RIP Len Garry 1942 – 2026
- Pete Goodall
- Mar 19
- 9 min read
THE ORIGINAL QUARRYMEN BASS PLAYER
Some Recollections compiled by Peter Phillips
WITH AN EPITATH FROM PAUL MCCARTNEY
On 2 March 2026, Susan Garry announced the sad news that her husband Len Garry, aged 84, had died peacefully at home in Liverpool, from pneumonia following a chest infection, with his loving family by his side.
Len played tea-chest bass with John Lennon’s Quarry Men from 1956 until 1958 and has played guitar and been lead vocalist with the revived Quarry Men since 1997. Here are some of Len’s memories of his remarkable life, written for The Quarry Men’s website:
‘I was born in Liverpool on 6 January 1942, in Lance Lane in Wavertree. My father, Henry, was a compositor at the Liverpool Daily Post, was married to Phyllis and they had another son, Walter, who was three years older than me. I attended Mosspits Lane Primary School, which also counted Pete Shotton and Nigel Walley amongst its pupils, but as they were a year ahead of me, I did not get to know them. John Lennon himself also spent a short time at Mosspits! Under my mother's influence, I learned the piano at an early age, but after mastering the Blue Danube - gave up!! In 1953 I went to the Liverpool Institute High School, where I became a close friend of Ivan Vaughan, where we both shared a zany sense of humour. It was here I got to know Paul McCartney, who was a fellow member of my German class. In 1955 I finally met John Lennon when Ivan Vaughan invited him to Woolton, where I bumped into Lennon, Shotton, Ivan and Nigel walking along Vale Road. I soon became "one of the gang" who would hang around Calderstones Park. In 1956 a lad called George Lee, a friend of Eric Griffiths and John Lennon at Quarry Bank School, suggested to John that he form his own group. This was at the height of the skiffle craze, and sure enough in the autumn of 1956 the band that was to become the Quarrymen took shape, with another Quarry Bank lad called Bill Smith on tea chest bass. Bill however, never turned up for practices and so I soon stepped into his shoes and became a permanent member of the band, staying with the group until August 1958 when I fell seriously ill with tubercular meningitis, spending some 7 months in hospital. Some of my notable appearances with the Quarrymen included our first ever booking at the "Cavern" in early 1957; on the back of the lorry at Rosebery Street, and probably our best known gig at the St. Peter's Church Rose Queen on 5 July 1957, the day Ivan Vaughan brought his friend Paul McCartney to hear John Lennon's band! I also performed with The Quarrymen in New York City, for what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday in 2010!
I eventually became articled to a firm of architects in Liverpool and married Susan in 1965. In 1971 our family left Liverpool and went to live in Chard, Somerset, where I became lead vocalist in a rock gospel musical called "Come Together", originally started in America by Pat Boone, which toured the south west of England. My two daughters were born during our time in the south-west. In 1987, my wife Sue, the girls and myself emigrated to New Zealand but couldn't settle, so we moved back to England a few months later and eventually settled in Liverpool, where we still live. In 1992 I linked up with John Duff Lowe and Rod Davis to do some recording, with me singing vocal lead on most of the numbers, but unfortunately the tapes from this session were never published. In 1997 I met the rest of the Quarrymen at the 40th birthday party of the "Cavern" which led to the recreation of the day forty years before in Woolton when John Lennon met Paul McCartney! I am now enjoying singing and playing with my old mates and have written a fascinating account of my early days in Liverpool entitled "John, Paul and me, - before the Beatles".’
Here are some fascinating memories of Pete Shotton, another original member of The Quarry Men and John Lennon’s best friend, from his book - John Lennon. In My Life by Pete Shotton with Nicholas Schaffner, New York City, May 1983:
‘After I retrieved a washboard from my parents' garden shed, John and I constructed the obligatory bass out of a broom handle and an old tea chest furnished by my mother. Since the person most anxious to play it seemed to be our classmate Bill Smith, we invited him - against my better judgement - to join our fledgling group.
Our first "rehearsals" took place in an old corrugated iron air-raid shelter in my back garden, and in various bathrooms (usually Julia's), whose acoustics reminded us of the echo chambers used on so many of the early rock & roll hits. (They also made us sound marginally less dreadful than we would have otherwise.) Our repertoire consisted almost exclusively of Lonnie Donegan numbers, notably "Rock Island Line," "Wabash Cannonball," and "Cumberland Gap," which featured no more than three basic guitar chords, alongside a moronically simple rhythm section that even Bill Smith and I were able to duplicate.
Bill, however, proved an unreliable partner. He'd either fail to turn up for a rehearsal, or else spend the whole session trying to engage me in a fight. Finally John agreed that this state of affairs hardly lived up to our vision of "a laugh with the lads," and we decided to invite Len Garry to take Bill Smith's place.
We next recruited another Quarry Bank student, Rod Davis - who, though decidedly more scholarly and sedate than most of the kids in our crowd, owned (but had not yet learned to play) a banjo - and Eric Griffiths, a budding guitarist from Woolton, whom we'd all known for years. Eric, in turn, was eventually to introduce us to our first proper drummer, Colin Hanton. This line-up, however, was fluid to say the least; both Ivan Vaughan and Nigel Walley, for instance, used to take turns on the tea chest when Len couldn't be bothered.
