Mersey Beat - The Institute, Neston

Built in 1903, the building was to serve as a Red Cross hospital in WW1, and it was on the 2nd of June 1960 that 'The Beatles' made their first appearance here at The Institute, Hinderton Road, Neston, Wirral together with 'Gerry and The Pacemakers'. It was to be their first advertised headline appearance anywhere. The crowds came out as usual to see the ladies walk to Church followed by tea as they had since 1814. The tea was at Neston Institute and, after the speeches, the flowers and staffs were cleared and the youth of Neston gathered for the evening’s entertainment. Maybe there was some local disappointment, because the regular group, 'Cass and his Cassanovas', had successfully auditioned to go on tour with Billy Fury, and Neston had to accept the runners-up, a little-known group called 'The Silver Beetles'. From this date 'The Silver Beetles' played six consecutive Thursday night shows at The Institute which is now Neston Civic Hall. These dates had been arranged by Allan Williams while the group had been on tour in Scotland, and were promoted by Les Dodd's Paramount Enterprises.

Les, who also ran the Grosvenor Ballroom in Wallasey, had run events, usually ballroom dancing, at The Institute since 1936, and had only recently begrudgingly started booking rock 'n' roll acts there. He paid 'The Silver Beetles' £10 for their appearance, from which they gave Allan Williams £1.

Interestingly, although they commonly used the name 'The Silver Beetles' around this time as promoted by Allan Williams, the Heswall And Neston News And Advertiser published a brief review of the night, which stated: "A Liverpool rhythm group, The Beatles, made their debut at Neston Institute on Thursday night". This suggests that although the group were operating under a range of different names at the time, the interview given to this reporter put the record straight, they were 'The Beatles' with an 'A' in their name. Some fifteen years later, John Lennon called this 'possibly the first review of the Beatles ever.'

In the early 1960s like a lot of other venues at the time, although it was in a rural area, this was a particularly rough place to play and a 16-year-old boy was brutally beaten up outside the Hall at one of The Beatles shows and later died as a result. 

'The Beatles' last performance at The Institute was on the 7th of July 1960.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2017/10/mersey-beat-brockman-hall-st-johns.html