Tony Sheridan passed away on February 16 at the age of 72. It was Sheridan for whom the Fab Four played on their first-ever recording, “My Bonnie,” credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers (renamed the Silver Beetles on alternate releases).

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/17/40262/

Over forty years later, Sheridan collaborated and recorded with local troubadour Dave Humphries, a native of Durham City, in northeast England who moved to San Diego in 1996.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/17/40263/

Humphries’s appearance at the local BeatleFair in 2003, which featured Sheridan as a guest, allowed the duo to meet and play together. Humphries talked Sheridan (then 63) into cowriting and recording a song in Mission Hills, “38 Days,” which appears on the same-named 38 Days CD self-released by Humphries. The recording was made easier due to Sheridan’s longtime keyboard player Wolfgang Grasekamp living in La Mesa.

38 Days earned Humphries a nomination at the 2006 San Diego Music Awards. The disc includes two tracks featuring Tony Sheridan on guitar.

Humphries’ 2008 record, And So It Goes..., from Blindspot Records, was produced by Mike Kamoo (the Stereotypes) and Wolfgang Grasekamp at Kamoo's Earthling Studios. Kamoo makes a guest appearance on the album, as does Bart Mendoza (the Shambles), Todd Hidden (ex-Rockola member), and Tony Sheridan on five of the eleven tracks.

The album received airplay on BBC Radio Merseyside's Juke Box Jury on March 29, 2008, in a show hosted by Spencer Leigh, documentary writer and author of the Merseybeat book Let's Go Down to the Cellar.

Singer/guitarist Chris Leyva credits Sheridan with sparking the birth of his band Blizzard, though he says "I don't think he [Sheridan] can stand Beatles fans. We met him when we played BeatleFair in 2001...he had just gotten off the plane or something, and he wasn't too happy."

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/17/40264/

Leyva's then-unnamed band got the local BeatleFair job after sending bookers three songs from the Backbeat movie soundtrack, claiming the recordings as their own. "We were surprised that such big-time Beatles fans didn't recognize the soundtrack...then we had to learn some Beatles covers in order to play the gig."

At the event, his group -- temporarily named the Backbeat Band -- performed cuts like "Long Tall Sally." After the set, Leyva says, "He [Sheridan] came over to us and said, 'That sounded like a blizzard,' and the little light just clicked -- a new band name was born."

Sheridan was born May 21, 1940 in Norwich, Norfolk, going on to meet the Beatles during a 1960 residency in Hamburg, Germany. Later performing with each other at various gigs, Sheridan was joined in the studio in June 1961 by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Pete Best to record seven songs during Sheridan's two-day session for Polydor. These sessions produced Sheridan's "My Bonnie" and "The Saints," and the Beatles' "Ain't She Sweet" and "Cry for a Shadow" (formerly titled "Beatle Bop"), plus three other songs.

Sheridan was living in Seestermühe, a village north of Hamburg, when he passed away.

Here's Dave Humphries with Tony Sheridan doing an informal jam session at a La Mesa home with Wolfgang Grasekamp, Bart Mendoza, and others:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ289Y-VVFw