Mersey Beat - Johnny Gentle

John Askew was born in a terraced house in Nightingale Square, off Scotland Road, Liverpool on the 8th of December 1936. Employed as an apprentice carpenter, he actually made his own guitar. He says, "I saw a woodwork magazine, which had an article on how to make a guitar in editions spread over three months. After I completed the guitar I took lessons to play. My tutor was amazed at the sound of my guitar. He always played it when I came for my lesson." He had begun his music life in a group formed in Birkenhead School called 'The Firecrests' before teaming up with Bobby Crawford with the two making appearances, performing Everly Brothers songs, at local clubs. When his apprenticeship ended in 1958, Johnny became a ship’s carpenter on a cruise liner. Following the initial voyage, he entered a talent competition at Butlin's under the name George Baker but the contest was won by Jimmy Tarbuck. By that time John had changed his name again, this time to Ricky Damone. He says, "I first changed my name to Ricky after Ricky Nelson and Damone because I thought it was show business sounding." He later moved down to London and worked on a building site whilst writing to record companies and agencies. He won a talent contest in The Locarno Ballroom, Streatham and was auditioned by manager Larry Parnes who got him a recording contract with Philips Records in 1959 and gave him the stage name Johnny Gentle. Larry initially had suggested that he call himself Tim McGhee but Johnny didn't like the name and so Parnes said, "Your name is Johnny and you're a quiet guy – so how about Johnny Gentle?" He released two singles and an EP but none made the charts although he was often seen on TV in pop shows such as 'Oh Boy' and 'Drumbeat'.

In May 1960 Larry Parnes co-promoted a show at the Liverpool Stadium with Alan Williams and thought it would be good to have Liverpool groups backing his artists, including Billy Fury. The show starred Gene Vincent and amongst the groups selected for the audition were 'Cass & The Cassanovas', 'Rory Storm & The Hurricanes', 'Gerry & The Pacemakers' and 'The Silver Beetles' who then were selected to back Johnny Gentle on a short tour of Scotland later that month.
This was to be 'The Beatles' first ever tour but 'The Silver Beetles' were merely billed as 'Johnny Gentle and his Group.' The group comprised of John Lennon aka 'Long John', George Harrison aka 'Carl Harrison' and Paul McCartney aka 'Paul Ramon' together with Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Tommy Moore for a tour that lasted just over a week from the 20th to 28th of May 1960. 

Larry Parnes has stated that Johnny phoned him nearly every night saying that he should come up to Scotland to see this group as he'd given them their own spot in his act and they were doing better than him. What he probably didn't tell Larry was that 'The Silver Beetles' nearly came a cropper when their battered old van, driven by Johnny Gentle, was involved in a collision near Banff. Johnny was driving at the time to give their roadie a break when the collision catapulted a sleeping John Lennon from the back of the van, over Paul's shoulder, into the well under the dashboard. Happily John was practically unscathed but Tommy Moore ended up in hospital, pretty shaken up. It is reported that John Lennon hauled him out of his hospital bed, telling him, "Don’t think you will be missing this gig’." So despite suffering from concussion and loosened teeth when the band's equipment landed on him, Moore turned up as ordered for the gig at Dalrymple Hall in Fraserburgh, apparently so loaded with painkillers that he had no idea where he was.

At the Town Hall, Alloa, Scotland on tour

After the Scotland tour he made an impromptu appearance with the group again on the 2nd of July at the Grosvenor Ballroom Liscard and later asked Larry Parnes to book them again as his backing group, but by this time they had gone to Hamburg and 'Cass & The Cassanovas' took their place instead.
It was on the first Scottish tour that he played a song he'd written called 'I've Just Fallen For Someone' to John Lennon and George Harrison and John gave him the words to the 'middle eight' he was having difficulty with. He used those words in the recording he made for Parlophone the following year under the name of Darren Young and it sold approximately 3,000 copies. Adam Faith also recorded the song on a EP in 1961.
However, in 1963, without a recording contract he replaced Gordon Mills in 'The Viscounts'. With the demise of The Viscounts in 1964 he retired from the scene in the mid 1960s.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2016/11/mersey-beat-tuxedos.html