Len Garry, who played in the Quarrymen alongside John Lennon and Paul McCartney before the band evolved into the Beatles, has died at the age of 84.
His daughter, Jane Garry, shared the news in a social media post.
“My Dad ‘Len Garry’ passed away at home in the early hours this morning,” she wrote. “The doctor told us he had hours to live and I said straight away ‘he has to come home.’ Which the doctor allowed. I travelled with dad in the ambulance and got him home. My mum, my sister, my brother in law and myself stayed by Dad’s bed holding his hand, talking to him and telling him how much we love him and how proud we are of him as he was passing away and taking his last breaths.
“I love you Dad and I will miss you Dad for the rest of my life,” Garry continued. “I’m beyond devastated. Dad believed in God and we believe he is in heaven now.”
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Len Garry’s Early Days and Post-Quarrymen Career
Born on Jan. 6, 1942, in Liverpool, England, Garry began attending Liverpool Institute High School for Boys in 1953 and got to know McCartney, who was in his German class. He met Lennon two years later, and in 1956 he joined the Quarrymen, named after Quarry Bank School, which Lennon and several of the other band members attended.
Garry played several key shows with the Quarrymen, including their first-ever booking at Liverpool’s Cavern Club in 1957 and their historic show at St. Peter’s Church on July 6, 1957, where McCartney met Lennon. He left the band in August 1958 after contracting tubercular meningitis, which kept him in the hospital for seven months.
Following his stint with the Quarrymen, Garry worked for an architectural firm in Liverpool and got married. After his family moved to Chard, Somerset, he became the lead singer in a touring rock gospel musical called “Come Together,” started in America by singer Pat Boone.
Garry recounted his formative Quarrymen days in a memoir titled John, Paul & Me: Before the Beatles, first published in 1997.
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