EXCLUSIVE The mystery of the forgotten Beatle: How drummer replaced Ringo Starr on 1964 tour... and then disappeared for decades
Jobbing musician Jimmie Nicol spent 12 days as a Beatle - plunged suddenly into the whirlwind of Beatlemania at its most feverish pitch back in 1964.
Jobbing musician Jimmie Nicol spent 12 days as a Beatle - plunged suddenly into the whirlwind of Beatlemania at its most feverish pitch back in 1964.
The sometime member of a band called the Shubdubs was called upon for The Beatles world tour as it headed towards Australia, after the group had experienced a maelstrom of adulation in the US since arriving at JFK airport in New York in February.
Nicol stepped in on drums after Ringo Starr was struck down with tonsillitis - after impressing with a few gigs on Londons gig circuit for mod-favourite Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney were open to him joining as a temporary replacement, guitarist George Harrison threatened to boycott in solidarity with Ringo.
Nicol, who was 24 at the time, dutifully packed in a hurry and swiftly joined the group as they first left the UK for Europe - performing his first concert as a Fab Four member in the Danish capital Copenhagen on June 4 1964.
Yet while he posed smiling alongside his temporary groupmates for photos, and hoped for future success, Nicol would go on to regret his time as a Beatle.
And his post-1964 life has been a source of intrigue for Fab Four fans, amid speculation back in the 1980s that he had died - as well as suggestions he had been exploring the world including destinations such as India and Mexico.
Now his own son Howie has told MailOnline he is curious and yet in the dark about Nicols whereabouts - as inquiries were pursued into the fate of the forgotten Beatle.
Do you know anything more about Jimmie Nicol? Email aidan.radnedge.mol@mailonline.co.uk
Jimmie Nicol, pictured behind the drums, spent 12 days in 1964 performing as part of The Beatles alongside (pictured left to right) Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison
Jimmie Nicol is seen here waiting for a flight home to the UK, at Melbournes Essandon airport in Australia in June 1964 after his brief role as The Beatles drummer ended
Nicol, now aged 85, has gone under the radar in the decades since his brief stint in the worlds biggest band - he is pictured here in London in 1996 in a rare sighting
There were reports in recent years that pans were afoot for a film about Nicol - with a son of rocknroll legend and Beatles friend Roy Orbison among those linked.
The four official Beatles themselves will be subjects of four new films helmed by Oscar-winning British director Sir Sam Mendes.
Casting for the main roles was announced last month - with Paul Mescal lined up to play McCartney, with Barry Keoghan as Starr, Harris Dickinson as Lennon and Joseph Quinn as Harrison.
Pattie Boyd, who was married to Harrison between 1966 and 1977, posted on X, formerly Twitter: I wonder who will be cast to play me? Thats assuming that I get to feature in any of the movies.
And whether Nicol might be portrayed in any of the four films - each one of which will focus on a different individual Beatle - remains unknown, despite the screen potential of his unique cameo appearance in the life of the worlds biggest band.
And Jimmies son Howie Nicol told MailOnline this week he knew little more than speculative legions of Fab Four aficionados as to his fathers fate.
Howie said: He may be living here or abroad or he may be dead. I dont know.
Hes an old man and he leads his life his way and I lead mine I have my own family, Im busy. We are father and son, thats all.
Jimmie Nicol (second from left) posed for photos in 1964 alongside (left to right) John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney
Nicol, born in Barnes in west London in August 1939, became involved with the skiffle scene in central Londons Soho district in the late 1950s.
He played with bands at the subsequently-legendary 2is Coffee Bar in the areas Old Compton Street, where he was spotted by leading talent scout Larry Parnes whose proteges included the likes of Billy Fury and Tommy Steele.
Nicol was recruited to join the band Colin Hicks and the Cabin Boys - Hicks, real name John Kennedy and younger brother of Tommy Steele.
The drummer would then go on to perform on a series of Beatles covers, put out under a budget album brand called Top Six.
And he continued to gig across the UK in groups such as the Shubdubs, while also spending a spell in the pit band at Theatre Royal Stratford East in east London for the Lionel Bart-penned musical Fings Aint What They Used To Be.
His life abruptly changed - many might presume for the immeasurably better - with a morning telephone call on June 3 1964.
On the other end of the line was George Martin, who had been The Beatles producer at Abbey Road Studios in north-west London since they were signed up by record label EMIs Parlophone subsidiary in 1962.
In a rare interview given years after his Beatles experience, Nicol remembered: I was having a bit of a lie down after lunch when the phone rang.
