Revision 122834900 of "Benutzer:Learyx2012/The Cavern Club" on dewiki

{{Unreferenced|date=July 2007}}

[[Image:Cavernclub.jpg|thumb|280px|right|External view of the 'New' Cavern Club, January 2006]]
'''The Cavern Club''' is a [[rock and roll]] club at 10 Mathew Street, [[Liverpool]], [[England]], where [[Brian Epstein]] was introduced to [[the Beatles]] on [[9 November]] [[1961]]. The club opened on [[January 16]], [[1957]].

== Early history ==
[[Alan Sytner]] opened the club having been inspired by [[Paris]]'s Jazz district where there were a number of clubs in cellars. Sytner returned to Liverpool and wanted to open a club similar to [[Paris]]'s Le Caveau.  He eventually found a perfect cellar for his club, one which had been used as an air raid shelter during the war.

What started as a jazz club, eventually became a hangout for [[skiffle]] groups. Sytner ended up selling the Cavern Club to Ray McFall in [[1959]], after moving to [[London]]. Blues bands and Beat groups began to appear at the club on a regular basis in the early [[1960s]]. The first ''Beat night'' was held on [[May 25]], [[1960]] and featured a performance by [[Rory Storm and the Hurricanes]] (which included [[Ringo Starr]] as drummer). By early [[1961]], Bob Wooler had become the full-time compère & organiser of the lunchtime sessions.

== World fame ==
The venue has been made world famous by The Beatles, and it was on Tuesday [[February 21]], [[1961]], that the band made their first lunchtime appearance at the club. The band had returned to Liverpool from Hamburg, Germany, where they had been playing at the [[Indra]] and the [[Kaiserkeller]] for up to eight hours a night. Their stage show had been through a lot of changes and some in the audience thought they were watching a German band. From [[1961]] to [[1963]] The Beatles made 292 appearances at the club. During 1963, [[The Hollies]] took The Beatles' slot at the Cavern Club. The Beatles had graduated from the club and had been signed to [[EMI]]'s [[Parlophone]] label by producer [[George Martin]]. The amount of musical activity in [[Liverpool]] and [[Manchester]] caused record producers who had previously never ventured very far from [[London]] to start looking to the north.

In the decade that followed, a wide variety of popular acts appeared at the club including [[The Rolling Stones]], The [[Yardbirds]], [[The Kinks]], [[Elton John]], [[The Who]] and [[John Lee Hooker]]. Future star [[Cilla Black]] worked as the hat-check girl at The Cavern in her pre-fame days.

A recording studio, "Cavern Sound" opened in the basement of an adjoining building, run by Nigel Greenberg and Peter Hepworth.

The club closed in March [[1973]], and was filled in during construction work on the [[Merseyrail]] underground rail loop. 

== The Cavern Club today ==
In April [[1984]] the club was taken over by [[Liverpool F.C.]] player [[Tommy Smith (Liverpool footballer)|Tommy Smith]] in association with Royal Life.  It was re-built with many of the same bricks that had been used in the original club. The new club occupies 75% of the original site. The new design was to resemble the original as closely as possible.  This was a difficult period of massive economical and political change in and around Liverpool and the club only survived until 1989, when it came under financial pressures and closed for 18 months. In 1991, two friends - school teacher Bill Heckle and Liverpool cabbie Dave Jones - reopened the club. They still run the club today and despite being a world famous tourist spot, the club continues to function primarily as a live music venue, although they do employ a DJ on a Friday and Saturday night. The music policy varies from 60's (Beatles naturally !), 70's, 80's and 90's classic pop music to indie, rock and modern chart music. 

On [[December 14]], [[1999]], former Beatle [[Paul McCartney]] returned to the New Cavern Club stage to play a set publicising his new album [[Run Devil Run]].

The Cavern Club is still open as one of the UK's most famous venues. It has around 40 live bands performing every week; both tribute and original bands, although the majority perform their own material. 

The venue now operates a [[pay to play]] policy where bands lose a prepaid deposit if they do not gather a fixed number of audience members there to see them. This practice has been said to be at odds with the club's alleged commitment to supporting new live music in Liverpool.

The Cavern is also used as a tour warm-up venue with semi-secret gigs announced at the last moment. The [[Arctic Monkeys]] did this is on October 2005, as well as many others before them.
<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: [[Image:Ged's_image.jpeg|thumb|160px|right|Arctic Monkeys crowd]] -->

== External links ==
*[http://www.cavern-liverpool.co.uk/ Cavern City Tours]
*[http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/16/beatles.club.ap/index.html Cavern Club at fifty]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavern Club, The}}
[[Category:Culture in Liverpool]]
[[Category:Nightclubs in Liverpool]]
[[Category:Music venues in England|Cavern Club]]
[[Category:The Beatles]]
[[Category:Music from Liverpool]]
[[Category:1957 establishments]]

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