Sample text from The Cavern by Spencer Leigh

THE CAVERN - THE MOST FAMOUS CLUB IN THE WORLD
by Spencer Leigh

Sample Text

February 9th 1961
The Beatles made their first Cavern appearance, starting the lunchtime beat sessions as it happened. It marks George Harrison’s debut on the Cavern stage as well as Stu Sutcliffe’s: five musicians sharing £5. Ray Ennis: “When the Beatles first came to the Cavern, I thought they were absolutely dreadful and musically awful. Stuart was on bass and he was making an horrendous noise. They were smoking on stage, and Stu was sitting at the piano, facing Pete Best on the drums and not even looking at the audience. Paul was just strumming a Rosetti guitar. By way of contrast, we rehearsed a lot and I suppose we were perfectionists.”

Bob Wooler: “The first time the Beatles came back from Hamburg they wore leather jackets and jeans, not leather pants. They got those in Hamburg on their second visit and then they performed in full leather. Ray McFall didn’t like the Beatles playing in jeans. Jeans spelled trouble in his book and he said to me, ‘You know the policy at the Cavern, I don’t allow people in with jeans, so they can’t play in them.’ I groaned as I didn’t want to tell them. The Beatles were terrible when they ganged up on you—all of them, Pete Best as well. Their tongues could be savage if you criticised them for arriving late or messing around on stage. I knew that John would say, ‘Who the fuck is he to tell us what to wear?’ I went back to Ray and asked him to tell them himself. He put on his pained expression, which meant ‘Aren’t you capable of doing it yourself?’ He went into the dressing-room to see them and I waited for him to come out. There were no four-letter words then as he was the guy with the pay packet.”

Ray McFall: “Bob Wooler would say to me, ‘That’s the way they are. Listen to their music.’ They were different and they were very well rehearsed because they had come back from three months of torture in Hamburg. The other groups were like Cliff Richard and the Shadows, but the Beatles’ music was so vibrant. As Bob said, ‘They had ear and eye appeal.’ However, I didn’t like them wearing jeans which were taboo in the Cavern. Our doormen would stop anyone wearing jeans. I felt that if people were wearing good, clean clothes they would be more likely to behave themselves as they wouldn’t want them getting dirty and damaged.”

Owen Clayton of Steve Bell and the Syndicate: “The Syndicate was very highly rated at the time and we had a big following, lot of girls and young lads. When the Beatles played, we could feel our following going away. They were all handsome and we weren’t. When I first saw Stu, he wasn’t wearing dark glasses but he was later on.”

Dale Roberts: “Stu Sutcliffe was as the back of the stage and I remember George Harrison bringing him forward for ‘Love Me Tender’ and the place went wild. They loved it.” At one Cavern gig, Stu Sutcliffe tried out what can be seen as the prototype of the Beatle jacket. The audience chuckled about the jacket, but the rest of the Beatles saw something there.

22nd March 1962
(lunchtime) Peppy and the New York Twisters

(evening) Peppy and the New York Twisters with the Beatles

Earl Preston: “When the twist came out, there was an Italian/American from New York called Peppy who came to the Cavern to demonstrate how to do the dance. He was on for half an hour and he was very good as I’d never seen anyone demonstrate a dance before. The twist was unheard of in Liverpool as everybody was jiving. The Beatles wrote a song called ‘Pinwheel Twist’ and it was brilliant. It was a twist song with a great arrangement.”

Dave Dover: “Shortly after Peppy and the New York Twisters did their set, the Beatles came on and said that they had written a song in the band room called ‘The Pinwheel Twist’. It was a one four five, C-F-G song, not much more than ‘Come on, do the pinwheel twist’. It wasn’t a brilliant song but it showed that they had kept their ear to what was going on and I’d never heard anybody say before that they had written a song during the break. I liked the spontaneity of it all and it was another first for the Beatles.”

Billy Kinsley saw the Beatles “who drank soup on stage and wore leather jackets and old jeans. They came on singing ‘Memphis Tennessee’ and changed my life forever. They were playing rock’n’roll, raw and alive, just as it should be played. Paul jumped into the audience screaming ‘Long Tall Sally’ while Lennon laid on the floor and played guitar solos.”

