Jimmie Nicol

Jimmie Nicol (above) with John Lennon , Paul McCartney and George Harrison on a TV recording in the Netherlands in 1964

Jimmie Nicol with the Beatles

Jimmie Nicol (born August 3, 1939 in London as James George Nicol ) is a British drummer who was hired for nine Beatles concerts in 1964 as a substitute for the sick Ringo Starr and thus gained worldwide fame overnight.

When Ringo Starr fell ill on June 3, 1964, the Beatles producer George Martin and her manager Brian Epstein decided at short notice to replace Starr with Jimmie Nicol in order not to have to cancel an imminent tour. George Martin had only recently worked with Nicol on a recording with Tommy Quickly . Nicol received a call at home in London and found himself at Abbey Road Studios an hour later to rehearse their live program with the three remaining Beatles. However, Nicol did not take part in a subsequent recording session. The next day he played with Paul McCartney , John Lennon and George Harrison in Copenhagen . Since there was no time to dress Nicol, he wore Starr's suit, which did not fit him. Eight more concerts followed until Ringo Starr recovered and returned to his band members on June 14, 1964 for a concert in Melbourne , Australia .

Jimmie Nicol released two singles with his band The Shubdubs, which were unsuccessful, and played for a while in the Swedish group The Spotnicks .

A statement by Nicol inspired McCartney to write Getting Better in 1967 .

literature

• Tim Hill, Marie Clayton: The Beatles . Parragon Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4054-7914-1 .
• Jan-Cees ter Brugge, Henk van Gelder, Lucas Luchtenberg, Piet Schreuders: The Beatles in Holland. Het bezoek van John, Paul, George en Jimmie aan Nederland. WalburgPers, Zutphen 2014, ISBN 978-9-0573-0989-2 .

Web links

• Jimmie Nicol - Not just a temporary Beatles drummer! ( Memento from December 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (December 1, 2005)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tim Hill, Marie Clayton: The Beatles , p. 114 f.