Careful, he really is a Beatle and at the height of their fame, When the Beatles needed a little "Help," a replacement stand-in for Ringo, who was ill at the start of their first world tour, they needed someone in a hurry and George Martin thought he knew the man to fill the breech.
It was the summer of 1964 and Beatle's were on the verge of going on tour and Ringo was deemed to be too ill to travel. George Martin knew of a capable drummer who he'd seen playing around various clubs in Soho and doing session work and decided to give him a chance and managed to get the young Jimmie Nicol to the Abbey Road Studios and with the rest of the band, ran through a few of their well-known tracks. This was June 3 and the beginning of a fortnight which would transform Nicol into a worldwide music star.
The first stages of the tour were Denmark, Holland, Hong Kong and Australia, where they were welcomed by ten's of thousands of fanatical fans, relentless press, wild parties TV and Radio Shows. And in that time he played ten sold-out concerts and was given the celebrity as the Fifth Beatle.
But fame can be a fickle friend and at the end of the fortnight, Ringo joined the tour to take his rightful place as the drummer and Jimmie Nicol found himself on a London bound plane, back to an uncomfortable reality. It was 15 June and his time was up, he was given a first class ticket, a gold watch and £500 in wages. Home to a tumultuous reception and feted by the press, he found himself being rushed into a record deal, in an attempt to capitalize upon his recent stardom, got himself a group, bought a Jaguar and immediately disappeared. Within a year his marriage had ended, his new bands discs had flopped and he was declared bankrupt with debts of £40 000. There followed some years living in Mexico and a second marriage, also ending in divorce, his present location is seemingly unknown.
At least now, Nicol may taste the heights of stardom once again as a Hollywood film is being prepared about his life.
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