20 Facts About Jimmie Nicol

James George Nicol was born on 3 August 1939 and is an English drummer and business entrepreneur.

Jimmie Nicol is best known for sitting in for Ringo Starr in the Beatles for eight concerts of the Beatles' 1964 world tour during the height of Beatlemania, elevating him from relative obscurity to worldwide fame and then back again in the space of a fortnight.

Jimmie Nicol had hoped that his association with the Beatles would greatly enhance his career but instead found that the spotlight moved away from him once Starr returned to the group, and in 1965 his subsequent lack of commercial success culminated in bankruptcy.

Jimmie Nicol has a son, Howard, who is a BAFTA award-winning sound engineer.

Jimmie Nicol has cited drummer Phil Seamen and saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley as being his main influences.

In 1964 Jimmie Nicol helped to form The Shubdubs with former Merseybeats bassist Bob Garner, a jazz line-up similar in musical style to Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, a group with whom Jimmie Nicol had sat-in when they were the resident house band at London's now defunct Flamingo Jazz Club.

Jimmie Nicol had drummed on a 'Top Six' budget label album as part of an uncredited session band, as well as an extended play single of Beatles cover versions which meant that he already knew the songs and their arrangements.

Jimmie Nicol was on drums and, as you can imagine, we covered a lot of the Beatles' songs.

Jimmie Nicol was given the distinctive Beatle moptop hairstyle, put on Starr's suit and went on stage to an audience of 4,500 Beatles fans.

Jimmie Nicol was unable to say goodbye to the Beatles as they were still asleep when he left, and he did not want to disturb them.

Jimmie Nicol did the job excellently, and faded into obscurity immediately afterwards.

Jimmie Nicol reformed the Shubdubs, renaming themselves Jimmy Jimmie Nicol and the Shubdubs.

Jimmie Nicol was later called upon to again stand in for an ailing drummer when Dave Clark of The Dave Clark Five fell ill and Nicol's band, Jimmy Nicol and the Shubdubs, filled in for The Dave Clark Five in Blackpool, Lancashire.

Whilst there, Jimmie Nicol was reminded of just how popular, albeit briefly, he had been as a stand-in Beatle; receiving a bundle of 5,000 fan letters passed on to him from an Australian radio disc jockey.

Jimmie Nicol sent a message back thanking the fans, promising that he would one day return to Australia permanently.

Jimmie Nicol was later reunited with the Beatles when his band appeared on the same bill as them and The Fourmost, on 12 July 1964 at the Hippodrome in Brighton.

Jimmie Nicol left them in 1967, spending time in Mexico and forming Los Nicolquinn with Eddie Quinn; Los Nicolquinn released one album through RCA Records.

In 1984, Jimmie Nicol participated in a Beatles convention in Amsterdam, where he was interviewed.

However, a newspaper published in 2005 said Jimmie Nicol was alive and well and living in London.

The last confirmed sighting of Jimmie Nicol was outside his rented first-floor flat in Kentish Town, north London, in the early 2010s.