![\"Graham](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Graham-Nash-Singer-2014-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Marsha Miller \/ LBJ Library)<\/p>\n
Mon 2 February 2026 19:00, UK <\/p>\n
As Graham Nash<\/a> recalls, he first met The Beatles on November 19th, 1959, when they competed against each other at a talent contest in Manchester.<\/p>\n \u201cThey weren\u2019t even called The Beatles,\u201d he said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2016. \u201cIt was after The Quarrymen. I think they were Johnny and the Moondogs\u2026 Everybody knew, every girl, every kid knew, when they looked at them, something special was about. They were four kids, and you couldn\u2019t get inside that; they took care of themselves, and everybody knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n Nash, in his pre-Hollies days, competed against the Fab Four in the contest, the latter of whom sang Buddy Holly\u2019s 1956 tune \u2018Think It Over\u2019. Nash performed with his school friend Allan Clarke, and the pair would go on to co-found The Hollies together in the early 1960s. Nash remembers that, while The Beatles\u2019 pre-fame star power was palpable in the room, the contest was still anyone\u2019s for the taking. <\/p>\n \u201cAllan and I won that night probably because the lads had to leave before the judging,\u201d he reveals. \u201cLucky us.\u201d<\/p>\n Across his work with The Hollies, alongside David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young in their eponymous band<\/a>, or as a solo artist, Nash\u2019s voice has remained a beacon of his age. In his work, he soundtracked the countercultural spark that began in the 1960s and continues decades later, with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young classics like \u2018Our House\u2019, a song he wrote about his home in Laurel Canyon with his then-partner, Joni Mitchell, and \u2018Just a Song Before I Go\u2019 to his credit, chronicling an unrivalled era in music.<\/p>\n Before he immersed himself in the dreamy California landscape, however, Nash was born in Blackpool and raised in Salford, co-founding The Hollies, in a similar fashion to The Beatles, as a Merseybeat-type group in Manchester. <\/p>\n The Hollies would become one of the UK\u2019s most victorious pop groups, and The Beatles, of course, were transcendent in popularity beyond even their most fervent champions\u2019 comprehension. Nash foretold their success, though, as early as that fateful talent competition they entered as young, burgeoning musicians.<\/p>\n Nash has spoken of his infatuation with The Beatles on multiple occasions, even despite a slight rift between The Hollies and George Harrison, the latter of whom was displeased with the band\u2019s rendition of his song \u2018If I Needed Someone\u2019<\/a>. Still, Nash\u2019s admiration for The Beatles has always remained. He once named \u2018A Day In The Life\u2019 as being \u201cone of the most adventurous songs ever written and recorded,\u201d he enthused on The Foxhole in 2015, reflecting on when he was able to hear an advanced copy of their 1967 album Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band. <\/p>\n However, Nash names the band\u2019s previous album, 1966\u2019s Revolver, as his ultimate favourite. Compiling a list for Classic Rock<\/a> in 2022, Revolver sits alongside selections<\/a> by Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, encapsulating the music that has stuck with Nash, spanning beyond time. \u201cI loved Revolver \u2013 the energy, the sound,\u201d he raves, naming the hallucinatory \u2018Tomorrow Never Knows\u2019 as his favourite track from the record. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe that there will ever be a group as talented as The Beatles,\u201d Nash declared, a profession that shows that, even as Nash himself stands as one of rock music\u2019s most essential voices, the impact of The Beatles may always remain at the helm.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Marsha Miller \/ LBJ Library) Mon 2 February 2026 19:00, UK As Graham Nash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,28730,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-404624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-graham-nash","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}