In 1957 a twenty-one-year-old Liverpool man, Alan Sytner, who had been running a weekly jazz club at several other Liverpool locations, decided he would like to open his own club. He had been impressed by a club he had visited on the Left Bank in Paris called Le Caveau, which was housed in an underground cellar with brick arches.
On his return to Liverpool he sought out similar premises in the city centre and found what he was looking for in Mathew Street, a narrow street with warehouses on one side and the Fruit Exchange on the other. It had previously been used for storage and even as an air raid shelter in Word War II.
The Beatles at the Cavern
1,500 Left Outside!
The cellar was painted, lighting was installed and a stage was built at the far end of the middle one of three tunnels. On Wednesday January 16th 1957 the Cavern Club opened for its first gig, with 600 people crammed inside – and 1,500 left outside. The headline act, the Merseysippi Jazzmen, are still performing today.
Alan Sytner ran the Cavern strictly as a jazz club but starting in 1957 he allowed skiffle groups to play, getting very annoyed if any of them tried to play rock ‘n’ roll. The Quarrymen skiffle group, precursor to the Beatles, first played the Cavern on a date no-one can pinpoint in mid-1957 and again on 7th August 1957, only weeks after John met Paul at the St. Peter’s Church Garden Fete in Woolton Village.
Get your copy of Debbie’s fascinating book on the story of The Cavern Club
Cavern Club – The Inside Story
This first-hand account of Debbie’s teen years frequenting and eventually helping to run the original Cavern Club is the authentic inside story of the Beatles launch pad, full of triumphs and failures – and surprise celebrity encounters.
£17.25Original price was: £17.25.£13.50Current price is: £13.50.
Brian Epstein in NEMS, where Raymond Jones asked for “My Bonnie”
Raymond Jones
RAYMOND ‘SPIKE’ JONES, having learned from his dad the best place to fish was wherever the fish are, pinned up a postcard on the upstairs notice board at Hessy’s Music Store. The place was as busy as ever, so his advertisement offering his services to any group looking for a rhythm guitarist or anyone interested in forming a group was sure to be seen by masses of people. He stepped back and nodded. The drawing he’d done of his Rosetti Solid 7 guitar wasn’t half-bad. The different shades of red coloured pencil he’d used to add texture and depth to the body of the guitar made the postcard really stand out.
“At least my time at the Art College wasn’t a complete waste,” he muttered under his breath. Then he turned and shouted, “Hey, thanks there, Jim.” And back, above all the noise, came Jim Gretty’s fluting tenor, “That’s all right lad, anything to help a fellow musician.”
Still smiling, he stood on the corner of Stanley Street and surveyed the mob of Saturday shoppers, then glanced up at the clock outside the Kardomah and saw it was almost three o’clock. He had twenty minutes before his bus was due and he looked at the few coins he had in his pocket, then across the street at NEMS.
Mersey Beat
Raymond Jones hadn’t got the new edition of Mersey Beat, yet. So he could read it on the bus home. That decided, he played matador with the traffic on Whitechapel and was just about to enter the store, when a smartly dressed young man strode out of the shop as if he owned the place. Spike took a quick step back and for the very briefest of moments the man looked at him intently with a quizzical smile on his face. “Do excuse me,” he said, “I’m late for an appointment.”
Then he disappeared in a cloud of after-shave. “Don’t mention it,” Spike muttered in his wake and made his way downstairs to the store’s jazz and popular-music record department in the basement. As usual the place was packed and knowing he didn’t have too much time he quickly went and stood in line and waited for a sales assistant to be free.
The girl at the record counter looked at him. “Yes, sir,” she said pleasantly. “What can we do to help you?” She tried to act just as she’d been schooled by Mr Brian, himself, and not be put off by the young man’s scruffy leather jacket and jeans. “Everybody,” she remembered, Mr Brian saying, “is an important potential customer and should always be treated as such. We must never, ever send anyone away empty-handed, if we can possibly help it. Satisfaction is all. That’s the NEMS way.”
The Beatles
“Er, have you got a record by The Beatles?” Spike asked. “Only, I heard Bob Wooler, the DJ, play it at Hambleton Hall, last Sunday and again at the Cav, Thursday lunchtime. He said it was from Germany. And I was wondering, if you’ve got it, can I have a listen, please?”
