Nigel Greenberg set up Cavern Sound Ltd. Nigel’s connection with the Cavern went way back. “During my teenage years one of my close friends was Franklin Sytner,” he recalls. “We shared an interest in skiffle, and some nights I would tag along with Frank to the Cavern Club, which was then owned by his brother.”
By 1961 the music scene in Liverpool was starting to take off. Hundreds of groups were playing in suburban dance halls and city centre clubs. Most bands were quartets – lead, rhythm and bass guitarists and a drummer. Each guitarist needed an amplifier and the group also needed a public address system with microphones and loudspeakers.
Frank’s older brother, Alan Sytner, had opened the premises in 1957 as a jazz club, but from the early ’60s skiffle groups started playing. Alan eventually sold the Cavern to Ray McFall, who took over on 3rd October 1959, with Mr. Acker Bilk and his band top of the bill.
At The Cavern Club, Mathew Street
After installing a new sound system for Hope Hall, a city centre cinema that doubled as a live music venue, they were approached by Ray McFall and Bob Wooler to discuss a new venture. By 1963 the Beatles had made Liverpool and the Cavern world famous, and now Ray and Bob wanted to open a recording studio in the vacant cellar next door, where local bands could record demo discs. Cavern Sound Ltd was incorporated and the studio opened in late 1964.
25th October 1964: Cavern Sound Ltd. Opens
Nigel explains: “It transpired that Ray’s sound studio idea was a last-gasp attempt to generate additional revenue to prop up the club, which was rapidly going down the drain. He loved the limelight and even accompanied the Beatles on their first trip to the US at enormous cost.
Find Out The Whole Story Now
Read the fascinating story of this little-known period in the Cavern’s history and how Nigel met Debbie many years later on a blind date and realised their paths crossed many years before in The Cavern! It is all in Cavern Club: The Inside Story
