The Cavern Club
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The Cavern Club, which was opened on January 16, 1957, is a legendary rock and roll club at 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England, where Brian Epstein was introduced to the Beatles on 9 November 1961.
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[edit] History
Alan Sytner opened the club having been inspired by Paris's Jazz district, on the city's Left Bank, where there were a number of clubs in cellars. Sytner returned to Liverpool and wanted to open a club similar to Paris's Le Caveau. He eventually found a perfect cellar for his club, one which had been used as an air raid shelter during the war.
What started as a jazz club, eventually became a hangout for skiffle groups. Sytner ended up selling the Cavern Club to Ray McFall in 1959, after moving to London. Blues bands and Beat groups began to appear at the club on a regular basis in the early 1960s. The first Beat night was held on May 25, 1960 and featured a performance by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes (which included Ringo Starr as drummer). By early 1961, Bob Wooler had become the full-time compère & organiser of the lunchtime sessions. The club closed its doors in March of 1973, and was knocked through during construction work on the Merseyrail underground rail loop. The original site (next to the new Cavern) is now a car park.
[edit] World Fame
The venue has been made world famous by The Beatles, and it was on Tuesday February 21, 1961, that the band made their first lunchtime appearance at the club. The band had returned to Liverpool from Hamburg, Germany, where they had been playing at the Indra and the Kaiserkeller for up to eight hours a night, every night. Their stage show had been through a lot of changes and some in the audience thought they were watching a German band. From 1961 to 1963 The Beatles made 292 appearances at the club. During 1963, The Hollies took The Beatles' slot at the Cavern Club. The Beatles had graduated from the club and had been signed to EMI's Parlophone label by producer George Martin. The amount of musical activity in Liverpool and Manchester caused record producers who had previously never ventured very far from London to start looking to the north.
In the decade that followed, a wide variety of popular acts appeared at the club including The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Elton John, The Who and John Lee Hooker. Future star Cilla Black worked as the hat-check girl at The Cavern in her pre-fame days.
A recording studio, "Cavern Sound" opened in the basement of an adjoining building, run by Nigel Greenberg and Peter Hepworth.
[edit] The Cavern Club Today
In April 1984 the club was taken over by Liverpool F.C. legend Tommy Smith in association with Royal Life. It was re-built (next to the original Cavern) with some of the same bricks that had been used in the original club. The new design was to resemble the original as closely as possible. This was a difficult period of massive economical and political change in and around Liverpool and the club only survived until 1989, when it came under financial pressures and closed its doors for 18 months. In 1991, two friends - school teacher Bill Heckle and Liverpool cabbie Dave Jones - decided they could make a go of it. They still run the club today and despite being a world famous tourist spot, the club continues to function primarily as a live music venue.
On December 14, 1999, former Beatle Paul McCartney returned to the New Cavern Club stage to play a set publicising his new album Run Devil Run.
The Cavern Club continues to shine as one of the UK's favourite venues, and as an important part of the Liverpool music scene. It has around 40 live bands performing every week; both tribute and original bands, although the majority are trying to follow their peers into a career in music writing and performing their own material.
Bands come from the four corners of the British Isles and further afield to play at the Cavern and it's quite normal to find bands from New York, London, Madrid and Sydney all appearing within the same week. A normal night on the Beatle stage is free to enter, but the big stage offers 5 or 6 original bands performing for just a few pounds entry. The Cavern makes every effort to ensure that the people who come to perform (as well as those who come to see them) leave having had a great night and an experience worth talking about.
The Cavern is also used as a tour warm-up venue with semi-secret gigs announced at the last moment. The Arctic Monkeys did this is on October 2005, as well as many others before them.
Also, opposite the club is the Cavern Pub which is a bit of a museum to the famous bands who have played at the club in its 49-year history. See memorabilia to Status Quo, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson and many others. Both these venues are owned by Cavern City Tours who operate the popular Magical Mystery Tour and are also involved in the opening of the Hard Day's Night Hotel in Liverpool in 2007.
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