Did the Beatles Make the Cavern or Did the Cavern Make the Beatles?
Many clubs have played a significant part in shaping popular music — Birdland and CBGB’s in New York; Whisky-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles; Ronnie Scott’s, the Marquee, the 100 Club in London; the Armadillo in Austin, Texas; Tipitina’s in New Orleans; Tootsie’s in Nashville — but none of them are as well-known or as influential as the Cavern. Without any fear of contradiction, I can say that the Cavern is the most famous club in the world and a letter simply addressed to ‘The Cavern, Liverpool’ will reach its destination.
This is the story of the Cavern.
The Cavern started as a jazz club in 1957 and for some years, the Merseysippi Jazz Band ruled the roost. They and their fans had little time for anything but jazz and it is fascinating to follow the changes that have taken place over the years. At first the jazz fans tolerated skiffle but hated rock & roll, but by 1961 the new manager knew that was the way forward. The Beatles had come back supercharged from Hamburg and offered a totally different and very exciting sound, but it didn’t take long for the other bands to realize that they would have to have radical transformations as well.
It wasn’t enough to do a cover version of an American hit, you also had to put your own personality on it. The beat groups brought this distinctiveness to their performances when they made records in 1963: you can obviously tell the Beatles straight away but that also applies to Gerry and the Pacemakers and several other bands as well. The Beatles, the Searchers and the Big Three all recorded fine versions of “Some Other Guy” and they don’t sound like each other at all.
By: Spencer Leigh
Source: Cuepoint
