Biography
The Liverpool ensemble Rory Storm & the Hurricanes earned their principal renown as the unit fronted by Ringo Starr before his recruitment into the Beatles. Among most enthusiasts of rock music, recognition seldom extended beyond that single association. Nevertheless the group ranked among the leading Merseyside acts of the early 1960s, contributing materially to the emergence of the Liverpool circuit and, in 1960, commanding greater local favor than the Beatles themselves. In common with the Beatles and several other Liverpool outfits, they traveled to Hamburg for demanding residencies in the city’s demanding nightspots. Once both acts had completed their initial Hamburg apprenticeships, the Beatles quickly overtook Storm’s band in popularity, a shift attributable to superior musicianship and an original songwriting approach that Storm and the Hurricanes never adopted. After Starr’s departure in August 1962 to replace Pete Best, the group continued performing for several seasons, though the British Invasion largely bypassed them aside from two singles issued in 1963–1964.
Born Alan Caldwell, Storm assembled Rory Storm & the Hurricanes in Liverpool during 1957. Initially billed as the Raving Texans, they adopted their definitive name in 1959, the same year Starr joined on drums. As lead singer, Storm cultivated a reputation for flamboyant stagecraft, scaling architectural features to reach balconies. At the decade’s outset the Hurricanes stood, by several accounts, as the foremost attraction on the nascent Liverpool rock scene, sharing a 1960 Liverpool Stadium bill with Gene Vincent that constituted the city’s largest rock presentation to that date. While both bands worked Hamburg in the early 1960s, relations with the Beatles grew cordial; on 15 October 1960 a rudimentary private recording was made there featuring Starr, Hurricanes vocalist and bassist Lu Walters, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney (Pete Best was absent). The session yielded “Summertime,” “Fever,” and “September Song,” pressed in a handful of acetates kept as mementos, none of which have since appeared even as bootlegs. Hurricanes guitarist Johnny Byrne noted in a 1996 interview that rehearsal tapes made with Starr on drums were subsequently erased.
Early in 1962 Starr temporarily left to join Tony Sheridan’s Hamburg band, rejoining the Hurricanes that summer for their engagement at Butlin’s holiday camp in Skegness. Friendship with the Beatles, forged during the Hamburg residencies, led to occasional guest drumming appearances. In mid-August 1962 the Beatles invited him to replace Pete Best; he accepted, valued both for superior drumming and for a personality better aligned with the group’s outlook and humor. Gibson Kemp took his place, later performing with Paddy, Klaus and Gibson and marrying Astrid Kirchherr, formerly engaged to original Beatles bassist Stu Sutcliffe until Sutcliffe’s death in early 1962. Around the same period Paul McCartney briefly dated Storm’s sister, Iris Caldwell.
The Hurricanes persisted after Starr’s exit, yet their standing within Merseybeat declined sharply amid the Beatles’ rapid ascent and the chart success of other Liverpool groups. Storm remained without a recording contract, although three tracks were cut for the mid-1963 anthologies This Is Mersey Beat Vol. 1 and This Is Mersey Beat Vol. 2. The independent label responsible for those compilations released “Dr. Feelgood” and “I Can Tell” as a single in late 1963. These sides highlighted the band’s competitive shortcomings: an exclusively cover-based repertoire drawn from early American rock and standards (the compilations also included “Beautiful Dreamer”) and Storm’s high, unsteady vocal delivery, which lacked force and authority.
One further single, “America”/“Since You Broke My Heart,” appeared in late 1964 on Parlophone, the Beatles’ label, produced by Brian Epstein in his sole production effort; Starr contributed incidental percussion and backing vocals at the session. Whether Epstein and Starr participated out of residual concern for Storm’s stalled career remains unknown, but the record failed commercially. Subsequent years brought frequent personnel changes. An additional obstacle arose from Storm’s reluctance to refresh the set list, so that mid-1960s performances largely repeated material from years earlier. Rory Storm & the Hurricanes disbanded in 1967. Storm later worked as a disc jockey and died under unclear circumstances in September 1972 after ingesting alcohol with sleeping pills; his mother was discovered deceased in the same residence, prompting speculation of a joint suicide.
