I’m sure they would both rather have met somewhere else. Anywhere else, really, aside from a church summer fête. St Peter’s Parish Church in Woolton doesn’t match the self-image of either John Lennon or Paul McCartney. Lennon would rather have told stories about meeting in a rough Liverpool dance hall, while McCartney sees himself at an avant-garde art exhibition. But in truth a church fête was a fitting meeting place. The gentle Englishness was more appropriate than either man would acknowledge.

Many stories the Beatles told about themselves were semi-myths, changing through repetition. But the meeting in Woolton 50 years ago this weekend seems to have escaped this fate. The details are agreed. And they even seem to be true.

Lennon’s band the Quarrymen were on stage playing the Del-Vikings’ Come Go with Me when his friend Ivan Vaughan arrived with a pal. When McCartney was introduced he played Twenty Flight Rock on his guitar, impressing his future partner with his skills. Yet at the same time he made Lennon jealous. After the encounter it took Lennon a while to decide he wanted to play with this virtuoso – he was the boss of the Quarrymen, after all.

And so Woolton Village Fête imparted to the Beatles many of the characteristics of their greatness – their partnership, their competititiveness, which drove them on to brilliant acts, and their Englishness, which leavened American blues and rock with music-hall tradition and British humour.

So St Peter’s Church is entitled to celebrate the anniversary of this encounter. And no one should say that a genteel church service with the Bishop of Liverpool in attendance and a concert with the other original Quarrymen isn’t rock’n’roll enough. It was rock’n’roll enough for Lennon and McCartney.

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