St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000 of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census.
Historically a part of Lancashire, the area grew during the 18th and 19th century as a significant centre for coal mining and glassmaking.
The Beatles made their first lunchtime appearance at the club on Tuesday 21 February 1961.
From 1961 to 1963 The Beatles made 292 appearances at the club, with their last occurring on 3 August 1963, a month after the band recorded "She Loves You" and just six months before the Beatles' first trip to the U.S. At the time, Brian Epstein promised the club's owners that the Beatles would return someday, but it was a promise that was never fulfilled. By this time, "Beatlemania" was sprouting across England, and the small club could no longer satisfy audience demand for the group.
During 1962, The Hollies took The Beatles' slot at the Cavern Club.
In the decade that followed, a wide variety of popular acts appeared at the club including The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Elton John, The Who and John Lee Hooker. Future star Cilla Black worked as the hat-check girl at The Cavern in her pre-fame days. A recording studio, "Cavern Sound" opened in the basement of an adjoining building, run by Nigel Greenberg and Peter Hepworth.
The club closed in March 1973, and was filled in during construction work on the Merseyrail underground rail loop. Jan Akkerman with Dutch group Focus were the last to play The Cavern a few days before the club was shut down in May 1973.
In April 1984 the club was taken over by Liverpool F.C. player Tommy Smith in association with Royal Life. Occupying 50% of the original site, it was re-built with many of the same bricks that had been used in the original club.
The new design was to resemble the original as closely as possible. This was a difficult period of massive economic and political change in and around Liverpool and the club only survived until 1989, when it came under financial pressures and closed for 18 months. In 1991, two friends - school teacher Bill Heckle and Liverpool cabbie Dave Jones - reopened the club.
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They still run the club today and are now the longest running owners in the club's history. Despite being a world famous tourist spot, the club continues to function primarily as a live music venue, although they do employ a DJ on a Friday and Saturday night. The music policy varies from 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s classic pop music to indie, rock and modern chart music.
On 14 December 1999, former Beatle Paul McCartney returned to the New Cavern Club stage to play his last gig of 1999 publicising his new album Run Devil Run.
The Cavern Club is still open as one of the UK's most famous venues. It has around 40 live bands performing every week; both tribute and original bands, although the majority perform their own material. The back room of the Cavern is the most frequently used location for live bands and this mainly plays host to young up and coming groups playing original material.
The front room of the Cavern is the main tourist attraction, where people come to have their photograph taken on the famous Cavern stage, with the
In November 2008 a campaign to have Gary Glitter's brick removed from the wall of fame was successful, but was noted by a brass plaque erected near where it was. The plaque informs that the bricks of two former Cavern Club performers (Glitter and Jonathan King) have been removed.
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN ON THESE GALLON CLUB
Here are some pics from other trips to Liverpool.