It somehow fell to me to name the group. Since our native Woolton was pocked with sandstone quarries and most of us also attended Quarry Bank High School, "The Quarry Men" seemed as good a choice as any. John and I, moreover, had always been amused by a line in our school song, "Quarry Men, strong before our birth..."
But apart from a series of failed auditions, a few other local gigs and a short set at Quarry Bank's Sixth Form dance, no engagements materialised until my mother arranged for the band to perform at Woolton' s big summer event - the St. Peter's Church Garden Fete. This momentous occasion took place on July 6, 1957, a few days before our school graduation. We actually played two complete sets - first, in the afternoon, on a stage in the field behind the church; then, several hours later, at a dance with The George Edwards’ Dance Band in the church hall.
After moving our equipment, such as it was, from the Scouts' Field to our second venue, we were joined in the otherwise deserted hall by Ivan Vaughan and a chubby, baby-faced classmate of his. I would’ve thought John might be interested in meeting this guitar-toting friend, who not only was one of the Liverpool Institute's biggest Presley and Little Richard fans, but also knew how to tune his instrument. The kid's name, it turned out, was Paul McCartney. (John could tune his guitar like a banjo, we’d been playing that way ever since we started. No point in tuning it like a guitar if he used banjo chords!)’
As Len mentioned earlier in this article, in 1997, thanks to the efforts of local campaigner and friend Jean Catherall, Len Garry reunited with the then-surviving members of the Quarry Men to perform a concert, to commemorate 40 years since the group's gig at St Peter’s Church Hall and Garden Fete, when John met Paul. Shortly after the reunion, they embarked on a tour which took place in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Japan, among many others. The group have spent the years since touring and performing all over the World, including at Liverpool Beatles Conventions and a memorable night at a sold out Liverpool Echo Arena (Now the O2). Len participated on all Quarry Men releases since; including their four albums; Get Back Together (1997); Songs We Remember (2004); The Grey Album (2012) and The Quarry Men in Penny Lane (2020). Their recent material primarily consists of rock and roll and skiffle songs from the 1950s.
Peter Phillips, grandson of Percy Phillips, who made the acetate disc of The Quarry Men in July 1958 in his Liverpool studio, remembers his friend Len:
‘To me he had the best voice in the whole of Merseybeat. I remember the first time I saw Len performing with the Quarry Men, when he started singing I got shivers up my spine, he had such a genuine Rock n Roll voice with such a similar energy to Elvis, I wondered how on earth he wasn’t World famous with such an amazing talent. Then when I got to know Len in the years after, I realised what a great guy he was and so funny and entertaining and laid back. The whole music business seemed like fun to him and even though he had so many fans and was an original member of the biggest band the World has ever seen, as well as being a best friend of John and Paul in particular, Len was so modest about it all. Paul’s recent online tribute shows how much Len meant in the history of the Beatles and how much John and Paul loved him. And all the tributes now pouring in show just how loved Len is all around the World.
I first met Len in 2001, having met Colin Hanton and John Duff Lowe that year at the Mathew Street Gallery during an exhibition of photos paying tribute to George Harrison, who had recently died. Colin invited me to that year’s Beatles Convention, where I saw the Quarry Men performing for the first time and was totally amazed. It was so emotional and exciting to see and hear those guys and when Len sang Twenty Flight Rock and Don’t Be Cruel, I was really transported to Rock n Roll heaven. Then when the group performed In Spite Of All The Danger, with Colin’s introduction, explaining how The Quarry Men (who at that time were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Colin Hanton and John Duff Lowe) came to our house in Kensington in July 1958 and made their first record in my Grandpa’s recording studio, I was so filled with emotion as they played, hearing that song played live for the first time, after hearing the recording so many times, I’ll never forget it. (And of course, since then, I’ve heard and seen Paul and his band playing the song many times live and paying tribute to Percy Phillips, most memorably at the Cavern in 2018 and at Glastonbury Festival in 2022). And I’ve been at so many excellent Quarry Men gigs over the years, I love that group so much, with their authentic Rock n Roll energy. We should all be very thankful to Jean Catherall, who got the Quarry Men back together in 1997 to celebrate 40 years since that fateful day when John met Paul at Woolton Church fete. And Len was there onstage with John that day in 1957, one of the original Quarry Men. So thanks Len for all the music and for being such a fun and cool guy while you blew our minds and moved our hearts and souls with your excellent musicianship. Best wishes and deepest sympathy to Len’s family from my family. Peace and love from Peter Phillips.’
The Quarry Men released a statement through their website-
‘It is with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of our comrade in music Len Garry, in the early hours of Monday 2nd March, having been in poor health for several years.
His wife Sue and daughters Jane and Ruth have been taking care of him at home but recently he was admitted to hospital with pneumonia and a heart condition. However, he was able to return home where he passed in the company of his family.
The last time Len played with the Quarry Men was in 2023 at Strawberry Field. He had become dependent on his wheelchair which made it difficult for him to travel to gigs and even more difficult for him to get up on stage.
Len was a terrific Rock n Roller and we have many memories of our Quarry Men gigs at venues around the World in his company – the USA; Canada; Japan; Cuba and just about every country in Europe, from where tributes and condolences have been flooding in.
Our sympathies go to Sue and all of Len’s family. He will be sadly missed.’
And Paul McCartney announced on his social media-
‘My dear old mate from the Quarrymen, Len Garry, has passed away. He was a lovely guy and I’m sad to see him go but glad that we had so many fun times together. Rest in Peace Len, Love Paul.’
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