We were at our best when we were playing in the dance halls of Liverpool and Hamburg. The world never saw that.

When I came back into show business in '88 after spending 20-odd years in the civil service, it wasn't planned.

Anyone who knows the history of the Pete Best Band or the Combo, we were on the verge of breaking in in America. In the mid-'60s, I had great songwriters; we wrote some great stuff.

I walked out of the show business in 1968 because I thought that would be good for the family. It took me some time to decide but I wanted to spend more time with my wife and two daughters who were always beside me. I wanted to do everything I could for them.

I was close to John simply because I liked him as a person. He liked me as a person. We spent a lot of times at one another's houses back in Liverpool. We spent a lot of time together in Germany.

Liverpool was an industrial town, a poor town. The people fought hard for what they wanted to achieve and there was a hunger there, and that hunger has remained with the musicians.

Many things have been said about what happened, but I don't know either. Maybe someday. One thing I'm sure of is that all the things that have happened to me, good and bad, happy and sad, have made me what I am today.