Sacked Beatles drummer still on the beat

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Another patient in a wheelchair, who keeps two Beatles posters by his bed, acts thrilled to shake Best's hand. Still another asks him about being replaced by Ringo.

"It was a long time ago," Best says, "a lot of things have moved on since then."

After his sacking, Best landed a gig playing with another Liverpool band, Lee Curtis and the All Stars. He saw his old mates when the All Stars played on the same bill as the Beatles, but they never spoke.

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"We passed like ships in the night," he says.

He quit show business in 1968 for a job with Britain's civil service and worked his way up to training manager, a job in which — ironically — he prepared workers for new jobs. He returned to the stage around the end of his government career in 1988 for what he thought would be a "one-off concert" and pretty much has been going ever since with his own band.

He could be excused for brooding over the life Ringo has led — the riches, the Bond-girl wife, touring with all-star bands. But Best stresses his blessings. He's been married for going on 44 years, with children and grandchildren. Women still scoot near his drum set to take his picture. His band has an album of original material coming out next year.

"In hindsight, that was my karma," he says," he says. "I still have my health, I have a beautiful wife, a family, a band."

"I'm the happy one, no matter what happened."

And he finally showed up on a best-selling Beatles album in 1995, the first of three releases in the vault-clearing Anthology series. Though Anthology 1 deals Best yet another indignity — he's beheaded in the main picture of the cover collage — he still gets residuals for tracks that feature his work. He says the money will provide security for his family after he's gone.

Best also is happy that he got to tell his version of what happened during the band's formative days in the slyly titled "Best of the Beatles," which showed on PBS last year and is now out on DVD. And he gets to play the old songs to appreciative crowds like the Elks, a show that ends with a one-two punch of "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout."

Middle aged couples jam the linoleum in front of the stage, twisting, smiling and singing along to the ascending "Ahhhh"s of the final song's chorus. As Best pounds away with his head down, lead singer Chris Cavanagh raps over the big beat, "Ladies and gentlemen, Pete Best is the ORIGINAL drummer of the Beatles," drawing a cheer.

The scene brings to mind a really fun wedding reception more than Beatlemania, but it's enough to bring a smile to Best's face as he comes out from behind the drums to ask the crowd a question.

"Would you like another one?"

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