“My Bonnie”
“It’s called ‘My Bonnie’,” she said, smiling. “But, no, we don’t have it in stock, although you must be the eighth or ninth person today to come in and ask for it. Is it any good, like? Only, I haven’t heard it myself. But they’re fab, aren’t they, The Beatles?”
“Yeah, there’s no one can touch them, if you ask me.”
She pointed to the big poster for ‘Operation Big Beat’ pinned up on a nearby wall. “We’ve got tickets for that event, on sale, if you like?”
“No, thanks, very much. I’ve sort of got mine, already, like.”
In the true NEMS manner, she persisted. “Well, er, would you like me to order the record for you, then?”
“No, that’s okay, I only wanted a quick listen, but, er, I will take a Mersey Beat.” She handed him a copy from the top of the pile sitting on the counter and he handed her a threepenny bit. She smiled and he smiled back. “But, look, thanks for offering,” he said. Then he left.
A slim dark-haired young man in a smart suit came up and stood next to the young girl. “And what did scruffy want, Rita?”
“It was someone else asking for that new record by The Beatles, Mr Alistair. But he didn’t want to order it. He only wanted to have a listen.”
CODA| SOMETIME LATER
‘What’s this all about, Mr Epstein, sir?”
“Er Spike…?”
“My name’s Raymond, Raymond Jones.”
A shadow crossed over Brian Epstein’s face as he thought of the awful night, in Hamburg. He suppressed a shiver. “The thing is, Raymond, I…I really can’t thank you enough for what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything, Mr Epstein. Really, I didn’t.”
“But I was there, Raymond. I saw what happened with my own eyes. You kept it all from ending before it had ever really begun.”
“I’m sorry…I don’t follow.”
Bigger Than Elvis
“They’re going to be bigger than Elvis. The Beatles…John’s group…one day they’re going to be even bigger than Elvis Presley. I know it, Raymond. I see it so clearly. They have the talent…the¼”
Spike was on firmer ground here. “Yeah, they’re great, no one to touch them. But there’s hundreds of groups all round Merseyside…all of them dead set on beating The Beatles in the next Mersey Beat Popularity Poll.”
Charisma
“Yes, I write a column for Mersey Beat and know the editor, personally. And I’m very well aware of all the talent in Liverpool. It’s just that The Beatles are different. They’re special. They have something even more important than talent. They have charisma. One can’t take one’s eyes off of them. And as The Beatles become more and more famous, I want to ensure you’re a part of their story…forever.”
“I’m sorry, Mr Epstein, I still don’t follow.”
“I want to make you part of the legend, Raymond. One day I’ll tell the whole story. Write a book so people will know what really happened. And I’ll say you were there at the very beginning and that it was all down to you that I went out and discovered The Beatles.”
The Chants with The Beatles at Liverpool Town Hall on 10th July 1964
THE BEATLES BACK THE CHANTS/ SHADES AT THE CAVERN
Having been invited down to The Cavern by John and Paul, the Chants went to Mathew Street. They couldn’t get in to The Cavern!
“We went down there the following day and they wouldn’t let us in while they (The Beatles) were on,” said Joe Ankrah from the group. “Five black guys, standing outside The Cavern, which would have looked suspicious. So after they’d finished and everyone was coming out, they said we could come in then. The saving grace for us was that as we walked in, Paul remembered my name and said; ‘Joe, how are you?’ I told him I’d brought the band, and he was great. It was a really nice atmosphere.
“It was dark, the stage was lit and people were clearing up around us. He asked us to sing, so we started to sing ‘Duke Of Earl’. They were absolutely knocked dead, which was a buzz for us, because we’d been doing all of this rehearsing for twelve months and getting everything sharp without performing anywhere. It was refreshing to see people responding to what we were doing.
GO AND GET BRIAN EPSTEIN!
“Bob Wooler, the Cavern compere, was there and he heard us and said; ‘I must go and get Brian. So he ran down Mathew Street to NEMS to see Eppy, and then came back to us. Brian can’t come down now, but tell the boys not to speak to anyone or sign anything, and we were just bemused. The Beatles picked up their instruments and started playing. We were just happy to be playing with a band, as we were used to just singing together. I would start us off with the pitch and away we’d go.”
