Archives for July 2019

In June of 1954, Mona Best went to Epsom Downs Racecourse in Epsom, UK and won big on the feature race, The Epsom Derby, with a 33/1 ML longshot called Never Say Die.  She won so big that she took her winnings and bought an old mansion with 15 bedrooms and an acre of land sold by the West Derby Conservative Club.

Mona had the idea of turning the property into a club similar to the 2i’s Coffee Bar in London’s Soho district which she had seen on TV. Her idea was to call it “The Casbah” and was intended as a “Members Only” club for her son Pete (does that name ring any bells?), his brother Rory and their musician friends. After a few years of remodeling and painting she opened her club.  She charged a half a crown (about .30 cents) for the annual membership and sold soft drinks, snacks and cakes to her patrons. Mona Best was ahead of her time as she even had an espresso coffee machine.

She began playing records on her simple sound system with big 3″ speakers and later let local bands use her Casbah to play live.  On her opening night featuring a live band, a problem arose. The band scheduled to play spent so much time and energy decorating and promoting the show that they were unable to play, so at the request of a young friend George Harrison,  Mona was asked to go with another band. Not wanting to upset her 300 plus membership, she went with the other group named “The Quarrymen”.

Eventually The Quarrymen would play there 7 times in 1959 and after the group became “The Beatles” with only John, Paul and George they appeared 37 times from 1960 to 1962. She would pay the boys 15 shillings an evening which was equal to just over a dollar a piece! The rest is history as “The Beatles” went on to play larger venues and built up a huge following in England and even in Germany.

After “The Beatles” became known throughout Europe in late 1962 Mona Best turned the club into a tourist attraction. So, one might be led to believe that without the winnings from that Epsom Derby bet, “The Beatles” might not have ever had an outlet to play and, therefore, polish their stars.

Which goes to show that most major successes comes with hard work and a little luck…. so Never Say Die!