Jimmy Nichol

JIMMY NICHOL. British drummer best known for temporarily replacing Ringo Starr in The Beatles for a number of concerts during the height of Beatlemania in 1964. He went from relative obscurity to worldwide fame and back in the space of a fortnight. When Ringo Starr collapsed and was hospitalised on 3rd June 1964 (with tonsilitus) on the eve of The Beatles' 1964 Australasian tour, the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein urgently discussed the possibility of using a stand-in drummer rather than cancelling part of the tour. George Martin suggested using Jimmie Nicol, as he had recently drummed on the Top Six budget label album of Beatle covers entitled "Beatlemania" as part of a session band called The Koppykats and so knew the songs. Nichol played a series of eight shows with the group until the 14th June. On leaving the tour, he was given a gold engraved watch and a cheque for £500 by Brian Epstein at Melbourne Airport. Nicol had hoped that this short period with The Beatles would advance his career (as on his return to Liverpool) he received over 5000 fan letters, but soon found that the spotlight moved away from him once Starr returned to the group. His subsequent lack of commercial success led him to bankrupsy in 1965. After then working with a number of different bands, he finally left the music business altogether to pursue a variety of employment. Nicol would later refuse to discuss his brief period with The Beatles and has not sought monetary gain from it. Today he is a recluse thought to be living in London