St Peter’s Church

You might know but St Peter’s Church hall, in sleepy old Woolton Village, helped change the face of music on Saturday 6 July 1957.
Despite being scouse I’m not a Beatles fan, but standing in the old church hall in the spot where John met Paul, talking to a man who was there at the time, I felt impressed. In awe even. Two normal scousers with a shared dream that went on to conquer the world.
Talking to Dave, a friend of the lad who introduced «baby faced» Paul to beery-​breathed John, gave me a sense of history. This was aided by original photos, recently dug out of someone’s attic, showing the Quarrymen in action at the yearly village procession. Check-​shirted John, scarily reminiscent of the actor who played him in Nowhere Boy, sitting down as he’d just almost fallen off the travelling van.
Wander across the road to the church itself and you’ll be moved by grandiose gravestones, some in need of repair, some almost untouched by time. One of those gravestones has just been reinstated, with the help of Dave who knew the lad that introduced Paul to John. The shared headstone of John Rigby, who died 4 October 1915, and his granddaughter Eleanor.