Would YOU have wanted to be Jimmie Nicol?

Until two weeks ago… I didn’t know Jimmie Nicol existed. My daughter, Morgan, and I watched an old documentary about THE BEATLES. I never knew, back in 1964, that Ringo Starr got sick and was temporarily replaced by a guy named Jimmie Nicol. Here are a few interesting facts:

Jimmie Nicol went from relative obscurity to worldwide fame and back again in the space of a fortnight.

Nicol thought his time with THE BEATLES would boost his career, but instead found that the spotlight moved away from him once Starr returned to the group.

Nicol reflected: "The day before I was a BEATLE, girls weren't interested in me at all. The day after, with the suit and the BEATLE cut, riding in the back of the limo with John and Paul, they were dying to get a touch of me. It was very strange and quite scary."

Nicol played a total of eight shows until Starr returned to the group in Australia, on 14 June. He was unable to say "goodbye" to THE BEATLES however, as they were still asleep when he left, and he did not want to disturb them.

Nicol later said, "Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning thirty or forty pounds a week. After the headlines died, I began dying too."

In 1988 it was rumored that Jimmie Nicol had died but an article in 2005 confirmed that he was still alive and living as a recluse in London.