Before rooftop gigs and self-discovery in India, before mop-tops and mania, before John and Paul were even an item, the seeds of The Beatles were being sown in the suburbs of ­Liverpool.

Nowhere Boy, artist-turned-director Sam Taylor-Wood's imminent film debut, takes the focus all the way back to John Lennon's school days. Though the teenager's performing and songwriting abilities are seen to be understandably limited (considering he is usually competing for attention with the coconut shy at a village fête), the film is a welcome reminder of the ­brilliance of the music that existed before The Beatles changed the rules completely.

We see young Lennon awestruck in the cinema watching Elvis directing his pelvis towards hundreds of hysterical girls, listening to Screamin' Jay Hawkins howling I Put a Spell on You with a­nimal intensity, and learning from his wayward mother Julia that rock 'n' roll is a synonym for sex.

It is the start of a relationship with this riotous sound that would remain an inspiration all the way to his Rock 'n' Roll solo album of 1975.

A soundtrack, to be released before Christmas, features exhilarating staples of the Fifties from Jerry Lee Lewis, Wanda Jackson, Eddie Cochran and, inevitably, Rocket 88 by Jackie ­Brenston and his Delta Cats, widely considered to be the first rock 'n' roll song. Then there are newly recorded versions of the songs Lennon and his fluctuating cohorts were playing at their earliest gigs — Elvis's That's All Right, Buddy Holly's That'll be the Day and a cutesy early Lennon original, Hello Little Girl.

Before The Beatles, there were The Quarry Men, a ramshackle gaggle of Lennon's schoolmates who feature in the film and who were the musical equivalent of the chimp in the ascent of man picture. Members are still available for gig bookings, promising ­“country, western, rock 'n' roll and skiffle” at www.originalquarrymen.co.uk.

Then they focused on skiffle, the lively homemade sound popularised by Lonnie Donegan that made live performance far more accessible to boys who might not otherwise have been able to afford proper instruments. The washboard and tea chest bass were today's illegally downloaded laptop music production software.

Paul McCartney joined in 1957, impressing the permanently unimpressed Lennon with renditions of Twenty Flight Rock and Be-Bop-a-Lula at the now famous Woolton garden fête. Then the leader was persuaded to recruit a “too young” George ­Harrison, who chose Bill Justis's instrumental Raunchy for his audition upstairs on a double-decker.

At the time a reliance on covers over original material was no creative ­failure. The habit would extend through to The Beatles' formative ­Hamburg period and their albums up until 1965's Rubber Soul. In concert, the quartet favoured Chuck Berry and Elvis tracks more than any other songs, though Motown numbers also appeared.

What these young musicians lacked in ability they made up for in energy. It was fast-paced versions of popular tunes such as Twist and Shout that won over the early following and gave them the confidence to try to write songs that were even better.

The Beatles were still trying to ­recapture that first flush of excitement when they recorded One After 909 for the Let It Be album, a song Lennon and McCartney composed together not long after their first meeting. By 1969 their relationship was tarnished, and bitterness seemed to be all they would be left with after a world-changing decade.

But as their psychedelic sound regresses once more to basic chords and rowdy harmonies and the song reaches its rollicking conclusion, all we can hear is four Liverpool lads with an abiding love for pure, simple rock 'n' roll. Unlike future musical movements such as techno and punk, The Beatles never sought to make a complete break from what had gone before. It was there all along.

Listen to Maggie May - a song from the Nowhere Boy soundtrack here

Nowhere Boy: The Original Soundtrack is released by Sony Music on 14 December and the film is out on Boxing Day.

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