For Jimmy Nicol, his 12 days with the Beatles left a lasting impression, and conflicted feelings.
“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.” He has resisted the temptation to sell his story, stating in a rare 1987 interview: “After the money ran low, I thought of cashing in in some way or other. But the timing wasn’t right. And I didn’t want to step on The Beatles’ toes. They had been damn good for me and to me.”
Professionally, he struggled… Ironically, he briefly reunited with the Beatles while performing once again as stand-in drummer, this time for the Dave Clark Five…
After his time with The Beatles, Nicol reformed the Shubdubs, re-naming themselves “Jimmy Nicol and the Shubdubs”. They released a single “Husky”/”Don’t Come Back”, followed by “Humpty Dumpty”/”Night Train”, neither of which were a commercial success. Nicol was called upon a second time to stand in for an ailing drummer, when Dave Clark of The Dave Clark Five fell ill, replacing him in the band for a season in Blackpool, Lancashire. Whilst there, Nicol was reminded of just how popular, albeit briefly, he had been as a Beatle, when he received via the postal system a bundle of 5,000 fan letters passed on to him from an Australian radio disc jockey. Nicol sent a message back thanking the fans, and promising that he would one day return to Australia permanently. He was later reunited with The Beatles when his band was set down on the same bill as them and The Fourmost on 12 July, 1964 at the Hippodrome Theatre in Brighton. In 1965 Nicol declared bankruptcy with debts of £4,066, just nine months after being a temporary Beatle.[3] Later that year he joined the successful Swedish group The Spotnicks, recording with them, and twice touring the world. He left them in 1967, spending time in Mexico studying samba and bossa nova rhythms, whilst also going into business setting up a button factory. In 1975 he returned to England. Other work at this time included housing renovations and carpentry. In 1988 it was rumoured that Nicol had died, but an article in 2005 by the Daily Mail confirmed that he was still alive and living as a recluse in London.
Source: Wikipedia. For more, check out a great collection photos spanning Jimmy’s career here.
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