A Magical Mystery Tour .

Roll up, Roll up..
I'm Coming To Take you Away, Take You Away.....

There was a music store in Liverpool called Nems, it was owned by the
Epstein Family and managed by.....Yes you've guessed.....
Brian Epstein, later to become The Beatles Manager.
I've also met him, on several occasions.

Talk about 'name droppers' !

Brian was a charming man, although he was the MD, he would often work
in the Record Department, when it was busy.
There used to be booths 'in store' where you could listen to tracks of
selected records.
Needless to say, each time The Beatles released a new single, the store
would be inundated with bright eyed and excited teenage girls, bopping
away to the music.
This was at the time Brian had just signed The Beatles, and several other
Merseyside groups.
Sadly, later, he moved down to London, he was very much missed in the store,
by his Staff and devoted customers.
Although, his success in managing so many artistes, brought him fame and fortune,
I believe, deep down, he was a very lonely man.
Perhaps, had he stayed in his beloved City, with his loving family, he would have
been happier, and maybe, his life may not have ended, so tragically and prematurely.

Forever in our memories Brian. R.I.P.

Nems Music Store closed in the early eighties.

Now Back to The Cavern.

We used to do a funny dance called 'The Cavern Stomp', which involved partners holding opposite hands ie, left hand linked to partners right hand and then launching or swinging ourselves from left to right, in time to the beat.
I think this crazy dance, originated from the times when The Cavern was formerly a jazz club then a skiffle club.
John Lennon and a couple of others formed The Quarrymen, which was the group that was to become The Beatles. I didn't get to see them perform in those days, because I was a bit too young to go to into 'seedy' clubs, as deemed by my parents!
The next crazy dance arrived, and that was called 'The Shake' which was immortalised by The Swinging Blue Jeans song 'The Hippy Hippy Shake'.
We really must have looked manic, twitching and shaking all over the place but we all thought, we were 'dead cool'.
Other clubs we used to frequent were, The Mardi Gras, The Downbeat and The Iron Door.

The Swinging Blue Jeans, Gerry And The Pacemakers, The Searchers, Billy j Krammer, The Four Most, The Big Three, Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, plus many more well known groups performed at these venues.

The Rolling Stones played at The Iron Door Club too.

They were 'Fab' times and it all started with 'The fab Four' !

From Penny Lane to Memory Lane!
Truly the 'Golden decade' of beat music, in The Swinging City....Liverpool.

The annual 'Matthew Street Festival' was held last weekend and on nearly every Street corner, tribute bands were performing all The famous Liverpool bands'songs
We had 300,000 visitors and the atmosphere was just magical!