The Beatles first came to Rowe’s attention via a young writer in Decca’s employ named Tony Barrow. Barrow hailed from the Liverpool area, but was a few years older than The Beatles. He had moved to London to take a job writing liner notes for the label, while still contributing to The Liverpool Echo on the side. When Brian Epstein signed The Beatles to work as their manager, he consulted Barrow for advice… and help. While Barrow turned down his request to write about the band in his Echo column, he did promise to mention the group to Decca’s A&R department. Rowe was the head of that department.
For Rowe, the request to consider this unknown Northern band put him in a slightly awkward position. He was hardly interested in The Beatles, whoever they were, but he knew that Epstein was a valued customer for Decca. His NEMS music store was a major retailer in the North and Epstein’s was a relationship Rowe could hardly afford to damage. And so, Rowe sent an assistant, Mike Smith, up to Liverpool to see what the fuss was all about.
On Wednesday, December 13, Smith arrived in Liverpool and was met by Epstein, who took him to dinner. Following the meal, they went to the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, where the band would play their second set of the day (having earlier played for the lunchtime crowd). Appearing with Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Four Jays, The Beatles played their standard repertoire of R&B and rock ’n’ roll covers mixed with a dollop of originals. Smith wasn’t blown away to the point of signing them on the spot, but he saw enough potential (and enthusiasm from the crowds… and Epstein) that he agreed to arrange a formal audition at Decca. The date was set for New Years Day, 1962.
On New Year’s Eve, instead of going on a bender or playing to a raucous party crowd, The Beatles embarked on what they hoped would be the most important automobile ride of their lives. They piled all of their gear into road manager Neil Aspinall’s van and drove off in the freezing snow. Huddled together to stay warm, they hoped to arrive in The Smoke early enough to grab a drink and do a wee bit of merrymaking before turning in. Unfortunately, Aspinall got lost along the way and what should have been a four-to-five-hour trip turned into a 10-hour odyssey. When the boys arrived, they were aching and cold and ill-humored to see, as John later recalled, “the drunks jumping into the Trafalgar Square fountain.”
When they arrived at the studio in the morning with Epstein, who had traveled separately by train, they were peeved to find that Smith was late, having been a bit hung over from his own New Year’s celebration. Smith irritated them even more by insisting that they use the house amplifiers instead of their own, referring to their own gear as substandard.
With all of this going on, the group gave (by their own admission) a less-than-stellar performance – certainly not poor, but not up to the show-stopping standard they’d set for themselves in the basements and bars of Hamburg and Liverpool. They blew through 15 songs in a little over an hour, getting more comfortable as they went along. The songs were:
1. “Like Dreamers Do” (Lennon-McCartney)
2. “Money (That’s What I Want)” (Bradford-Gordy; originally recorded by Barrett Strong)
3. “Till There Was You” (Willson; originally composed for the musical The Music Man)
4. “The Sheik of Araby” (Smith-Wheeler-Snyder; an old vaudeville number turned rock ‘n’ roll by Joe Brown and The Bruvvers)
5. “To Know Her is to Love Her” (Spector; originally recorded with slightly different lyrics by Phil Spector’s Teddy Bears)
6. “Take Good Care of My Baby” (King-Goffin; made famous by Bobby Vee)
7. “Memphis, Tennessee” (Chuck Berry)
8. “Sure to Fall (In Love with You)” (Perkins-Claunch-Cantrell; Carl Perkins’ follow-up to “Blue Suede Shoes”)
9. “Hello Little Girl” (Lennon-McCartney)
10. “Three Cool Cats” (Lieber-Stoller; originally recorded by The Coasters)
11. “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (Buddy Holly)
12. “Love of the Loved” (Lennon-McCartney)
13. “September in the Rain” (Warren; 1937 standard, originally performed by James Melton)
14. “Besame Mucho” (Velázquez-Skylar; Mexican ballad)
15. “Searchin’” (Lieber-Stoller; originally recorded by The Coasters)
Rowe and Smith consulted. They agreed that there was something there, but as with the December 13th show, they just weren’t blown away. They auditioned a local beat band, Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, the same day and agreed that, if they were to sign one, the local band from the outskirts of London would be the more logical choice. The reason Rowe (famously) gave to Epstein – when Epstein was finally able to corner him for an answer – was, “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein.”
Epstein, for his part, continued to press Decca, promising NEMS would buy 3,000 copies of any Beatles record. Rowe claimed this bargaining chip was never relayed to him. If it had been, Rowe claimed he would have signed The Beatles. As it was, Epstein at least walked away from the session with a good demo to take to other record companies. Ultimately, the demo helped him get a foot in the door at EMI, where history awaited the Fab Four.
Looking back on the Decca affair, one pauses to wonder just how different things would have turned out had The Beatles signed with Rowe. They might not have jettisoned Pete Best, as that was EMI producer George Martin’s idea. And of course, they wouldn’t have had Martin, who proved so crucial to the development and recording of the band’s songs. Martin pushed them to polish every tune as finely as possible. Tracks like “Please Please Me” would have been wildly different if not for his stewardship.
Moreover, The Beatles themselves were not quite ready to be recording artists. Not yet. Getting knocked down a peg forced them to hone their craft and to push themselves even further as songwriters. A simple case in point is a comparison of the group’s original compositions presented to Decca in January 1962 versus those presented to EMI in June. By June, the group had shed “Like Dreamers Do,” “Hello Little Girl” and “Love of the Loved” in favor of “Love Me Do” (written, to be fair, years before), “PS I Love You” and “Ask Me Why.” Hop on YouTube and give all of those tracks a listen. The latter collection is, if not light years ahead, still a very long walk ahead of the former. With six months to gig and write and eat, sleep and breathe music, the band was in much better shape to take on the world – or at least to take on George Martin – when they got their second shot.
As for Rowe, who passed away in 1986 three days shy of his 75th birthday, he could take some solace in the band Beatle George Harrison suggested to him the following year, a group managed by a former Beatles publicist, Andrew Loog Oldham. But even with the feather of The Rolling Stones in his cap, Rowe will still always be remembered as the man who turned down The Beatles.
