How George Met Paul

George Harrison and Paul McCartney first met while at secondary school.

Both boys had both passed their (national) 11+ exams, a year apart. The 11+ effectively acted as an entrance examination for the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, a grammar school in the city centre.

At school, the nine month age difference between Paul and George was a practical and psychological barrier to socialising. Kids hung out with kids in their year group. 

Outside the school's premises the social protocols were looser. Though they lived in different areas, both boys took the same bus into town. This is where their paths would cross, as George would later explain:

He had the same uniform and was going the same way as I was so I started hanging out with him.

George later joked that Paul had struck him as odd.

... sitting by himself & laughing! I thought we had a real nut on our hands!

Nonetheless, the two boys quickly found they shared musical tastes. Paul later described their relationship as that of older and younger brother - something reaffirmed at the end of George's life. But as with many sibling relationships, it was not always plain sailing.

A longer version of this article is a free medium read here

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