This is the story of the Beatles' rise to fame: focusing on that 7year stretch from the time the boys met as teenagers to early 1964, when they made their first trip to America. From the boys' humble beginnings in Liverpool to the cellars of Hamburg, When They Were Boys includes stories never before told, including both the heartbreaks and the lucky breaks. Included are an eyewitness account of that first meeting between Lennon and McCartney, the inside story of how Ringo replaced Pete Best, and a chapter devoted to the brilliant but troubled soul of manager Brian Epstein, and the real scoop on their unlucky first visit to Hamburg and the death of Stu Sutcliffe.