An unauthorized mid-1990s compilation, The Complete Works, gathered the five songs the Hurricanes released. Three further unreleased recordings from 1963—“Lend Me Your Comb,” “Green Onions,” and “Talkin’ ’Bout You”—are documented, as are two 1964 Abbey Road tracks, “Ubangi Stomp”/“I’ll Be There,” that remained unissued.
Born Alan Caldwell, Storm assembled Rory Storm & the Hurricanes in Liverpool during 1957. Initially billed as the Raving Texans, they adopted their definitive name in 1959, the same year Starr joined on drums. As lead singer, Storm cultivated a reputation for flamboyant stagecraft, scaling architectural features to reach balconies. At the decade’s outset the Hurricanes stood, by several accounts, as the foremost attraction on the nascent Liverpool rock scene, sharing a 1960 Liverpool Stadium bill with Gene Vincent that constituted the city’s largest rock presentation to that date. While both bands worked Hamburg in the early 1960s, relations with the Beatles grew cordial; on 15 October 1960 a rudimentary private recording was made there featuring Starr, Hurricanes vocalist and bassist Lu Walters, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney (Pete Best was absent). The session yielded “Summertime,” “Fever,” and “September Song,” pressed in a handful of acetates kept as mementos, none of which have since appeared even as bootlegs. Hurricanes guitarist Johnny Byrne noted in a 1996 interview that rehearsal tapes made with Starr on drums were subsequently erased.
Early in 1962 Starr temporarily left to join Tony Sheridan’s Hamburg band, rejoining the Hurricanes that summer for their engagement at Butlin’s holiday camp in Skegness. Friendship with the Beatles, forged during the Hamburg residencies, led to occasional guest drumming appearances. In mid-August 1962 the Beatles invited him to replace Pete Best; he accepted, valued both for superior drumming and for a personality better aligned with the group’s outlook and humor. Gibson Kemp took his place, later performing with Paddy, Klaus and Gibson and marrying Astrid Kirchherr, formerly engaged to original Beatles bassist Stu Sutcliffe until Sutcliffe’s death in early 1962. Around the same period Paul McCartney briefly dated Storm’s sister, Iris Caldwell.
The Hurricanes persisted after Starr’s exit, yet their standing within Merseybeat declined sharply amid the Beatles’ rapid ascent and the chart success of other Liverpool groups. Storm remained without a recording contract, although three tracks were cut for the mid-1963 anthologies This Is Mersey Beat Vol. 1 and This Is Mersey Beat Vol. 2. The independent label responsible for those compilations released “Dr. Feelgood” and “I Can Tell” as a single in late 1963. These sides highlighted the band’s competitive shortcomings: an exclusively cover-based repertoire drawn from early American rock and standards (the compilations also included “Beautiful Dreamer”) and Storm’s high, unsteady vocal delivery, which lacked force and authority.
One further single, “America”/“Since You Broke My Heart,” appeared in late 1964 on Parlophone, the Beatles’ label, produced by Brian Epstein in his sole production effort; Starr contributed incidental percussion and backing vocals at the session. Whether Epstein and Starr participated out of residual concern for Storm’s stalled career remains unknown, but the record failed commercially. Subsequent years brought frequent personnel changes. An additional obstacle arose from Storm’s reluctance to refresh the set list, so that mid-1960s performances largely repeated material from years earlier. Rory Storm & the Hurricanes disbanded in 1967. Storm later worked as a disc jockey and died under unclear circumstances in September 1972 after ingesting alcohol with sleeping pills; his mother was discovered deceased in the same residence, prompting speculation of a joint suicide.
An unauthorized mid-1990s compilation, The Complete Works, gathered the five songs the Hurricanes released. Three further unreleased recordings from 1963—“Lend Me Your Comb,” “Green Onions,” and “Talkin’ ’Bout You”—are documented, as are two 1964 Abbey Road tracks, “Ubangi Stomp”/“I’ll Be There,” that remained unissued.