The Beatles At The Cavern
all copy those American
imports that hadn’t been released in this
country, so it gave us a more international,
or American, feel,” explains Tony
Waddington. “We did play in a very rhythm
and blues style and when we travelled
across the country it just wasn’t like that.
Kids liked a diff erent
kind of thing. They
liked Cliff Richard.”
By mid-August
1960, the bandformerly known as
The Quarrymen were
playing seven-hour
sets each night at the
Indra Club, just off
Hamburg’s notorious
Reeperbahn. By now,
they were called The
Beatles, had recruited
Lennon’s art student
friend Stuart Sutcliff e
on bass and added
drummer Pete Best.
In October,
they moved to the
Kaiserkeller, where
they continued to play
to raucous audiences, often consisting
of gangsters, prostitutes and inebriated
seamen. The intense work schedule had
transformed them into a tight and dynamic
live act. By the time they debuted at The
Cavern in a lunchtime session on 9 FebruaryBy the time they debuted at The Cavern
in a lunchtime session on 9 February 1961,
The Beatles were a band to be reckoned with MARKAN
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IMAGES1961, they were a band to be reckoned with.
McFall wasted no time in re-booking the
group, this time for an evening performance
on 21 March 1961.
After another intensive three-month
residency in Hamburg, they were back
onstage at The Cavern on 14 July to play
a long series of resident lunchtime and
evening slots.BLACK VELVET
By now, Sutcliff e had left the band and
McCartney had moved from guitar to
bass. Lunchtime sessions at The Cavern
strengthened the bond between Lennon
and McCartney. John, Paul and George in
particular would spend entire days together,
sometimes at The Grapes, the pub directly
opposite The Cavern, or The White Star,
where they drank ‘black velvet’, pints of
cider mixed with Guinness.
Their latest trip to Hamburg had
resulted in a shift in style. The band were
now dressed in black leather jackets and
leather jeans with
cowboy boots or
winklepickers.
“We had a bit more
money the secondCilla Black having a lorra
lorra laughs with a friend
at The Cavern in April 1963