The Heart Of Liverpool, The Cavern Lives On

By Sharon Henry

PHOTO CREDIT: Alisia Luther - Shutterstock.com

Liverpool’s cavern club is the cradle of British pop music. Impressively, years after its beginnings, it survives and thrives as a contemporary, bustling music venue.

For almost 70 years, before, during and after The Beatles this legendary cellar has seen its share of setbacks yet has played a role in each epoch of music, from 1950s jazz to 21st century indie rock. It has become the most famous music club in the world.

On Wednesday, 16th January 1957, The Cavern Club opened in a warehouse cellar at 10, Mathew Street, Liverpool for the first time.

Owner Alan Sytner named the club after the Paris jazz club, Le Caveau De La Huchette and planned for it to become the top jazz venue outside London.

Top of the bill on the opening night was the Merseysippi Jazz Band supported by the Wall City Jazzmen, Ralph Watmough Jazz Band and the Coney Island Skiffle Group.

Six hundred jazz fans crammed inside and hundreds more queued in Mathew Street, hoping to get into the club.

Richard Starkey (later known as Ringo Starr) is thought to have made his debut at the Cavern Club, playing the drums with the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. Skiffle, the folk style music with a rock’n’roll influence was played by teenage groups using cheap guitars and domestic utensils. The skiffle craze started in 1956 when British skiffle King Lonnie Donegan released the single ‘Rock Island Line’. The Quarry Men Skiffle Group made their first advertised appearance at the

PHOTO CREDIT: Julie Mayfeng - Shutterstock.com

Cavern Club. Band members included John Lennon, Len Garry, Rod Davies, Colin Hanton, Pete Shotton and Eric Griffiths. During the performance, Alan Sytner told John Lennon to ‘cut out the rock’! Paul McCartney joined the Quarry Men in October 1957. During the 1960s, other Cavern regulars included Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, the Searchers, Cilla Black, the Four Most, the Swinging Blue Genes and the Merseybeats and of course, the Beatles led a Liverpudlian takeover of British pop.

Thursday evenings became Modern Jazz Night and this night was the debut performance at the Cavern by modern British jazz performer Ronnie Scott. Together with Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott formed The Jazz Couriers who produced some of the finest modern jazz records of the 1950s.

Over the years the Club has extended to have a live lounge, where local artists can perform from 11am along with Beatle Tribute shows in the evening.

With a wide range of Cavern and rock memorabilia on display, there’s live music every night of the week with free admission at all times.

Opposite the Cavern is its 3rd venue, the Cavern Pub where they present the very best musicians from Liverpool’s vibrant and legendary live music scene. From solo artists to bands who play great original versions of classic songs from the 50s to the present day. From The Beatles to Oasis, Led Zeppelin to Stevie Wonder. And Finally, The Cavern Restaurant offers the perfect dining experience for visitors both day and night. The Restaurant operates over two floors and offers a wide choice of mouthwatering dishes. Enjoy succulent meats expertly cooked, traditional English Fish and Chips and the famous local-favourite ‘Scouse’. Using much locally sourced produce, our menu caters for vegetarians, vegans and offers gluten-free options too.

In more recent times, Indie Rock band The Coral which formed in 1996 from Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside played regularly on a Sunday Afternoon at the Cavern. They became the house band on the graveyard shift, playing to four or five customers.

They emerged in 2002 and released their debut album, The Coral, which earned them a Mercury Music Prize. They went on to support Supergrass, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys and The Manic Street Preachers before headlining their own tours. After 26 years in the music business, they are still releasing albums and can be seen doing an intimate, sell-out gig at the Bootleg Social in Blackpool on Friday 8th July 2022.

On the 21st May 2022 at the Cavern you can see a trio of local lads Joe Symes and the Loving Kind performing their latest E.P. ‘A Place to Call Our Own’. A mixture of Easy Listening, Psychedelic and Rock. Their influences include Paul Weller, Ocean Colour Scene and Noel Gallagher and they are described as ‘Scousedelia’ by Alan Mcgee of Creation Records. They are soon to be one of the most exciting bands to come out of Liverpool.