileen. When she was 17, her first son, Randolph Peter Scanland (later surnamed Best), was born on 24 November 1941 in
Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
. Pete's biological father was marine engineer Donald Peter Scanland, who subsequently died during World War II. Mona was training with the
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
when she met Johnny Best, who came from a family of sports promoters in Liverpool that once owned and ran the
Liverpool Stadium Liverpool Stadium was a boxing arena on St. Paul's Square, Bixteth Street, Liverpool, England. The UK's first purpose built boxing arena. The foundation stone was laid by the Earl of Lonsdale on 22 July 1932, and it opened to the public on 20 O ...
. At the time of their meeting, Best was a
commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...
serving as a
Physical Training Instructor Physical training instructor (PTI) is a term used primarily in the British Armed Forces and British police, as well as some other Commonwealth countries, for an instructor in physical fitness. United Kingdom In the British Army, specialist Phys ...
in India, and was the British Army's middleweight boxing champion. After their marriage on 7 March 1944, at St. Thomas's Cathedral, Bombay, the Bests had one child: John Rory Best (b. 29 January 1945). Less than a year later, the family sailed for four weeks to Liverpool on the ''
Georgic The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...
'', which was carrying single and married ranks who had previously been a part of General Sir William Slim's forces in southeast Asia. The ship docked in Liverpool on 25 December.


Move to Liverpool

Being a part of Best's family meant Mona was accorded respect on Merseyside, which included meeting well-known sports personalities of the time and receiving preferential treatment when booking a table in a restaurant, or a seat in the theatre. The Bests lived for a short time at the Best family's large home in
West Derby West Derby ( ) is an affluent suburb of Liverpool, England. It is located East of the city and is also a Liverpool City Council ward. At the 2011 Census, the population was 14,382. History West Derby Mentioned in the ''Domesday Book'', West ...
, which was called Ellerslie, but Mona fell out with Johnny’s sister Edna, who resented her brother's choice of wife. The family then moved to a small flat on Cases Street, Liverpool (above Ma Edgerton's public house), but Mona was always looking for a large house— as she had been used to in India — instead of a smaller
semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...
house, which were prevalent in the area. After moving to a three-bedroom house in Princess Drive, Mona persuaded her parents to leave India and live with them in Liverpool. After moving to 17 Queenscourt Road in 1948—where the Bests lived for nine years — Rory saw a large Victorian house for sale at 8 Hayman's Green in 1954, and told his mother about it. 8 Hayman's Green had previously been owned by the West Derby
Conservative Club The Association of Conservative Clubs is an organisation associated with the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It represents and provides support to the largest association of political clubs in the country estimated at 1,100. The Associ ...
, and was unlike many other family houses in Liverpool, as the house (built around 1860) was set back from the road, had 15 bedrooms and an acre of land. All the rooms were painted dark green or brown, and the garden was totally overgrown.Photos of The Casbah Club
samleach.com. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
Mona decorated the living room in an
Oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...
style, which reflected her own upbringing in India. She had previously tried to interest her husband in other houses, including a
Formby Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 22,419 at the 2011 Census. Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under "For ...
lighthouse, a windmill in St. Helens and a circular house in
Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...
, which John disliked and rejected. From 1961–62,
Neil Aspinall Neil Stanley Aspinall (13 October 1941 24 March 2008) was a British music industry executive. A school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he went on to head the Beatles' company Apple Corps. The Beatles employed Aspinall first as th ...
became good friends with Pete and subsequently rented a room in the Bests' home. Aspinall became romantically involved with Mona, and during this period, he fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best. Roag was born on 21 July 1962, and just three weeks later, on 16 August 1962, Pete was dismissed from the Beatles.Neil Aspinall Biography – Mersey Beat
triumphpc.com. Retrieved 11 February 2007.
Roag's birth certificate was registered on 31 August 1962, stating his name as "Vincent Rogue icBest" and naming John Best as his father. Mona and Johnny had separated in the late 1950s or early 1960s.


