In 1963 I first played the CAVERN CLUB. We opened for the Searchers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, The Hollies, The Merseybeats, Hermans Hermits, Swingin Blue Jeans and many others. My first band was The Skeletons; Then The Blues Pentagon; I was just 15 years old.

THE CAVERN CLUB is in Mathew Street Liverpool City and there was only one pub 'The Grapes'. All the gigs, Cavern included, in those days were dry, no alcohol, so The Grapes was where everyone Paul, John, George and Ringo included, would gravitate to before, after and between gigs. Liverpool was a melting pot of working class revolutionaries. We became better educated and wanted more from life. Music became a way off the treadmill and a means to fulfill our dreams. There seemed to be kids in every street with a garage band. No one could read music and hence we weren't limited by our lack of knowledge. Through our ignorance we learned to express ourselves without fear or prejudice. Music was both black and white. At least it was in Liverpool. We were listening to black American R&B artists and white American country music from the early 1950's. The Cunard shipping line ran a weekly trip to New York out of Liverpool docks.  So the sailors brought back records that most white Americans had never heard. Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Isley bros, Willie Dixon, Howling Wolf.The blues greats we heard them all, we even got to see a lot of them and then we emulated them ... Liverpool style.

We had more energy than our wealthier peers in the South and the absolute rights of the newly educated working classes. We were afraid of no one including God, King or country. The more world wise Londoners took longer to catch on but when they did London soon took over and became the place to be. Carnaby street and the beautiful people. The Rolling Stones became good looking and the Beatles left Liverpool and took over the world. The actual ‘Liverpool sound’ was a more fitting description of bands other than the Beatles.The Beatles were simply unique, the best there ever was and ever will be. The rock n roll of the streets, as we knew it, was better portrayed by the Merseybeats, the Dennison's, Faron's Flamingoes, Earl Prestons Realms and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Liverpool's most popular group.

As a boy I learned music by playing it. We'd be  at a gig and after our set one of the older lads from another band would show us some new song and how it went and so we learned. We all played the same tunes really, just with different levels of expertise. Also we were all writing from day one because you could never understand the words on the recordings and there was no sheet music for these songs, they weren't real music according to the establishment of the time. The sound at the Cavern was the best in the world. The tunnels would accentuate the bass and the atmosphere was, is, infectious. The arches were terrific to lean on and cuddle your favourite girl.

On returning to the Liverpool scene after an absence of many years.   I walked Mathew Street and visited all the bars, no longer a dry venue in the street. The John Lennon bar / The Cavern / The Revolution bar / Sergeants Peppers bar and grill.  John Lennon's statue / Beatles statue Eleanor Rigby statue, donated by Tommy Steel / the Beatles shop / the Cavern walks / Hard Days Night 5 star hotel - resort. I visited Woolton where John and Paul first met. There is a gravestone in the church cemetery to Eleanor Rigby. The playground where the Quarrymen played remains. Ringo Starr's terraced house from 'Hard Days Night' is freshly painted. The bus terminal where my dad worked with George Harrison's dad is still in Green Lane. Penny Lane wine bar and Sergeant Peppers kiosk are there. Strawberry Field orphanage really does exist.  The original Cavern used to smell of smoke,  urine and disinfectant. The new one smells only slightly better. The 'MERSEBEAT' emerged from the bombed out ruins of the greatest music city on earth ... that is Liverpool … the world's most famous club THE CAVERN CLUB … the worlds most famous band ... THE BEATLES .