Places, Everyone!…Venue #3/25: The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England

There are many places around the world that are referred to as being “ground zero” for this or for that. Well, The Cavern Club on Mathew Street in Liverpool, England can certainly and rightfully lay claim to being “ground zero” when it came to Beatlemania! While it is true that the songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met at a church picnic in Liverpool and that the band, itself, first played regularly as a musical unit in Hamburg, Germany, it was at The Cavern Club that they officially left the Quarrymen and the Silver Beatles behind and became The Beatles as we know them. 

The Cavern Club was actually first used as a storage cellar in a warehouse in downtown Liverpool. It was put into use as a bomb shelter during The Blitz. Its final non-musical use was as a storage area for fresh fruit. In the mid-1950s, the cellar was purchased by a man named Alan Synter who was hoping to turn the space into a jazz club modeled after one that he liked in Paris called Le Caveau De La Huchette. The cellar was designed to have a series of arches acting as doorways and as the ceiling of the club. The idea was based on the notion that arches were the best shapes for evenly distributing the weight of the main building above it that rose several stories into the air on Mathew Street. The cellar was made of stone and bricks. One of the unforeseen consequences of using bricks to line the ceilings and walls of the cellar was that because they were porous, they absorbed the aroma of the fruit being stored there. Once the cellar became The Cavern Club and regularly began hosting standing room only crowds, the heat generated by the bands and audiences would cause the walls to sweat. This, in turn, would act as a catalyst to spread the stored up aroma of fruit on to the audience. Thus, many a young worker or student returning to work or school after a lunch time show would have their whereabouts easily determined due to a phenomenon that became known as the scent of “Cavern perfume”.

As mentioned, The Cavern Club was initially used to host jazz performances as the 1950s drew to a close. But soon other types of music were featured there including something called skiffle. Skiffle bands were the precursor to blues-based or country-based rock n’ roll bands. One of the most prominent skiffle bands to stand upon the stage of The Cavern Club was a group of teenagers who called themselves The Quarrymen Skiffle Band. The lead singer of that band was a boy named John Lennon. The Cavern Club usually featured live music continuously throughout the day. At the time of their first gig, The Quarrymen Skiffle Band were complete unknowns within the Liverpool music scene. That first gig was more of an audition. The band was allowed a short two-song set to be performed in between the official sets of two other older, more established skiffle bands. The Quarrymen took the stage. They played a traditional skiffle song as their opening number. Then John Lennon launched into a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel”. The Cavern Club owner was incensed that these boys would bring rock n’ roll into his club and handed them a note, mid-song, warning them to cut it out immediately. John Lennon’s stunt cost The Quarrymen Skiffle Band the chance to play at The Cavern Club anytime soon thereafter. However, later that year, in 1957, The Quarrymen Skiffle Band would be hired to play at another event. This time it was to be a church picnic. It was while at that picnic that John Lennon and his mates played for a church congregation that included a young man named Paul McCartney. At the end of their set, McCartney introduced himself to Lennon and informed him that he knew how to play the guitar, too. Lennon offered his guitar to McCartney and invited him to play. McCartney obliged. Afterwards, Lennon asked McCartney if he wanted to join the band. Thus, one of the most iconic musical partnerships in history began at the conclusion of a Quarrymen’s Skiffle Band set.

While Lennon and McCartney were discovering how much they had in common with each other in terms of musical influences and songwriting styles, The Cavern Club was changing hands. Alan Synter knew that a new wave of music was sweeping the nation and he wanted no part of it. By the time that Synter had sold The Cavern Club in 1959, The Quarrymen Skiffle Band had been forgiven and had played several times. First, it was just John Lennon and his original bandmates. Soon thereafter, future Beatles drummer Ringo Starr appeared there with another skiffle band. Finally, as 1959 began, Paul McCartney made his Cavern Club debut as a member of Lennon’s Quarrymen Skiffle band. Not long after that, with new ownership in place, one of Liverpool’s top bands, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes took to the stage to play a sold out show. They were the first band with rock n’ roll dreams to have the courage to drop the skiffle part of their act and appear on stage as who they felt they were meant to be. As part of that show, Ringo Starr reappeared again as drummer for Rory Storm. They played some original tunes but also many covers of imported rock n’ roll songs from the U.S. This combination of rock and blues helped form a new musical hybrid called Merseybeat. Soon, other Merseybeat bands such as Gerry and the Pacemakers made their first appearances. 

