Pete Best Turns Early Beatles Venue Into Airbnb — Rooms Named After All Members Except Ringo
In 1954, a Liverpool resident named Mona Best pawned all her jewelry and bet the money on a horse named Never Say Die to win the Epsom Derby at 33-1 odds. Jockey Lester Piggott rode the horse to victory, and Best used her gambling winnings to purchase a house she’d become smitten with, an old vacant Conservative Club that somewhat resembled Dracula’s castle. In 1959, taking inspiration from a news report about the 2i’s Coffee Bar in London, she opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the home’s cellar. The first concert performed at the Casbah was by a young Merseybeat combo called the Quarrymen, who filled in on short notice. The band would eventually change their name to the Beatles and add Mona’s son Pete as their drummer, and they became the last band to play the Casbah before it closed in 1962. That same year, they kicked Pete Best out of the band after producer George Martin objected to his playing and replaced him with Ringo Starr.
Best didn’t leave the Beatles on the best terms, but he has at least been able to profit off of his brief tenure in the band. The old Casbah Coffee Club building has long been open as a tourist destination in Liverpool. And now, as the Guardian reports, the Best family has turned it into an Airbnb.
Casbah Coffee Club Suites now offers Beatlemaniacs and everyone else the chance to stay at the historic venue. It’s the brainchild of Pete’s little brother Roag, born to Mona and Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall. There are rooms named for all members of the Beatles except Starr. (Some grudges never die, I suppose, though Pete Best insists there’s no bad blood.) Can I interest you in the Lennon Suite? Perhaps you prefer the McCartney Suite, where Roag was born? Or maybe the Harrison Suite is more your speed? Whichever room you prefer, you may have to wait a while; the Guardian reports that reservations have already started coming in from around the world.