The Beatles at the Cavern Club
The Cavern Club at 10 Mathew Street, in Liverpool was the venue where the Beatles' UK popularity started.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best were first seen by Brian Epstein at the club.
[5] The club changed hands several more times before eventually being demolished to allow construction of an underground railway ventilation duct, before being used as a car park.
[12] The group set up in the downstairs lounge of the golf club, and were surprised when nearly one hundred people filed in to listen.
Halfway through, Sytner pushed his way through the audience and handed Lennon a note which read, "Cut out the bloody rock 'n roll".
The Beatles' name was first noticed by Epstein in the first issue of Bill Harry's Mersey Beat magazine (which Epstein successfully sold in his NEMS music store), on numerous posters around Liverpool, and on the front page of the second issue of Mersey Beat.
[27]After the performance, Epstein and Taylor went into the dressing room, which he later called "as big as a broom cupboard", to talk to them.
[34] The Beatles were recorded playing live at the club on 22 August 1962, by Granada Television,[35] and their producer at EMI, George Martin, later thought of recording them live there, calling the projected album Off The Beatle Track, but soon realised the club had terrible acoustics.
Although Epstein had had no prior experience of artist management, he made it clear that he wanted to change the Beatles' early dress-code and attitude on stage, as they wore blue jeans and leather jackets, smoked, ate and swore, stopped and started songs when they felt like it, pretended to hit each other, and turned their backs to the audience.
[38] Epstein put a stop to their behaviour, insisting they wear more suitable clothes, and later suggested the famous synchronised bow at the end of their performances.
[44] Epstein pushed McFall to raise the group's fee for a concert at the club from the previous £3, 15 shillings, to £10.
[46] The Beatles' press officer, Tony Barrow, wrote a book called On the Scene at the Cavern, using the pseudonym Alistair Griffin.
"And if you looked in at a lunchtime session Cillia Black would have checked your coat into the cloakroom or spooned out a plate of tomato soup for you."
And a "Cavern trip to Hamburg" was organised, involving a visit to The Star-Club where the Beatles had been a resident group.
[46] It was also visited by numerous international celebrities, including Chet Atkins, Anna Neagle and Arthur Fiedler.
[46] When The Cavern grew to incorporate adjacent premises and a recording studio and new stage were built, there was such a great international demand for what the club sold as "Beatleboard" (pieces of wood from the old stage where the Beatles had played so many times), that it took four months to process the orders.
[52] The club changed hands several more times before eventually being demolished in 1973 to allow construction of an underground railway ventilation duct, before being used as a car park.