There was, however, one problem, and that was Brian Epstein. When Epstein arrived at The Cavern that night, he hadn’t realised that The Shades didn’t have musicians and objected to The Beatles providing the backing. However, after intervention from John and Paul, he was overruled and The Beatles backed The Shades.
JOHN AND PAUL INTRODUCED US
The Shades, who became The Chants, at The Cavern
“We found ourselves appearing at The Cavern that night and we turned up with these smart black shirts and suits. John or Paul said, ‘I’d like to introduce you all to some friends of ours, The Shades’, and then we walked on, wearing our dark glasses, our shades, being cool, all dressed in black, and we started singing. The place was in an uproar. We only had two microphones, with the lead singer on one, and the other four gathered around the second microphone, and doing our thing, and it was great. That’s where it all started.”
The Shades performed four songs that night: “Duke of Earl”, “A Thousand Stars”, “16 Candles” and “Come Go With Me”.
PAUL MCCARTNEY PLAYED PIANO
“I can remember going up to the Blue Angel after The Cavern”, Joe said, “and we did a few numbers with Paul playing the piano for us for Allan Williams.”
“After appearing with The Beatles, I signed with Eppy on behalf of the band, which didn’t mean much really, as we were under 21. But at least if people asked us to do anything, we could say no, because we were under contract.
PLAYED WITH THE BEATLES
“We played with The Beatles then a couple more times–once at The Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead on 15 October ‘62, and then La Scala in Runcorn on 16 October ‘62, which I remember because we went over the bridge to this little cinema. Then we played another couple of times with them.
“Lots of our friends were starting up groups, but we were ahead of them, and had worked so hard on our stage presence. We were rough, but I had to tell the others that we can’t be swearing on stage, and getting into arguments with them, but we had to watch what we said, how we said it. We once had a complaint from a member of the audience at the Playboy Club in London because one of us was sweating, and another one had different coloured socks than the others!”
INSPIRATION?
There weren’t many black groups around in the UK at the time, so where did they get their inspiration? Joe explained: “I watched a group called the Deep River Boys, who did all the moves on stage, dancing around the microphone and maybe a little more cabaret than us. We were a bit snobby about cabaret because we didn’t want to do that. However, artists like Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, or the original Drifters, were a great inspiration to us. Furthermore, I would say all the black American vocal groups like The Marcels, the Del-Vikings, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and so many more. They were all fantastic.”
The Chants with The Beatles at Liverpool Town Hall on 10th July 1964
With their career under the guidance of Brian Epstein, they should have had success, but it wasn’t to be. “We didn’t do much with Epstein really, because he was busy with The Beatles, Gerry and Cilla,” said Joe. They didn’t see them again until after they had come back from America in 1964, because they had this civic reception at the Town Hall. We were invited, and we were the only other band there. I’ve got the picture from the day to prove it, but the photo has never really been seen, maybe because it had black guys in it. It is hard to believe that it was happening back then, but we just accepted that was the way it was.
JUKE BOX JURY
The Beatles taped the episode of Juke BoxJury at the Empire Theatre between 2.30pm and 3.15pm on December 7, 1963. Juke Box Jury was a popular show hosted by David Jacobs in which panellists voted on whether forthcoming singles would be hits or misses. In the audience were members of The Beatles’ Northern Area Fan Club members. Juke Box Jury was broadcast later that evening between 6.05pm and 6.35pm, and was watched by an estimated 23 million people.
The first song to be judged was “I Could Write A Book” by The Chants, and this is how The Beatles rated it:
George: “It’s great. Enough plugs and they’ve got a hit.”
David Jacobs: “Are they being too generous?”
THE BEATLES VOTED IT A HIT
The Beatles unanimously voted the single a hit, but sadly, despite their support, it failed to achieve chart status. None of the group’s other records fared any better: their debut single, “I Don’t Care”, released in September 1963; “She’s Mine”, released in June 1964; and their last single with Pye, “Sweet Was The Wine”, from September 1964. Commenting on their period with Pye Records, Eddie Amoo commented, “They had no idea what to do with a black doo wop group. They just had no idea.”
The group never found record success despite further releases with Fontana, Page One, Decca and RCA. They toured with box office stars like Helen Shapiro, Bobby Rydell and The Searchers and went to Hamburg and played at the famous Star Club, where they were very popular. “All we had to do,” recalled Joe, “was play two sets of twenty minutes, whereas the other groups were playing three or four hours each night. We had a great time there and Manfred Weissleder was very good to us.”