Nicol, pictured behind the drums, had been called on June 3 1964 by producer George Martin
Martin, who would later be knighted in 1996 and died aged 90 in March 2016, asked him: What are you doing for the next few days?
Nicol replied that his diary appeared empty - with the record producer telling him in response: Then come to Abbey Road studios at 3pm. The Beatles want to run through some numbers with you.
Ringo Starr is ill and we want you to take his place on their tour. Would you mind going to Australia?
In a few short hours, Nicol was thrust from obscurity to the eye of the entertainment industrys most tumultuous hurricane, becoming a member of the Fab Four on their first world tour.
He was with them for 10 sold-out gigs across three continents to several hundred thousand fans, earning overnight celebrity and dubbed in headlines the fifth Beatle.
Yet his exile from the group - once Ringo had recovered and rejoined his bandmates in Australia - was abrupt and, according to later reflections, unhelpful.
Rather than providing a platform for future success with his new-found fame, Nicol would struggle in the decades to come.
Within just a year of being in and then leaving The Beatles, his marriage ended in divorce, he was declared bankrupt, found himself sleeping on his mothers sofa and also estranged from his only child.
Nicol (pictured) was with the Fab Four 10 sold-out gigs across three continents to several hundred thousand fans, earning overnight celebrity and dubbed in headlines the fifth Beatle
Repeated efforts to resurrect a pop career ended in ignominy, amid allegations that drug addiction was causing him to squander his talents.
After living in Mexico in the late 1960s, where a second marriage also ended in divorce, he returned to the UK in the mid-1970s, and spent the ensuing decades in obscurity doing odd jobs as a builder.
Last interviewed in 1987, he resisted all temptations to cash in on his fleeting brush with global celebrity - making just one public appearance (at a 1984 Beatles convention in Amsterdam), which he soon regretted.
The last known photograph of Nicol was taken in 2005, wearing overalls and a greying ponytail and wandering the streets of West London.
The most recent reported sighting was outside a rented flat in Kentish Town, north London - with various suggestions that he has returned to Mexico or else living in the Netherlands.
There were reports in 2017 that a Hollywood movie could be made about his life.
The project was said to be the brainchild of Alex Orbison and Ashley Hamilton, the film producer sons of the Sixties pop star Roy and the Hollywood actor George.
It was mooted to be based on a biography of Nicol called The Beatle Who Vanished, written by US-based rock and roll detective Jim Berkenstadt.
He has spent the past decade trying to track down Jimmie Nicol and his book is billed as a tale of betrayal, substance abuse, bankruptcy and an eventual disappearance, which has led many to question whether he is dead or alive.
Nicol was born in the then-working class London neighbourhood of Wandsworth, south-west London, in 1939 - the son of a messenger who worked for the Inland Revenue.
He got his first drum kit at the age of 14 from a local pawn shop and, after leaving school two years later, he gravitated to Soho in search of gigs supporting performers in pubs and clubs.
By the early Sixties he was earning between £30 and £40 per week - more than double the average wage - as a talented session musician.
Then opportunity knocked, in June 1964, when The Beatles were topping the charts in both the UK and US.
On the eve of their first world tour, Starr collapsed during a photoshoot and was taken to hospital, suffering from tonsillitis and pharyngitis.
Rather than cancel or delay the tour, The Beatles manager Brian Epstein decided to hire a replacement.
He remembered Nicol from a recent recording session with another Liverpudlian rocknroller Tommy Quickly - and within hours, Nicol was packing his bags.
Jimmie Nicol is seen here at Melbournes Essendon airport in June 1964 after being told his time with The Beatles was over - though he was given a bag with the bands branding
In his 1987 interview with Beatlefan magazine, Nicol recalled: A wardrobe lady came to my flat and a hairdresser cut my hair into a moptop. In the mirror, I cut a mean figure as the new Beatle.
The next afternoon, Nicol was stepping out of a plane in Copenhagen with Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, cheered by 6,000 fans.
George had been the one sceptical about taking on a temporary Ringo replacement, at one point threatening: If Ringos not going, then neither am I - you can find two replacements.
Ringo was also perturbed, later reflecting: It was very strange, them going off without me. Theyd taken Jimmie Nicol and I thought they didnt love me any more – all that stuff went through my head.
Yet the tour went ahead, with the Danish capital their first port of call with Nicol in tow.
A police escort took the group to the citys Royal Hotel, where they stayed in a palatial suite recently vacated by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev - as another 2,000 fans had gathered outside.
That night, the group played a sports arena with Nicol wearing Ringos suits - even though the trousers were much too short.
