1957 DECEMBER
Saturday 7 December Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool
A slightly more prestigious Saturday-night booking.
Friday 10 January 1958 New Clubmoor Hall, Norris Green, Liverpool
The Quarry Men were originally booked for a dance the previous night at Wilson Hall, Garston, but promoter Charlie McBain switched the engagement.
Friday 24 January Cavern Club, Liverpool
Thursday 6 February Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool
This date almost certainly marked the first meeting of 14year-old George Harrison with the Quarry Men. George
himself remembers seeing them for the first time at this venue although drummer Colin Hanton recalls that George was introduced to them one night at the Morgue Skiffle Cellar (see 13 March), and George's mother remembered that they met in a local chip shop. Pete Shotton (who had long since left the Quarry Men) reckons that the lads, led by George's school friend Paul McCartney, made their way over to the Harrisons' council house at 25 Upton Green, Speke, and met him there.
Thursday 13 March The Morgue Skiffle Cellar, 'Balgownie', Oakhill Park, Broadgreen, Liverpool
The opening night of a club run by 18-year-old Alan Caldwell who had his own group, Al Caldwell's Texans (with, from 25 March 1959, Ringo Starr on drums). Caldwell later took the stage name Rory Storm, and his Texans became the Hurricanes. Several local groups, including the Texans and the Quarry Men, played from 7.30 on the opening night of this aptly named club, situated in the cellar of an enormous Victorian house at 25 Oakhill Park, latterly a home for retired nurses. It held 100 people and had no facilities. A single bare, blue bulb and one white fluorescent strip light provided the only source of illumination, and one electric fan supplied the only "fresh" air. Not surprisingly, because of the illegality and danger in holding meetings in such an apparently decrepit environment, its existence was short-lived. On 1 April police halted the proceedings and on 22 April the venue closed for ever. Club nights at the Morgue cellar took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though no records exist to indicate which groups played when. One can safely assume, though, that the Quarry Men attended on at least a handful of occasions.
Saturday 20 December Upton Green, Speke, Liverpool
if regular, paid, bookings had dried up, the Quarry Men could always be called upon to provide free and willing entertainment at family functions. Between 1957 and 1959 they played at several such affairs, although only one date – this, at the wedding reception of George Harrison's brother Harry, and his bride Irene McCann, at the Harrison household, can be positively researched.
Thursday I January 1959 Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool
Not a Charlie McBain promotion but the rather belated Christmas 1958 party of the Speke Bus Depot Social Club. Harry Harrison, George's father, was chairman of the club, hence the booking of the Quarry Men for this afternoon affair. Fortunately, the lads were all on school holidays so there was no need for truancy. 16