By the time John and I got together, he talked, ate and breathed music. When he wasn't playing the guitar, he was writing lyrics or talking about the latest Lonnie Donegan, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry record. Almost every lunchtime he met the two other Quarrymen to rehearse. They were both younger and went to the Liverpool Institute, next door to the art college, the best known of Liverpool's boy's grammar schools: distinguished judges and politicians had been educated there, its pupils were expected to do well. But John's friends, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, were more interested in playing music than passing exams.