The Casbah Coffee Club

Mona came up with the idea of the club after watching a television report about
The 2i's Coffee Bar The 2i's Coffee Bar was a coffeehouse at 59 Old Compton Street in Soho, London, that was open from 1956 to 1970. It played a formative role in the emergence of Britain's skiffle and rock and roll music culture in the late 1950s, and several maj ...
in London's
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...
, where several singers had been discovered. She decided to open The Casbah Coffee Club — which was located in her cellar — on 29 August 1959, for young people to meet and listen to the popular music of the day.Pete Best biog on Billboard
billboard.com. 25 September 2002. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
Mona charged half a crown annually for membership—to "keep out the rough elements"—and served soft drinks, snacks, cakes, and coffee from an
espresso machine An espresso machine brews coffee by forcing pressurized water near boiling point through a "puck" of ground coffee and a filter in order to produce a thick, concentrated coffee called espresso. The first machine for making espresso was built in ...
, which no other club had at that time. The current pop records were played on a small
Dansette Dansette was a British brand of record players, radiograms, tape recorders, and radio sets, manufactured by the London firm of J & A Margolin Ltd, Record player The first Dansette record player was manufactured in 1952 and at least one million ...
record player, which amplified them through a speaker of . Mona had booked the Les Stewart Quartet to play the opening night with George Harrison on guitar, but they cancelled the booking after Stewart and Ken Brown had a quarrel. Stewart was angry that Brown had missed a rehearsal, because Brown was helping Mona to decorate the club. As 300 membership cards had already been sold, Harrison said that he had two friends in a band called
The Quarrymen The Quarrymen (also written as "the Quarry Men") are a British skiffle/rock and roll group, formed by John Lennon in Liverpool in 1956, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Originally consisting of Lennon and several schoolfriends, the Quar ...
, who would play instead. John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
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 ...
and Harrison went to the club to arrange the booking, to which Mona agreed, but she said she needed to finish painting the club first. All four took up brushes and helped Mona to finish painting the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows, stars, and a beetle, which still survive. Lennon was short-sighted, mistaking gloss for
emulsion An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althoug ...
paint, which took a long time to dry in the dark, damp cellar. Cynthia Powell, later Lennon’s wife, painted a silhouette of Lennon on the wall, which is also still intact. The Quarrymen played a series of seven Saturday night concerts in The Casbah for 15
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
s each, from 29 August to October 1959, featuring Brown, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, but without a drummer, or a PA system. Casbah photos
beatlesource.com – Retrieved 4 November 2007
The opening night concert was attended by about 300 local teenagers, but as the cellar had no air-conditioning, and people were dancing, the temperature rose until it became hard to breathe. As there was no amplification, Lennon later persuaded Mona to hire a young amateur guitar player called Harry to play a short set before The Quarrymen, but this was only so they could use his 40-Watt amplifier. After the success of the first night, Mona gave The Quarrymen a residency, and paid the whole group £3 a night (equivalent to £ in ).. Every Saturday thereafter, queues lengthened onto the street, which was financially good for Mona, as she charged one shilling admission on top of the annual membership fee. Pete was studying at the Collegiate Grammar School when he decided he wanted to be in a music group, so Mona bought him a drum kit from Blackler's music store and Best formed his own band, The Black Jacks.
Chas Newby Charles Newby (born 18 June 1941) is a British musician who was briefly the bassist for the Beatles for several gigs in December 1960, while Stuart Sutcliffe was still in Hamburg focusing on his art career. Career When the Beatles returned f ...
joined the group, as did Brown, but only after he had left The Quarrymen. The reason for Brown's exit from the group was that he turned up on the seventh Saturday night of The Quarrymen residency at The Casbah with the
flu Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...
, so Mona ordered him upstairs to the Best's living room to rest. This caused a massive quarrel with the rest of the group when Mona came to pay them, as they wanted Brown's money to be shared amongst the three of them, since Brown had not played. Mona refused, and so The Quarrymen angrily cancelled their residency and stormed out. Colin Manley, from The Remo Four, was also given a booking to play in the club, which was the only venue that young amateur bands could play at the time. Other groups like
The Searchers ''The Searchers'' is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision epic Western film directed by John Ford and written by Frank S. Nugent, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It is set during the Texas-Native American wars, and stars John Wa ...
and
Gerry and the Pacemakers Gerry and the Pacemakers were a British beat group prominent in the 1960s Merseybeat scene. In common with the Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein, and were recorded by George Martin. Their early successes alongsid ...
later played in the club. The Black Jacks became the resident group at The Casbah, although The Quarrymen occasionally played there again and often visited. It was in The Casbah Club that Lennon and McCartney convinced Sutcliffe to buy a
Höfner Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German (originally Austro-Bohemian) manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments, such as violins, violas, cel ...
president bass guitar and join The Quarrymen. Although the membership list later spiralled to over a thousand, Mona closed the club on 24 June 1962, with The Beatles as the last group to perform.The end of the club and the performers who played there
casbahcoffeeclub.com. Retrieved 29 November 2007.
In 2006, the Best's ex-coal cellar was awarded Grade II listed building status by
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...
. It has now been opened as a tourist attraction in Liverpool, along with Lennon's and McCartney’s previous homes. The man who was a Beatle
cnn.com – Retrieved 8 December 2007


