The Beatles: Rock Band / 09.09.09

Think of the early Beatles in Liverpool, and you have to imagine yourself packed into a sweaty lunchtime crowd at the Cavern Club. Those rough and wild shows are part of Beatles legend; Paul would later say it was some of the most fun the group ever had. Located on Matthew Street, the Cavern wasn’t the only Liverpool venue the group frequented, but it was the one most famously associated with them.

The Cavern had no ventilation, no carpet and definitely no glamour. It didn’t even acquire a liquor license until 1967. If you went there wearing a new pair of shoes, they’d look like an old muddy pair of shoes before the show was out. One club regular noted that the girls who frequented the Cavern were a little bit tougher than the ones at other clubs. In other words, it was quite literally a rock & roll stomping ground.

The Cavern’s first brush with Beatles history came on August 7, 1957 when John Lennon played as part of the Quarry Men (Though a group member, Paul McCartney was away at scout camp.). Already getting into the spirit, John broke into Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley tunes, prompting some disdain from the folk purists in the crowd. In 1960 the club featured one of its first beat groups, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, with a drummer named Ringo Starr. The Beatles made their debut in February 1961 and would play the club a whopping 292 times.

Though The Beatles moved onto far bigger venues, the original Cavern survived into the ’70s, and some of the era’s hitmakers played there. One night Boston Pops maestro Arthur Fiedler showed up to pay respects and wound up joining the band onstage with his violin. In 1973 the Cavern was earmarked as the site of a ventilation shaft for the new Liverpool underground train. It closed in May of that year – ironically, the shaft was never built &ndash but a new Cavern opened in April 1984. Sharing 75% of the same space, the new Cavern is even deeper than the original – 30 steps down from the street instead of the former 18. Paul McCartney famously played there with his solo band in late 1999, and countless fans of The Beatles have since walked through the doors.