THE REAL THING
The Real Thing
After they disbanded in 1975, Joey and Edmund Ankrah formed another group, OFANCHI, and enjoyed a degree of success on the television show New Faces. Eddie Amoo joined the Liverpool soul band The Real Thing, whose lineup included his brother Chris Amoo. They found UK chart success in June 1976 with “You To Me Are Everything”, which reached number 1 in the UK and number 28 on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart. Their follow-up UK hit, “Can’t Get By Without You”, reached number 2. They released a number of successful albums, including one named after the Toxteth area of Liverpool, their home turf.
The Chants were a fantastic group who should have made it big, especially with the help of The Beatles. Look them up on YouTube and listen to them. Fantastic!
They are among the “Fab 104” people who featured in my second book, “The Fab one hundred and Four: The Evolution of The Beatles”.
David Bedford
GET YOUR COPY OF THE FAB ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR NOW
The Fab One Hundred and Four: The Evolution of The Beatles
The Fab one hundred and Four: The Evolution of The Beatles tells how the four Quarrymen became the Fab Four of John, Paul, George and Ringo.
£49.00Original price was: £49.00.£20.00Current price is: £20.00.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO SEE THE BEATLES AT THE CAVERN?
“I couldn’t get enough of the Cavern,” says Cavernite and author Debbie Greenberg, who saw The Beatles at The Cavern for every performance. “I would go there for every lunchtime session from Tuesday to Friday. There were two sessions, from 12 to 1pm and 1.15pm to 2.15pm. The later one was always the best – and then I would go back again at night for more.
Debbie Greenberg with Paul McCartney
“We were greedy for our fix of non-stop beat music. The club didn’t look like much from the outside. After dodging the fruit lorries delivering to the Fruit Exchange opposite and the lunchtime shoppers, we queued to get in through a small door in the wall of a towering brick warehouse at 10 Mathew Street.
DOWN INTO THE CAVERN
“Once we descended a steep flight of well-worn stone steps to a small landing, where a few more steps led to a man seated at a small wooden table taking the entrance fees. I paid a shilling to become a member of the Cavern Club entitling me to an admission discount at each visit – which in my case was most days. The heat and noise would send your senses reeling as you stepped through those cellar arches. It was enthralling and unbearably hot.
“The Cavern’s identity began to change at the start of the new decade. Rock ‘n’ roll slowly replaced jazz and the Cavern became the heart that have Mersey its beat.
THE BEATLES DEBUT
“We watched the Beatles debut at the Cavern at the lunchtime session on 9th February 1961. We were blown away. The Beatles were different, their music was incredible, their appearance raunchy, their energy infectious. They just oozed excitement.
OFF TO HAMBURG
The Beatles in Hamburg
“Six week later on 23rd of March, after a lunchtime session at the Cavern, they jumped on a train at Liverpool’s Lime Street Station on their way to Hamburg for the second time, having previously played there in 1960. This time they sped off out of our lives for four months. We missed them but still went down to the Cavern to watch other groups, like Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Swinging Blue Genes, the Remo Four, the Big Three, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes and many more. They were all fabulous groups but they weren’t the Beatles.
BACK HOME AGAIN
“News soon spread around Liverpool that the Beatles were back from Hamburg and were to be guests of the Swinging Blue Genes at the Cavern on Friday 14th July 1961 for their welcome home appearance.
“Everybody wanted to see them. They were already by far the best group in Liverpool. Everything about them was exciting and intoxicating. They seemed to be infused with even more vigour and passion than before. The transformation was unbelievable, with their gyrating hips, humourous banter on stage and sexy outfits – clad in tight black leather with black Cuban heeled boots.”
The Beatles at the Cavern
“Their repertoire was now wide-ranging, making them stand out from other bands. Their sound was unique and addictive, their energy palpable. Liverpool had never seen or heard anything quite like them. Sue and I made sure we were at the Cavern for every one of their performances after that. They appeared every Wednesday night and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday lunchtime.
“The Hamburg connection proved the ultimate testing ground for many Liverpool groups. On some nights, groups would be expected to play at the Top Ten Club or Kaiserkeller or later on the Star Club for up to seven hours with only s ten-minute break every hour.
