Beatles' Cavern club debut marked by 50th anniversary celebrations
When they first took to the stage at the Cavern club on 9 February 1961 – 50 years ago today – they were a ragtag bunch of skinny Scousers looking for laughs. But that first gig in the Liverpool venue was at the start of an extraordinary journey that would see the band become, as John Lennon once put it, "more popular than Jesus".
Fans are planning to gather at the basement club to mark the half century since that initial appearance. Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and drummer Pete Best – replaced in 1962 by Ringo Starr – made a total of 292 appearances at the Mathew Street venue, the last coming on 3 August 1963.
One of the lucky few at their first performance was Alex McKechnie, then a 16-year-old message boy in a printing factory. "It was atmospheric though not very crowded," said McKechnie, now a director of the annual Mathew Street festival. "They were sarcastic, always acting the goat and cracking jokes."...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
Fans are planning to gather at the basement club to mark the half century since that initial appearance. Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and drummer Pete Best – replaced in 1962 by Ringo Starr – made a total of 292 appearances at the Mathew Street venue, the last coming on 3 August 1963.
One of the lucky few at their first performance was Alex McKechnie, then a 16-year-old message boy in a printing factory. "It was atmospheric though not very crowded," said McKechnie, now a director of the annual Mathew Street festival. "They were sarcastic, always acting the goat and cracking jokes."...