The Cavern Club
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THE CAVERN CLUB night to make sure she wasn’t involved Liverpool had never seen or heard in any ‘den of iniquity’. “It was all very anything like them.” NORTHERN SOUNDS innocent,” assures Debbie. “No alcohol The Beatles performed an amazing TOP TWENTY was served, just Coca-Cola.” total of 292 times at the Cavern – and In 1962, the Liverpool Echo famously published its There was always a rush for seats. every Wednesday night, and thrice- ‘Mersey Beats Popularity Poll’ as voted for by readers: “Either side of the central aisle were weekly lunchtimes, Debbie was out front. 01. The Beatles arched tunnels where, if you were lucky “Overnight The Beatles had a following of and early enough to grab a centre row devoted fans, and I was one of them. The 02. Gerry and the Pacemakers seat, you could get a fabulous close-up amazing thing about the Cavern was that 03. The Remo Four view of the group on-stage,” Debbie The Beatles and all the groups were so 04. Rory Storm & The Hurricanes recalls. “You could practically touch them accessible. We were literally inches away and talk to them and make requests, with as they played.” 05. Johnny Sandon every performance like a private party.” She especially recalls their ‘throbbing’ & The Searchers To one side, the tiny 8ft x 10ft dressing rendition of My Bonnie (which inspired 06. Kingsize Taylor room space was a scrawled record of rock local record store manager Brian Epstein & The Dominoes history, daubed in signatures and quips to check them out at the Cavern on 9 07. The Big Three from all the acts, while to the right of the November 1961 – and the rest is history). stage lay the cloakroom where future In 1962, Debbie was especially thrilled to 08. The Strangers star Cilla Black would work. Compere see The Beatles twice on the same day: 09. Faron’s Flamingos extraordinaire Bob Wooler, resident first at the Cavern, then again at the vast 10. The Four Jays between 1961-’66, would play the latest Tower Ballroom in nearby New Brighton, (later The Fourmost) records on his single turntable in the on a 12-band bill headlined by every breaks between groups setting up. His rocking band’s inspiration, Little Richard. 11. Ian and the Zodiacs oft-repeated introduction: “Hi there, all Debbie heard the quartet’s Cavern 12. The Undertakers you cave dwellers. We’ve got the hi-fi debut of single Love Me Do, and she also 13. Earl Preston & the TT’s high and the lights down low.” attended The Beatles’ last appearance Wooler was a supreme talent-spotter: playing the chart-topping hit Please 14. Mark Peters & The Cyclones after their initial Cavern foray in ’57 as Please Me, an occasion on which the 15. Karl Terry & The Cruisers The Quarrymen, he was the one to book Cavern queue stretched all the way down 16. Derry and the Seniors a raw new rock’n’roll band, The Beatles. Mathew Street. Debbie witnessed their lunchtime debut “The Beatles inspired many groups to 17. Steve and the Syndicate at the Cavern, on 9 February 1961. embrace rock’n’roll – and they all wanted 18. Dave Fenton and “We were blown away. The Beatles to play the Cavern,” points out Debbie. the Silhouettes A leather-clad Beatles were different, their music incredible, Despite The Beatles leaving Liverpool, 19. Billy Kramer and the Coasters on stage at the Cavern © Getty Images their appearance raunchy, their energy the Cavern continued to thrive as a live in February 1961 infectious. They just oozed excitement. music venue, where youngsters ➨ 20. Dale Roberts and the Then they disappeared for four months, Jay Walkers y love affair “The Cavern’s identity began to change and reckless, we never stopped to think of off to Hamburg for the second time.” with the club at the start of the new decade. Rock’n’roll it as a potential deathtrap for hundreds. Other acts – Gerry and the A sweaty Cavern Club dancefloor in 1964 actually began slowly replaced jazz and the Cavern “It was like a sauna when the club was Pacemakers, The Swinging Blue in December became the heart that gave Mersey its full, with rivers of condensation running Jeans, The Remo Four, The Big Three, 1960, over five beat… a magnet for teenagers hungry for down the walls and the odour of cigarette Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes years“M before my Dad bought it. I was their fix of the incomparable sounds and smoke permanently in the air. There was – stood in. “All fabulous groups, but 15 and immediately hooked. The music a mecca for the hundreds of groups that also a strong smell of perspiration from they weren’t The Beatles,” insists penetrated every cell