Bobby Graham; OBITUARY.

BY MOST calculations, there were six proper Beatles: John, Paul, George and Ringo, plus Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe.

Then, of course, there were a couple of temporary Beatles, in the shape of drummers Andy White, heard on Love me Do, and Jimmy Nicol, who stood in on tour after Ringo had his tonsils out in 1964.

But what of the almost-Beatles, those who, but for a twist of fate, could have been superstars? Bobby Graham was one of them. On tour with Joe Brown and the Bruvvers in July, 1962, they were on the same bill as The Beatles at the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. Pete Best was still the Beatles' drummer, but Brian Epstein was already thinking about a change.

A feeler was put out to Graham, but as a Londoner he turned down the chance of moving up north to join the band from Liverpool. The next month, Ringo Starr officially replaced Pete Best.

Graham went on to make a career as one of the highly thought-of session musicians of his day. He ended up by losing count of how many recordings he had played on, although the best estimate is that it might have been as many as 15,000.

A Liverpool link was cemented when he played on Billy Fury's It's Only Make Believe, and he can be heard backing big-name singers from Englebert Humperdinck to Dusty Springfield and Van Morrison.

He also played on several of the Dave Clark Five hits of the 1960s when Clark preferred the role of producer, careful to keep a style similar to Clark to avoid embarrassment when the group went on tour.

Graham discovered a talent for record producing himself when standing in for a sick colleague, and over the years he produced Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky Mick and Titch and discovered the N'Betweens, who later transformed into the Black Country glam rockers, Slade.

He never entirely gave up performing, though, defying ill health to carry on as long as he could with local bands in London. Bobby Graham, (Robert Neate), drummer; born, March 11, 1940, died, September 14, 2009