**1960**

May 5
The Quarry Men now become The Silver Beetles. Around this time, Allan Williams - club owner of the "Jacaranda" - becomes the group's part time manager. He arranges with Larry Parnes, an impresario for British pop stars, to audition The Silver Beetles. The band fails the audition as backing group to Billy Fury. Instead, Parnes chooses the band as a backing group for Johnny Gentle. On May 20, Gentle and The Silver Beetles begin a 9-day tour in northern Scotland .

June 2
First professional performance of The Silver Beetles held at Neston Institute.

August 16
Pete Best leaves the Blackjacks and becomes The Silver Beetles' drummer. The band's current line-up would now included John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart Stutcliffe.

On this date, the band travels to Hamburg , Germany .

August 18
New stage name and first performance as "The Beatles" at the Indra Club in Hamburg , Germany . Paul McCartney (on discussing performing and other things they learned in Hamburg ): "Sex...was one of the first things 'cause we were kids just let off the leash, you know. And then there was like, the amount of music we played -- we played -- the shear amount of music. Some evenings I think we probably...we played eight hour periods 'cause you'd come on and another band would take an hour and you'd take an hour, so we probably played four hours but we had to stretch it over an eight hour period. And that's an awful long time, man, to play. I mean even bands now with three or four hours sets is a hell of a long time."

December 5
The Beatles luck in Hamburg runs out:
- Harrison is deported for being underage for working in a night club;
- McCartney & Pete Best are arrested for pinning a condom to a brick wall and then igniting it.
The two are told to leave Germany . The band returns home, discouraged.