Pete Best, the Beatles‘ first drummer before they poached Ringo Starr from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, is to be honoured in his home town of Liverpool by having two roads named after him.
The NME reports that one of the roads will also pay tribute to his mother, Mona Best. The decision to immortalise Best with a road sign came after a Facebook campaign that saw 10,000 people behind a move to acknowledge Best’s important role in the Beatles’ history.
Best, now 69, is quoted as saying, “I feel very humbled, very flattered and very honoured that the city of Liverpool, council members and the people of Liverpool have thought to honour me in such a fantastic way.”
The roads in question will be called Pete Best Drive and Casbah Close. The latter is a reference to the Casbah Club, a venue that Best’s mother worked at, which played an important role in the band’s development. Best said, “The Casbah Coffee Club was the catalyst for the Merseybeat sound. It was the original birthplace of The Beatles on August 29 1959. I just wish that she was still here to receive the honour herself because she was the mother of merseybeat.”
Best was given his marching orders by the Beatles in 1962.
