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I’ve read interviews John where he says he met Paul in 1956 rather than 1957.  I’ve also seen Paul say that George was 18 months younger than Paul when he joined the band though they are only 8 months apart in age.  What is correct?

As mentioned elsewhere in this section, the human memory is not a perfect mechanism.  And John, Paul and George lived a very intense life from 1960 onwards and had many fresh memories accumulating on a daily basis.  So by the time they were interviewed about their early memories of the Quarrymen era it is not surprising that dates, times, names and places sometimes became a little confused.

John did mistakenly state that he and Paul met in June 1956.  An assertion that consequently found its way into the otherwise superb authorized biography of the Beatles by Hunter Davies published in 1968. Hunter noted and apologized for that error in his excellent biography of the Quarrymen published in 2001.

In Episode One of the Beatles Anthology TV show, VHS and DVD, there is a soundbite from Paul videotaped in the early 1990s in which he talks about George in relation to recruiting him for the Quarrymen. Paul notes that he was “a year and a half older” than George. Now Paul was born in June 1942 and George was born in February 1943.  So at the time of that interview Paul was approximately 50, had known George for nearly 40 years and still managed to think that the 8 month gap in their ages was 18 months!  George too had his share of memory lapses.

We write this not to criticize John, Paul and George.   But simply to point out that when you live a life as full as those three – not to mention all the incredible music they created – it is both understandable and forgivable that your memory will play tricks.