On Feb. 9, 1961, The Beatles first played The Cavern Club as themselves. The members of that version of the band included John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best. While many bands were viewed favourably by the audiences that now were flocking to The Cavern Club on a daily basis, it was The Beatles that became the most popular of them all. They were hired in the capacity of being a house band of sorts. This arrangement meant that The Beatles often played lunchtime shows multiple days a week. It was at one of these lunchtime shows that The Beatles were watched for the first time by future manager Brian Epstein. His family owned a record shop a short distance away. When customers of this store started speaking about this hot new band playing at The Cavern Club, Epstein just had to go and see them for himself. After watching their show and being suitably impressed, he offered to become their manager. The Beatles accepted the offer and soon they were signed to a record contract and were in the studio producing their debut album. The Beatles continued to play those lunchtime shows right up until they released their debut single, “Love Me Do”, in 1962. Once their music hit the national airwaves, Beatlemania began in earnest. Soon it became too unsafe for The Beatles to perform at The Cavern Club any longer because of concerns regarding crowd control, inside and outside of the building. The Beatles’ last performance at The Cavern Club was on August 3, 1963. Ringo Starr was now playing drums for The Beatles. In less than a year from that moment, The Beatles would be flying to America, Beatlemania would be at the height of its intensity and the world of modern music would be forever changed.

Because of the success of The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Rory Storm and other Merseybeat performers, Liverpool became a prime stop for touring bands from the rest of England and from around the world. Acts such as Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Queen and a very young Elton John would all stand upon the stage of The Cavern Club and soak in its sweet perfume. However, as time went on The Cavern Club began to require renovations that proved to be too costly to perform. So, in 1973 the building that housed The Cavern Club was demolished. The cellar was left intact as a shell of its former self. It was filled in with rubble and paved over as a parking lot. American singer Suzy Quatro was the final performer to stand on the original Cavern Club stage. Her show was on November 2, 1972.

When John Lennon was killed in New York City in 1980, the site of the former Cavern Club once again served as ground zero for those wishing to mourn his death. Public opinion strongly supported the idea of excavating the old Cavern Club site and redeveloping the area with the plan being to reopen the old club. However, architects and engineers stated that the damage from the initial demolition was too great and that the structural integrity of the numerous archways had been compromised. Some good did come from the disappointing news, however. 5000 of the original bricks used to construct the cellar in the first place were removed, cleaned up and sold as a fundraiser for the Strawberry Fields Children’s Hospital. The remaining salvageable bricks were removed, restored and used in the creation of a new development a short distance down Mathew Street. Before the new Cavern Club opened, almost two hundred musicians who had played on the original stage of the club were invited to sign their name on a portion of the original back wall of The Cavern Club. That wall was taken down and placed in the new facility and stands as one of LIverpool’s most sought-after tourist attractions to this day. Since the new Cavern Club has opened, both Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney have visited. The surviving members of The Quarrymen Skiffle Band reunited for a short set on the fortieth anniversary celebrations held in 1997. Modern bands such as Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys have performed there as well. If you were to ever find yourself in Liverpool, it is relatively easy to have a terrific Beatles experience in this new shiny development that sits a stone’s throw away from ground zero in the story of The Beatles. I will have all the links below.

For now, I wonder how hard it would be to find and acquire one of those charity bricks that were rescued from the demolition site? I am not a fanatical collector of music memorabilia but having a Beatles brick from the place where they got their start would be pretty special. If you have ever been to Liverpool to see the new Cavern Club complex and/or to experience all of The Beatles-related tours, museums and other special sites, let me know how it was in the comments below. In the meantime, thanks for coming along with me to Mathew Street. It was a pleasure to show it to you via this post. Have a great rest of your day. Bye for now.

The link to the official website for the new Cavern Club complex can be found here.

The link to the video for a performance by The Beatles at the Original Cavern Club in 1962 can be found here.    

The link to a video that gives a short yet detailed history of the connection between The Beatles and The Cavern Club and those charity bricks can be found here. 

The link to the official website for The Beatles can be found here.

The link to the official website for the city of Liverpool, England can be found here.

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