in your body, and came to belt out their rock’n’roll.” an overheated crowd of hundreds, too Debbie. “They were already by far we couldn’t get enough of it. It made the American musical influence was fast cool to take off their coats. Mix into this the best group around – and in 1961, Cavern the most magical place on the taking hold in the UK. With no major the tantalising smell of hot dogs and soup there were some 300 groups playing planet.” So recalls Debbie Greenberg on pop radio stations yet in existence it from the café, and you had the odorous on Merseyside… and not a bad one finding her musical mecca circa 1960, as a reached a ready audience via muffled cocktail that helped to make the Cavern amongst them.” starry-eyed teen. Six years on, her family Radio Luxembourg, and vinyl arriving what it was – a wondrous place where By the time of their ‘welcome home’ would own the legendary site. from America. Liverpool, as a major port, teenagers could escape.” Cavern appearance on 14 July 1961, It all started in 1957, with young jazz found itself in pole position. “Records Like Debbie, many of the city’s youth – relentless Hamburg sets had honed fan Alan Sytner’s visit to a Left Bank club brought home from America by Scousers up to 900 at a time – would flock to this the pre-pop Fab Four into a top-class in Paris called Le Caveau. Much inspired working on ships were always high in Shangri-La day and night. Inbetween an act. Debbie considers that playing by the atmospheric, brick-arched cellar, demand,” explains Debbie. unlikely combination of modelling and with Tony Sheridan influenced how he aimed to recreate the same back in The Cavern was fairly nondescript- managing her father’s butcher’s business, The Beatles dressed and moved, Liverpool. In the city centre’s Mathew looking on the outside, but what was Debbie would be there every lunchtime even to their trademark ‘high held’ Street, he found a dingy, disused fruit it like inside? Debbie knows: “It would session from Tuesday to Friday. “There guitar-playing. “The transformation warehouse ripe for converting into a have been like a descent into the bowels were two sessions, from 12pm to 1pm, and was unbelievable,’ she confirms. jazz cellar. The Cavern was born – but of the earth. Literally a dank and stinky 1.15 to 2.15pm. The later one was always “The gyrating hips, humorous banter it would not stay a jazz haunt for long. cellar, with dated drainage, ventilation the best – then I would go back again at and sexy outfits, the tight black As Debbie writes in her fascinating new and public access, there was never the night for more.” Such was her fixation leather. Their repertoire was now memoir, Cavern Club, The Inside Story, luxury of a fire escape. Young, carefree that her concerned parents lay in wait one wide-ranging, the sound was unique. 80 VINTAGE ROCK ISSUE 27 THE CAVERN CLUB The Merseybeats at the ceremony. On 23 July 1966, he paid by a bent copper from the Vice Squad Cavern Club in 1964. From left to right: Aaron Williams, tribute to the “wonderful foreign earning on a protection racket followed by STILL SHAKIN’ John Gustafson, John Banks power of the Mersey Beat”. the harassment of staged drug raids AT THE CAVERN and Tony Crane. A music marathon of Cavern-related and the ensuing court case marking Today, The Shakers are the Cavern’s sole resident artists ensued: Marty Wilde, Georgie a low point. Top tourist attraction Merseybeat group. Formed 11 years ago by Tony O’Keefe as a four-piece, they are now a tight-knit trio with Tony though the Cavern was, funds proved Fame, Billy J Kramer, The Fourmost, The on drums, Eddie Harrison on guitar/lead vocals, and Merseys, plus special US guests Solomon tight, and by 1970 Debbie’s father felt Martin Davies on bass/vocals. “I felt there were many Burke and Rufus Thomas. Ironically, in ready to sell. Shockingly, just three Beatles tribute acts and modern-sounding ’60s bands but lieu of The Beatles – sending congrats years later, the legendary Cavern would nobody local really captured the vibe of the original telegrams in their absence – their ex- be demolished due to the new owners genre,” says Tony. “I also wanted to encompass other greats, so Rory Storm, The Big Three and all the era’s ignoring an invitation to counter British drummer’s outfit, the Pete Best Combo, other local hit-makers are on our setlist.” The Shakers nobly stood in instead. Recalls Debbie: Rail’s compulsory purchase of the site have worked with many original ’60s acts, and have “The joint was jumping…the Cavern was in connection with the construction of played a huge Beatles festival in the United States.