L.A. Beat

Not many people can claim they were replaced in a band by Paul McCartney and played with John Lennon, but Rod Davis can.
Davis met  the nucleus  of the Quarrymen (who would eventually morph into the Beatles) — Pete Shotton, Nigel Walley, Ivan Vaughan and Geoff  Rhind and Lennon while at St. Peter’s  Sunday School.
“ I actually knew John when I was five or six years old because we were in the same class at Sunday school, which doesn’t do a lot for his image. And various other people were in the same little class,” said Davis who is opening for New York bluesman Guy Davis on a three week North American tour including several Canadian dates, including two at the Geomatic Attic, Nov. 24-25. Both shows begin at 8 p.m. Tickets, which cost  $35 in advance, $40 afterward can be obtained by  e-mailing Mike Spencer at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It’s actually due to the original Quarrymen reuniting that Rod Davis is touring with Guy Davis. The two Davis’ met through Guy Davis’ manager, who ran into one of the Quarrymen and brought them over to  the United States to tour. Guy and Rod hit it off so when Guy toured England he kept in touch.
“He knows I enjoy a lot of blues and Guy stayed with me a couple times, so we’d do a lot of back porch picking and we got on very well indeed. I did a short  spot for one of his gigs in New York and it went over very well, so he said why don’t you open for me  on this tour of Canada, so here I am,” Davis said adding  he got into a lot of different music since leaving the original Quarrymen, especially traditional bluegrass and folk. Some of the band’s repertoire remains in their set list. They have been touring pretty regularly since reuniting in 1997 with the original line up other than Lennon. They reunited at the fortieth anniversary of the Cavern, where the Quarrymen and lots of other bands got their start.
 “I didn’t know John terribly well until I went to school at the 11ths, a secondary  school at 11, because John lived on the other end of the hill and I had plenty of opportunity to get up to mischief on my side of the  hill without going over to his side, so it wasn’t until we went to Quarry Banks school, which is of course where the name the Quarrymen came from, that I got to know him better,” Davis continued adding  like many British youth in the mid ’50s, he was inspired by popular skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan’s version of an old Leadbelly  song, “Rock Island Line” to pick up  an instrument. In his case, the banjo.
“They were actually difficult to get hold of because they were in such demand — banjos and guitars. I turned up on the Monday morning and  there was my friend  Eric Griffiths … I told him ‘I reckoned I got a banjo yesterday.’ He asked if I wanted to be in a  group. I mean he knew I couldn’t play it  because I just admitted I bought it the day before and I asked if  who else was in the group. He said Shelton on the washboard, Bill Smith on tea chest bass, me on guitar, and John Lennon on guitar. So I said ‘ oh yeah that sounds good’ so fine I was in. They were only  three chords ahead of me so I soon caught up an there we were and that’s how I joined the Quarrymen,” Davis continued, adding he is only bringing a guitar for this tour, though he may borrow a banjo from Guy Davis.  Rod Davis will be opening the shows with a half hour set then join Guy after his set for a couple numbers together.
Davis played with the Quarrymen during all of the members’ fifth year of school before they parted ways. But he has fond memories of John Lennon, though he didn’t really recognize the budding talent in the 15-year old Lennon.