Peterhead… scene of a truly electric performance by Sir Paul

A MUSIC researcher claims that former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney first played an electric guitar in a small council-owned hall in Peterhead.

Spain-based music researcher Xose Cristano Gandara said

the group, then known as the Silver Beatles, were supporting singer Johnny Gentle when they played Peterhead Rescue Hall in Prince Street on 28 May, 1960 as part of seven-concert tour of Scotland.

He claimed Sir Paul used a red-coloured Rosetti Silver Seven guitar for the first time that night. Before then, he had played an acoustic guitar. But after the Scottish gig he

used the electric guitar – bought in Liverpool – regularly until April 1961 in Hamburg.

Mr Gandara said yesterday: "This instrument is very important as it was Paul's first electric guitar."

Other venues the group played during the tour included Fraserburgh, Forres, Nairn and Inverness.

The tour almost ended in tragedy when the tour van hit a car on a road near Fraserburgh. The group's then drummer, Tommy Moore, was left concussed by falling equipment and taken to hospital. But he was taken from his bed to play the Fraserburgh gig while concussed and had no idea where he was.

The Rescue Hall in Peterhead is no longer a concert venue and is now home to pensioners' clubs and mother-and-toddler groups.

There are no known photos of the group's concert there but Mr Gandara hopes that Peterhead locals will recall the event and confirm his theory.