3rd April 2002
Talk about a surreal day: try this. The day before Billy Bob Thornton appeared at the Cavern, I was told that my interview would be at 3pm and that he would be going on stage at 8.15pm. Sounded fine to me, but the next morning there was a change of plan. The interview had been moved to 5pm and when I got to the Cavern, Billy Bob said, “Sorry to mess you around. I’ve been taking a ferry cross the Mersey with Gerry Marsden. He even sang the song for me—and I’ve got it on video!” I knew Billy Bob was wild, but Gerry and the Pacemakers—wow! “I’m doing some sixties songs tonight and starting off with one of Gerry’s. He’s going to see Liverpool playing football and he can’t get down ’til ten o’clock. We’ll start the show then.” Was I hearing things right? Showtime was being delayed for nearly two hours because one solitary member of the audience couldn’t get here. This is taking audience participation too far and, in any event, if Gerry were to miss the start, surely Billy Bob could repeat the song for an encore. “No, this is a football town,” said Billy Bob, who had been totally indoctrinated by Gerry Marsden, “It’s better to start late. The audience will like it more.” “Not if they’ve bought tickets saying 8 o’clock, they won’t,” I argued, but my reasoning was falling on deaf ears and my hopes for an early night faded away.

Just one thing though, Billy Bob, why Liverpool, what did it say to a boy in Arkansas? Billy Bob Thornton: “I love Liverpool. Those records got me through my childhood. It was a world I disappeared into. When the Beatles came out, I wanted to rebel and be in a band. My brother and I were fans of the Beatles as well as the Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Animals, the Kinks and all of the British Invasion Groups. I am a huge fan of Gerry and the Pacemakers and it’s been a fantastic day sailing the ferry cross the Mersey with Gerry himself. It’s the dream of my life to be here in Liverpool and playing the Cavern because this music got me through my childhood.”

In case there had been a change of plan, I returned to the Cavern at nine o’clock. The door to the room where Billy Bob would appear, was shut and an audience of 250 was watching a talented duo, Feelin’ Groovy, working through some folk-rock classics. Not bad, but I felt that the audience would soon be singing out, “Where have you been all the day, Billy Bob, Billy Bob?” Fortunately, the football match didn’t go into overtime. Liverpool had won, and once King Gerry had arrived, we were allowed in the back room.

One by one, Billy Bob’s band came out at 10pm and established a funky riff. After a couple of minutes, Billy Bob appeared, wearing a head scarf, and singing a minor hit for the Pacemakers, “It’s Gonna Be Alright”. The new arrangement gave it more depth that Gerry’s single, but “Game Of Love” was more predictable and similar to Wayne Fontana’s hit single. Several covers followed during the evening—“Green Tambourine” (with Thornton describing the sitar as “an Indian banjo”), “California Dreamin’”, a raucous sing along “Hang On Sloopy” and “I Still Miss Someone” (Johnny Cash meets Nick Cave). Come to think of it, Billy Bob, what’s all this about the Beatles? You’re an Arkansas boy—you’ve got Johnny Cash.

Needless to say, Billy Bob was full of his love for Liverpool. With the broadest of smiles, he said, “I thought my family came from Ireland but now I’ve found out that my mom’s people come from Cheshire and my dad’s from Yorkshire. I’m a hillbilly but I come from here.” The audience cheered, not caring that the wannabe Scouser’s geography was a little wayward. Still, it was clear from a heckle that he knew Manchester was only 30 miles away. When he began his litany of favourite Liverpool groups (Beatles, Gerry, Searchers), some wag shouted “What about A Flock Of Seagulls?”

As we climbed the stairs out of the Cavern, everyone was saying how good the show had been and what a wonderful band it was. The other comment was that he did not appear to be a wild man at all. “He could be the guy next door,” someone said to me. Well, not quite. My neighbours won’t be showing home movies of Gerry Marsden singing Ferry Cross The Mersey.