Mersey Beat - The Cavern

The crowds soon flocked to see this 'new' rock 'n roll venue

Standing at 10 Mathew Street was a fruit warehouse which had a sign outside which read 'Basement For Sale Or Let'. Alan Lionel Sytner was having a drink with a friend, Peter Morris, in The Grapes pub opposite, when Alan revealed how he would love to replicate 'Le Caveau de la Huchette' which was a basement Bohemian jazz club he had seen in Paris.With a passion for the jazz music and venues he had seen on teenage holidays to France he had already started the 21 Jazz Club in Croxteth Road, Liverpool 8 when aged 21 with £400 from the proceeds of a maturing life insurance policy. He also ran the West Coast Jazz Club at the Temple in Dale Street which had proved a flourishing venture and he was looking for something similar in the city centre. Upon leaving The Grapes they saw the advertisement for the basement and in a short time, with his father's help, he bought the premises and, furthermore, he took the bold step of not having a drinks licence, which made administration easier and the club safer.

The Cavern opened on the 16th of January 1957 with the 'Merseysippi Jazz Band', the 'Wall City Jazzmen', the 'Ralph Watmough Jazz Band' and the 'Coney Island Skiffle Group'. A single white bulb lighted the doorway into The Cavern and eighteen stone steps led you down into the cellar which was divided by archways into three long, dimly-lit tunnels. The walls were painted black and there were no curtains or decorations. The first tunnel area was used to collect money and was also utilised as a cloakroom, with a room at the end which adjoined the stage that served as the bands' dressing room. The middle tunnel was the largest and contained the stage itself and rows of wooden chairs. All the lighting was concentrated onto the stage and, again, consisted of white bulbs. The third tunnel area was used for dancing. Over 1,000 people turned up for the opening, although only 600 could enter the club. Alan was delighted at the response and quite rightly regarded this as magnificent publicity. Primarily a jazz club which played host to occasional Wednesday evening 'Skiffle Sessions', it was at these sessions that 'The Quarrymen' performed before their first advertised performance on the 7th of August 1957. John Lennon lived approximately 500 yards up the same road as Alan Sytner and he had heard them perform at the Lee Park Golf Club on Childwall Valley Road where he played golf. Starting their set at The Cavern playing skiffle, John Lennon couldn't resist playing some rock 'n roll which resulted with Alan passing a note on to stage to John which read 'Cut out the bloody rock 'n' roll.' Alan detested rock 'n roll.

 

By 1959, The Cavern, despite its membership of 25,000, was in financial difficulties, with Alan having a 'playboy lifestyle' and, claiming he was the victim of bad advice, he moved to London leaving the running of the club to his father. His father eventually decided to sell the club to 32 year old Ray McFall who worked for his accountant and who had also acted as a part time cashier at The Cavern. Ray McFall purchased the club on the 1st of October 1959 for £2,750.
It was in 1960 that Ray McFall realised that a change in music taste was taking place and even though he had fined Rory Storm for switching to rock 'n roll during a 'skiffle session' he decided to take a chance and pioneer lunchtime rock sessions together with the once a week Wednesday beat night.The evening sessions had started up on Wednesday the 25th of May 1960 when two of the top local bands, 'Cass & the Cassanovas' and 'Rory Storm & the Hurricanes', with Ringo Starr on drums, performed for the the first rock 'n roll evening. This was Ray's attempt to lure audiences from other out of town venues that he had seen thriving as more and more youngsters in their thousands had started following their favourite groups around. Gradually, although still popular, the jazz sessions audiences became smaller and by March 1961 all lunchtime sessions were now rock sessions. Ray realised that a new era was taking shape and he put into operation plans to convert The Cavern into a full-time Beat club.
It was early 1961 that Tuesday became the 'Bluegenes', later to become 'The Swinging Blue Jeans', guest night, in which they presented some of the top rock 'n' roll groups in the area, and their first 'guest night' on Tuesday the 21st of March 1961 featured 'Dale Roberts & the Jaywalkers', the 'Remo Four' and 'The Beatles'.  

Early days at The Cavern

It is amazing that such a foul-smelling, dirty, damp and cramped cellar turned into the sweaty furnace of rock 'n roll that became the crucible for the Liverpool sound that swept the world.
Logistically it wasn't the best of venues for groups to play at and audiences could find nicer places to watch music in, free from rats, but The Cavern atmosphere was unique. The walls would be drenched with sweat and it would drop like rain from the ceiling as there was no ventilation and the toilets emptied into a cesspit which would often overflow. The smell of San Izel disinfectant was pungent in an attempt to counteract the smell of the toilets and if you added that to the smell of rotting fruit, the fact that group members and the audience smoked in those days, plus the odour from the large number of people in such a small space, that 'Cavern smell' would stay on your clothes like a 'badge'. No other club had that and the regulars were proud to wear it.

'Noisy in here isn't it?'

'The Beatles' began their own series of resident nights on Wednesday the 2nd of August 1961, and made a total of 292 appearances until their final one on the 3rd of August, 1963 for which they received a fee of £300. The support acts that night were 'The Mersey Beats', 'The Escorts', 'The Roadrunners', 'The Sapphires' and 'Johnny Ringo & the Colts'. However by the time 'The Beatles' had outgrown the venue and were then performing worldwide, the attendance figures had dropped and, faced with a £3,500 repair bill to update the drains, McFall was forced to declare bankruptcy, selling the club in 1966.

See also : - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2018/02/mersey-beat-casbah.html