storm played football regularly and was a good skater and swimmer (once swimming the 12.5-mile length of windermere). liverpool f.c. used to train at melwood and he went to watch them in training, later putting up a large photo of himself training with the team on his wall at home. he was the captain of "mersey beat" magazine's football team, called the mersey beat xi. storm was born with a stutter (a speech impediment), which did not affect his singing. because of storm's bad stammer, his friends never allowed him to tell a joke or to order a round of drinks, as it took too long. he became a cotton salesman (as was jim mccartney, paul mccartney's father) before forming a skiffle group.