The Beatles

When Pete became a member of The Beatles, Mona repeatedly tried to get the group a lunchtime residency at The Cavern Club by talking to the owner, Ray McFall, but they were turned down, as The Cavern had a jazz-only policy at the time. This was soon to change, as rock became more profitable than jazz.
Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...
later wanted to manage the group, and Mona was asked for her advice, and although she had her own plans for the group, she concluded that Epstein would be good for them over time. After The Beatles signed a management contract with Epstein, Mona did not relinquish her control over them, as they had been using her telephone to call agents, and frequently slept over in her living room between concerts. She reportedly harassed Epstein about the quality of their bookings, and his management of them, which led to Epstein never referring to her by name, but always calling her "''that woman''". One musician commented that if Mona said it was a Sunday when it was Tuesday, one would be forced to agree with her. After Best, McCartney and Harrison were
deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
from Hamburg in November 1960, Mona made numerous phone calls to Hamburg to recover the group's equipment, which she eventually managed to do.”The Beatles Anthology” DVD 2003 (Episode 1 – 0:49:56) Notice telling Harrison to leave Hamburg. Mona wrote to
Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
in 1961, in an attempt to gain the group a booking on the television programme ''People And Places'', but was sent a letter telling her that they would contact her in the future. After Pete had been dismissed from The Beatles on 16 August 1962, Mona was later quoted by biographer
Hunter Davies Edward Hunter Davies (born 7 January 1936) is a British author, journalist and broadcaster. His books include the only authorised biography of the Beatles. Early life Davies was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, to Scottish parents. For four ...
as saying:


Later years

In 1967, when The Beatles had to pose for the photograph for the cover of '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', Lennon asked Mona if he could borrow the war medals her father had been given in India to wear for the photo session. Although still upset at the way Pete had been dismissed from The Beatles, Mona agreed, and the medals were then returned, along with a
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
trophy that is in the letter 'L' of THE BEATLES flower-sign on the cover.The Medals
BBC. Retrieved 23 November 2007
Mona never opened another club, or engaged in another business venture, although she did have paying guests at her house, which she shared with her bed-ridden mother and her sons after she and her husband Johnny had parted. Philip Norman "Shout: The Beatles in Their Generation" 1996 p60 Mona died of a heart attack on 9 October 1988, after a long illness.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * *


External links

*
An Evening With Pete Best, Part I: The Interview



Rolling Stone on Best's DVD

The medals and Sergeant Pepper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Best, Mona 1924 births 1988 deaths People from Delhi English people of Irish descent The Beatles British expatriates in India 20th-century English businesspeople