Description
From The Rolling Stones to The Hollies and Gerry and The Pacemakers, Pete Maclaine has played with or alongside many rock ’n’ roll greats over the years. But there’s one band he famously turned down, and as luck would have it, they’d go on to become the biggest band in the world.
Pete Maclaine started his music career in 1958, when he was just sixteen. The ambitious singer soon became one of the key figures on the northern beat scene and Pete Maclaine and the Dakotas were the first Manchester outfit to play at The Cavern Club on 2nd February 1962.
Naturally, Pete began rubbing shoulders with four other lads who often played in that venue, frequently counting Paul, John, George and Ringo among the crowd at his shows.
After one such gig, McCartney collared his mate and said “I just want to play you this, Pete. See what you think”. He gave a record to legendary Cavern DJ Bob Wooler to play. It was the then-unreleased ‘Please Please Me’. “That’s very nice”, said Pete. “It should do well, Paul”.
Before long, whenever The Beatles came to play at The Oasis in Manchester, Pete would throw parties for the band, generating some fascinating stories about the Fab Four as well as Brian Epstein, as he remembers.
“I used to wear these smart suits and Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein once asked me for some of the cloth. I told him I couldn’t get any more because it was African wild silk, which I’d had imported. It was actually material from a curtain shop in Manchester, 10 bob (50p) a yard!”.
But Pete’s own career took an unexpected turn. Brian Epstein asked the Dakotas to ditch their young singer and link up with one of Epstein’s acts, Billy J. Kramer, a partnership which went on to yield six top 20 hits. Pete declined Epstein’s offer of Billy J Kramer’s old backing band, The Coasters and instead went on to form the first line-up of his long-standing band Pete Maclaine and The Clan.
Paul McCartney, realising that what “Eppy” had done was a big blow to his mate, suggested that he and John Lennon would happily write him some songs. Pete couldn’t have known the significance of this offer at the time and he declined, saying that he could write his own songs. “I really think that I am the only person in the world who would say ‘No’ to Lennon and McCartney,” laughs Pete.
This decision would go on to define a certain period in Pete’s life and career. He even wrote a song about it, ‘Jam Side Down’. That is, of course, the way your toast falls when luck is against you. His pals, including good friend Graham Nash of The Hollies, still tease him about the old days and call him by that nickname, ‘Jam Side Down’.
But Pete is also known by another name: ‘The Man Who Said ‘No’ to The Beatles’. This is the title of his book, which tells the story of his life through poetry and prose, sometimes moving, often humorous.
Despite their longevity – Pete Maclaine and The Clan only had one single release – the self-penned ‘Yes I Do’ with ‘US Mail’ on the B side, which came out in July 1963 on the Decca label. Years later the band notched up the record for the longest residency at The Bull’s Head pub in Stockport Market Place, where they played weekly for a staggering sixteen years!
Now in his ’80’s, Pete still loves to get up and sing live. His biggest regret? Wishing he’d said ‘Yes I Do’ to Paul McCartney!
