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.
F
or 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. 206
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
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
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 www.lancmag.com
