Mersey Beat - The Aintree Institute

Aintree Institute

 

The Aintree Institute, founded in the 1890s by Sir William Pickles Hartley was a popular jive club in the early 1960s. It was situated in Longmoor Lane behind the Black Bull club, not far from Aintree Racecourse where the annual Grand National takes place, but was demolished in 2007. Promoter Brian 'Beekay' Kelly hosted concerts at the Institute, as well as Lathom Hall and Litherland Town Hall, billed as "sensational jive dances". From the 19th of August until their final appearance on the 27th of January 1962 'The Beatles' appeared here 31 times. The fact that girls preferred watching 'The Beatles' rather than dancing, and were sometimes led on by John Lennon 'winking' at them, caused jealousy at times among their 'Teddy boy' partners. This would quite often lead to fights breaking out with wooden chairs being hurled in the ensuing mayhem.

The Beatles on stage at Aintree Intitute

Although the gigs they did for Brian Kelly at Aintree Institute became the stuff of legends, Brian Epstein stopped them appearing there after feeling insulted when Kelly tried to pay them their £15 fee in coins. Epstein stormed off demanding 'send me a cheque'.

Tony Sanders the drummer for 'Billy Kramer and the Coasters' remembers coming off stage at Aintree Institute. "We saw these guys coming on next. Lennon wore a leather jacket and McCartney had a jacket that looked as though he'd been sleeping in it for months, but when they kicked off, it was unbelievable. They were all smoking cigarettes and that tickled us because it went right against convention. They were so cheeky with it. Instead of trying to look good, they didn’t give a damn. They played 'Wooden Heart' with Pete Best on bass drum and hi-hat. He was only using one hand and he was smoking with the other. We thought this was tremendous. We were all smoking the next time we went on stage, but it didn't go with our short haircuts and clean boy-next-door image."

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2018/01/mersey-beat-litherland-town-hall.html