The Cavern Club: Small place, big history

The old entrance to the original Cavern Club

In Liverpool’s Matthew Street, there lies a small venue with a history which stands at epic proportion in comparison. It is a venue which has played host to many of the greatest bands and musicians which have graced our planet. A venue which has created many happy memories for many different people. And despite having to be rebuilt and restructured, having gone from sweet highs to turbulent lows, the venue sits proud once again, allowing for it to create many more happy memories in the process. This venue is, of course, none other than the world famous Cavern Club.

Original owner, Alan Synter, opened the club on 16^th January 1957 at 10 Matthew Street, with the intention of creating England’s most successful jazz venue outside of London. Synter’s inspiration came from the Parisian jazz club, La Caveau De La Huchette, which is also why the club is aptly named the “Cavern”.

Despite serving primarily as a jazz club, Synter agreed to allow skiffle group, the Quarrymen, to perform there in August 1957. It was John Lennon’s first appearance at the club, and despite being told not to, Lennon and the rest of the band started to perform rock music to which Synter reacted angrily by saying, “cut out the rock”. Five months later in the January of the following year, the band returned, with a certain Paul McCartney making his debut for the band. It is also widely thought that Richard Starkey’s (more famously known as Ringo Starr) debut preceded that of both Lennon and McCartney’s, as he was alleged to have played in the July of 1957 with the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. Starkey would later return to the venue with his new band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, in the November of 1959.

It was Rory Storm and the Hurricanes who opened the first ever advertised beat night session on 25^th May 1960 at the Cavern Club, which was now under the new ownership of Ray McFall. This was to be the beginning of a whole new era which typified the sound of the city of Liverpool, and would later become known as “Merseybeat”. Acts such as Liverpool’s very own Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Searchers, as well as other British acts such as Herman’s Hermits and The Zombies were all affiliated with this revolutionary music scene. And, of course, Merseybeat’s most famous musicians were none other than The Beatles.

The Beatles played 292 gigs at the Cavern

It was in February of 1961 that The Beatles played the first of 292 gigs at the Cavern Club, creating a relationship with the music venue which has become synonymous as time has elapsed and history has developed. Later on in the November of the same year, local businessman Brian Epstein discovered The Beatles for the first time, and immediately offered them his services as a manager, to which the band accepted. By the June of the following year, Epstein had secured the band a record deal with Parlophone Records. Unfortunately for the band’s drummer, Pete Best, he would play his last ever gig with The Beatles at the Cavern on 15^th August 1962, having been replaced by Ringo Starr.

Starr made his first Cavern appearance with the band just four days later. Three days after that, Granada TV filmed a Beatles lunchtime performance in which the band covered Richard Barrett’s “Some Other Guy” and Little Willie Littlefield’s “Kansas City”. During this old footage, the crowd can be heard chanting “We want Pete”, as his dismissal from the band was still fresh in the minds of many of the fans.

Almost a year later, on 3^rd August 1963, The Beatles would play their last ever gig at the Cavern. By the following year, the band had smashed their way through the American music scene through a craze which became widely known as “Beatlemania”. Their success and their famous affiliation with the Cavern meant that a whole host of artists – both British and American – would visit the venue to play gigs in the future.

Amongst such famous visiting music acts were Chuck Berry, Wilson Pickett, Ben E. King, Stevie Wonder, Queen, The Kinks, The Animals, Elton John, The Rolling Stones and The Who – and that is just to name a few!

In the midst of such legendary artists visiting, the venue would close down for a short while in February of 1966, when Ray McFall was pronounced bankrupt. The Cavern would eventually be taken over by Alf Geoghegan and Joe Davey, who developed the club by extending it and introducing a new entrance, as well as a souvenir shop, a boutique, and a ground floor coffee lounge and eatery – all of these additions acted as extras to the original basement vaults were musicians played their shows. Harold Wilson, who was none other than the British Prime Minister at the time, would officially reopen The Cavern on 23^rd July 1966.

However, the world famous club would again change hands in 1970, when Harry Waterman and Roy Adams took over. Whilst the club still continued to thrive off its success, welcoming more and more famed musicians as time went by, British Rail eventually took ownership of it and planned to knock it down during construction of the city’s underground rail loop. The original Cavern Club would eventually close on 27^th May 1973, with the venue now moving to the opposite side of Matthew Street.

The new venue would remain as the Cavern Club until 1976, when it then changed its name to Revolution – however, after just one month, the venue would close and would later reopen as Eric’s, which has since became famous in its own right for holding links with Liverpool artists such as Echo and the Bunnymen, the Lightning Seeds, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Five years later, in 1981, plans were revealed to excavate the buried remains of the Cavern Club cellar and reopen it in its original form. However, it was eventually announced that this would not be possible, as it would be far too unsafe due to the damage which had been caused during demolition of the club’s ground floor in 1973. Instead, the Cavern Club would be redeveloped through an authentic reconstruction, adopting a Beatles theme and eventually opening in 1984 after being leased to former Liverpool FC player, Tommy Smith, and his business partner, George Downey.

Whilst The Beatles flavour that the club adopted worked well, the ownership switched hands again a year later and the club would take on a modern disco theme. This proved to be less successful, and it led to another shift in ownership just eighteen months later. James McVitie would take over the club in February 1987 and soon had it thriving off success once again. However, this success would prove to be short-lived, as the club was again closed two years later in 1989, having lost its license due to an assault which had happened on one of the club’s customers.

The new build of the Cavern

The club had endured its toughest, most chaotic period and did not reopen until two years later in 1991, when Cavern City Tours took over. Thankfully, ever since this takeover, the club has endured a more fluid period of success than on previous occasions and still remains open today.

Highlights since the club’s reopening include its hosting of the first ever Matthew Street Festival in 1993, which has gone on to become Europe’s biggest free outdoor music festival ever since. The venue also played host to a Paul McCartney gig in 1999, where he not only promoted his album Run Devil, Run, but also created a sense of nostalgia in the process, rolling back the years to the times of when The Beatles were the club’s signature act.

Also, since the Cavern’s reopening in 1991, the venue has played host to music acts such as Oasis, Donovan, Bo Diddley, Lonnie Donergan, Embrace, KT Tunstall, Travis, The Coral and Arctic Monkeys – again, just to name a few!

In 2007, as part of the club’s 50^th anniversary celebrations, an album was released entitled The Cavern: The Most Famous Club in the World. The album features tracks from artists that have played at the Cavern Club – both at the old build and the new build. It is a 3-disc compilation album containing 50 tracks from 50 artists – all of which peaked as number one singles. Interestingly enough, it was the first ever known compilation album to feature a Beatles track – the track in question being the band’s first number one single, “Please, Please Me”.



The cover to an album which was released as part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the Cavern's opening

Having looked back at the huge history of this small club in Matthew Street, it is safe to say that the Cavern Club has had its fair share of highs, as well as its fair share of lows. However, one thing is for certain: it will always be famous for all of the right reasons. The Beatles’ world famous affiliation with the place gives it a reputation which is both glowing and untouchable. Respected artists from across the entire music industry continue to come from all over the world to play there in order to gain that wonderful sense of nostalgia, whilst it also remains a hot-spot for millions of tourists. There is no arguing that the Cavern truly is “the most famous club in the world”.

*Historical facts are supplied courtesy of visit www.cavernclub.org – visit this website to learn more about the club’s history and to also find information about up-and-coming events and gigs