McCartney sent Starr a telegram at the time, saying: Hurry up and get well. Jimmie is wearing out all your suits.
Jimmie Nicol is seen here with his mother and his son Howie after arriving back at Heathrow airport in west London in 1964 after his Beatles stint finished
In Amsterdam the following day, 30,000 teenagers lined the streets to watch The Beatles being given a tour on a barge.
That night, after playing a sold-out gig, Nicol and Lennon are reputed to have spent the night in a local brothel.
Nicol later commented: The day before I was a Beatle, girls werent interested in me at all.
The day after, with the suit and the Beatles cut, riding in the back of a limo with John and Paul, they were dying to get a touch of me. It was strange and quite scary.
Nicol also later shed light on The Beatles romantic activities during their brief acquaintance, remarking that McCartney was not the clean chap he wanted the world to see.
The drummer added: His love of blonde women and his general dislike of the crowds are not told.
He also described Lennon drinking to excess - while the so-called quiet Beatle Harrison was into sex and partying all night.
Nicol said: I was not even close to them when it came to mischief and carrying on. I thought I could drink and lay women with the best of them, until I caught up with those guys.
Nicol reformed his band the Shubdubs after his 12 days with The Beatles, although they did not enjoy the success hoped for
The fun continued in Hong Kong and Adelaide, where a crowd of 300,000 gathered to greet the group.
But when the band touched down in Melbourne, Nicol discovered that his fairytale was over as Starr had now recovered.
On June 15, 12 days after being hired, Nicol was dropped back at Melbourne airport, where he was given a cheque for £500 in wages and a gold watch.
He was also handed a Beatles-branded flight bag, containing his belongings - and a first-class ticket back home to London.
Greeted at Heathrow by Press photographers, he initially hoped to leverage his new-found fame into pop stardom, and quickly signed a record deal and bought a Jaguar.
But singles released by his band the Shubdubs flopped and a number of performances he bankrolled ended up being played to empty rooms.
Within a year, Nicol was declared bankrupt, with debts of £40,000 against assets of £30.
He was also taken to court for unpaid child maintenance by ex-wife Patricia, who had divorced him over affairs pursued during his brief flush of fame.
Paul McCartney (pictured left, in 1964) has shown some sympathy for Nicol - saying: It wasnt easy for him to stand in for Ringo and have all that fame thrust upon him
He told the Mail in a rare interview: Everyone in showbusiness told me I couldnt miss. I was the hottest name there was.
Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning £30 or £40 a week.
But after the headlines died, I began dying, too. No one wanted to know me any more.
He went on to join a Swedish group called The Spotnicks, who were playing a residency at an hotel in Mexico City - only to be kicked out a year later.
Their singer Peter Winsnes later recalled: Jimmie began using heavy drugs.
One night, he was so stoned he fell off his drum seat. Our manager had to call for a new drummer.
During the next decade, Nicol stayed in Mexico, releasing the record Los Nicolquinn with a musician called Eddie Quinn before marrying and then divorcing dancer Julia Villasenor.
He quit the music business and briefly set up a company making buttons, before returning home in the late 1970s.
Nicol worked as a jobbing builder and was briefly reconciled with son Howie, who went on to become a successful sound engineer.
Wrongly rumoured to have died in 1988, Nicol was tracked down by the Press in 1995 and 2005, when pictures of him featured in a book about The Beatles.
Then living in west London, he told reporters: I dont want to know, man. I dont care about any book.
The Times spoke in 2017 to a former neighbour in Kentish Town, north London, where he was thought to have lived.
She said Nicol and a woman called Josefina, believed to be his wife, left in 2013, moving to Mrs Nicols native Mexico
Other rumours have suggested he was sighted in the Netherlands, while son Howie is believed to be his only surviving relative.
McCartney once said he understood Nicols refusal to talk about his time as a Beatle, commenting: It wasnt easy for him to stand in for Ringo and have all that fame thrust upon him.
And the minute his tenure was over, he wasnt famous any more.
The Beatles,with Ringo restored to health, are seen here at the Liverpool premiere of their first film A Hard Days Night in July 1964
When he was asked how he coped with the pressure, Nicol is reported to have said, Its getting better - a catchphrase of his that inspired The Beatles track Getting Better on their 1967 album Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band.
And he did show signs of appearing sanguine in that 1987 Beatlefan interview, saying: After the money ran low, I thought of cashing in in some way or other.
But the timing wasnt right. And I didnt want to step on the Beatles toes. They had been damn good for me and to me.
Yet his mystery disappearance to the fringes of the Beatles film franchise-worthy narrative continues to keep fans guessing.