It was well known that The Beatles had outgrown the Cavern by this time, and their regular fans were grudgingly aware that their popularity could only be served by bigger venues.
The crowds outside were going mad. By the time John Lennon had got through the cordon of girls, his mohair jacket had lost a sleeve. I grabbed it to stop a girl getting away with a souvenir. John stitched it back on. They may have altered their style elsewhere, but they didn’t do it at the Cavern. They were the same old Beatles, with John saying, “Okay, tatty-head, we’re going to play a number for you.’ There was never anything elaborate about his introductions.
Paddy Delaney, Cavern Club doorman.
That August appearance only came about because Brian Epstein couldn’t pull them out of an appearance at the Grafton the night before. Les Ackerley [actually Albert Kinder] said ‘I’ve got them under contract,’ and Epstein was furious because, by then, he had other things in mind for them. He was calling Ackerley all sorts of names, but he didn’t use four-letter words as he never did that. Ackerley had a barring clause preventing The Beatles appearing in Liverpool before but not after that appearance, so Brian asked us to take The Beatles for the Cavern on the following night, which was a Saturday. I resented this as he was only doing it to get at Ackerley, and anyway, I had booked all the groups for Saturday 3 August. If I’d said no, he would have gone to Ray McFall, who would have said, ‘Of course we’ll take them.’
The Beatles were paid £300, which was quite a bit of money then, and Brian restricted the audience to 500. I can’t blame Brian as he had seen how crowded the Cavern got and he had to think of The Beatles’ safety. The admission price was 10 shillings and so that meant that we collected only £250 on the door. All the staff had to be paid, and the other groups on the bill too, so we made no profit that night. (Beatlesbible)
Mayor Joe Anderson told the Liverpool Echo: “The fact that the world-famous Cavern could close forever because of Covid-19 should bring home to the Government how much our hugely treasured music industry is in peril.
“This virus has caused unimaginable pain and grief but it’s proving to be an existential threat to our cultural scene.”
He added: “The prospect of losing a national jewel like The Cavern is a horrible scenario for all concerned, be they Beatles fans, music lovers and above all those whose livelihoods depend on it.
Paul most recently returned to Liverpool
Cavern Club director Bill Heckle added: “We made a decision a few years ago to keep as much money in the bank as possible for a rainy day, not realising it was going to be a thunderstorm.
“So, we were sitting on £1.4 million in the bank that has now been halved. We went five months before unfortunately we had to make about 20 people redundant. We think we might have to make another 20 redundant in the next few weeks, so it’s heart-breaking you know these people are part of this team and this global family.”
Meanwhile, reminiscing about The Beatles’ earliest days, he said: “[We] had no idea what you did in a recording studio. Between 10 and 10:30 we got ready, tuned up and then at 10:30, the producer would come in and you’d start the session. And from there, you had one and half hours to finish that song completely. We never thought it was a pressure because we didn’t know anything else.”
