In an era today when multi-channel television, the internet and computer games fight for our attention it’s hard to understand the importance of music to teenagers lives in the 1960’s, when none of the technological wonders that amuse us today existed.
Music’s affect on popular culture is arguably something that only happened with the arrival of Elvis Presley in the 1950’s - before that it was just something to dance to and nothing else – people didn’t wear it on t-shirts or write it on their school exercise books!
The 1960’s saw a pop band emerge that would transform the whole music industry, the way music sounded and how it impacted on our culture in terms of fashion and attitudes. There was nothing like this band before them and there will probably never be anything like them again – ever. They were The Beatles – four lads from Liverpool who shook the world.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison began life performing in the house of drummer Pete Best’s in West Derby Village. It wasn’t until they started playing at the Cavern Club on Mathew Street in the city centre that they really started to be noticed – now with new drummer Ringo Starr.
The Cavern mostly still exists today (partially rebuilt) – it’s a dark, damp, hot and noisy club in a cellar – perfect for the type of fast rock and roll that The Beatles began their careers playing. Lots of the other famous names of the day performed at The Cavern.
With their increasing local popularity they were soon signed up to a record company by manager Brain Epstein and in 1962 recorded their first single “Love Me Do” which started what became known as ‘Beatlemania’ – a huge popularity and fascination that had never been seen before or since.
Within a year of leaving the Cavern Club they had become a global phenomenon – creating masterpiece records that still sell in their millions today. They have sold over 1 billion records and CD’s and have become the most loved and remembered group of musicians ever and it all started in a cellar in Liverpool.
Read more about the Beatles at the Cavern
The Cavern Club Official Site - (History Page)
The Savage Young Beatles – Photo Archive
Sixties City – The Beatles and Merseybeat
Strawberry Walrus’s - MerseyBeat
Strawberry Walrus’s – Cavern Club
The Beatles – Official Site
Mathew Street Live Webcam
BBC – Cavern Memories
Cavern Timeline
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