“Those sessions transformed Liverpool groups into totally professional outfits. None more so that the Beatles. It turned them from talented amateurs into the band of bands, as Klaus Voormann described them. The Cavern was soon packed every time they played. Bob Wooler booked them and they received £5 for their debut (£1 each). At that time, Stuart Sutcliffe was playing bass guitar, although not very well, and he would play with his back to the audience so no one could see how he was playing.”
This first-hand account of Debbie’s teen years frequenting and eventually helping to run the original Cavern Club is the authentic inside story of the Beatles launch pad, full of triumphs and failures – and surprise celebrity encounters.
£17.25Original price was: £17.25.£13.50Current price is: £13.50.
Poster for the 60th Anniversary of The Cavern Club
On 16th January 1957, The Cavern Club opened. Discover a rare photograph and the inside story of the world-famous Cavern Club.
“The above is the poster that Tony Booth produced for the Cavern Club during the summer of 2016 in preparation for the club’s 60th anniversary celebrations in January the following year. It really showcases the range of styles and creativity of a unique, unsung lettering artist who certainly played an important part in the marketing of music history. Posters and flyers were the social media of the sixties and they helped create the legends of the era.”
Debbie Greenberg saw The Beatles at every performance in the ’60s at The Cavern, before her father went on to buy The Cavern. In her book, Cavern Club: The Inside Story, she talks about the opening of the Cavern Club in January 1957.
The Opening of The Cavern Club: 16th January 1957
“Alan Sytner ran The Cavern strictly as a jazz club but starting in 1957 he allowed skiffle groups to play, getting very annoyed if any of them tried to play rock ‘n’ roll. The Quarrymen Skiffle Group, precursor to the Beatles, first played the Cavern on a date no-one can pinpoint in mid 1957 and again on 7th August 1957, only weeks after John Lennon met Paul at St. Peter’s Church Garden fete in Woolton Village.
John upset Sytner by playing rock ‘n’ roll numbers. Paul didn’t appear with them, though he’d just been recruited. He was away at Scout Camp with his brother Mike in Hathersage, Derbyshire. While at camp, Mike broke his arm when he fell out of an oak tree he was climbing.”
Rare, Unpublished Photograph of The Cavern
Debbie recently uncovered the following photograph of Joyce Lee, showing The Cavern Club in early 1957.
Rare photo of The Cavern in 1957
“In 1959, Alan moved to London and left his father, Dr. Joseph Sytner, to run the club until a buyer could be found. Ray McFall was a clerk with the Sytner family’s accountants and occasionally sat in at the Cavern cash desk. His offer of £2,750 to buy the club was accepted, and he officially took over the Cavern on 31st October 1959.”
The 60th Anniversary of The Cavern Club Opening
On the 60th anniversary of the Cavern Club in 2017, Debbie and her husband Nigel met with the star of the night, 70s pop star Gilbert O’Sullivan, who played a fantastic set in front of an exclusive packed Cavern crowd.
Debbie Greenberg, Gilbert O’Sullivan and Nigel Greenberg
Debbie also posed with former Beatles Fan Club Secretary, Freda Kelly.
Freda Kelly with Debbie Greenberg
The Inside Story of The Cavern
To discover this and so many more amazing stories about the famous Cavern Club, read Debbie’s book:
Cavern Club: BBC Radio Merseyside, still the most popular regional radio station in the UK, launched on 22nd November 1967. Debbie Greenberg remembers:
The Cavern Club
On 22nd November 1967, the Cavern hosted the launch party of BBC Radio Merseyside on the Mersey ferry, Royal Daffodil. The boat sailed at noon from the Pier Head. Dad (Cavern owner Alf Geoghegan) was the first person to be interviewed on Radio Merseyside by Keith Macklin.
An icy wind was blowing as we sat shivering on a wooden seat on the ferry’s top deck. It was slightly warmer on the enclosed lower deck where Keith and DJ Tony Wolfe played sixties music. Local groups – the Detours, Excelles, Tremors and King Bees – entertained us with live music, as guests drank and danced to keep warm.
This first-hand account of Debbie’s teen years frequenting and eventually helping to run the original Cavern Club is the authentic inside story of the Beatles launch pad, full of triumphs and failures – and surprise celebrity encounters.
£17.25Original price was: £17.25.£13.50Current price is: £13.50.
