The place where St John's Hall was once situated |
St John's Hall was situated opposite Bootle Town Hall on Oriel Road but has since been demolished.
'The Beatles' had just performed a triumphant show at Litherland Town Hall on the 27th of December 1960 and afterwards just two promoters managed to get backstage to book more appearances by the band.
One was Brian Kelly, who ran Beekay Promotions and had promoted the event, and the other was Dave Forshaw, a 17-year-old music fan who was putting on events in Liverpool, who was there at the invitation of 'Beekay'. He raced backstage and managed to book 'The Beatles' for three dates, each a month apart, at St John's Hall. For this first one they were paid £6 10s (£6.50) and since the venue was almost full on the night, with an extra 192 fans showing up to see them in their leather gear, Forshaw had no trouble recouping his outlay. He recalls how 'The Beatles' were so different and that the audience were entranced by them.
He also had renamed the venue the Blue Penguin Club enabling it to have a membership and thus could be a licensed venue which could also hold dances on a Sunday.
'The Merseybeats' had a regular Monday night residency at St John's Hall, called the 'Merseybeats Guest Night' and 'The Beatles' were actually their guests one night in 1962.
Rory Storm appeared there on the 15th of September 1961 with 'The Beatles' appearing on five occasions in all. The first on the 6th of January 1961, then the 3rd of February 1961, with the 'Terry Owen Four' and on the 3rd of March 1961. Two further dates in 1962 were on the 2nd of March with 'The Tenabeats' and finally, after performing a lunch time show at The Cavern, on the 30th of July they made their last appearance at The Blue Penguin Club with 'The Sinners' as guests of 'The Merseybeats' on their Rock show night.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2017/09/mersey-beat-blair-hall.html
No comments:
Post a Comment