Debbie Greenberg - Cavern Club: The Inside Story

Cavern Club:
The Inside Story

Debbie Greenberg

Copyright 2016 Debbie Greenberg

All rights reserved.

ISBN-10: 0-9863770-4-X

ISBN-13: 978-0-9863770-4-4

Library of Congress Catalog No: 2016950777

Cover photos: Earl Prestons Realms (courtesy Nigel Greenberg), the Hollies and the Beatles (courtesy Les Chadwick Peter Kaye Photography)

Cover design: Keith Carlson

First edition

Jorvik Press
5331 SW Macadam Ave., Ste. 258-424
Portland OR 97239
USA
JorvikPress.com

About the Author

Born in 1945 in Liverpool, Debbie Greenberg attended the Morrison School on Greenbank Road and, after passing her eleven-plus, New Heys High School for Girls.

Leaving school at seventeen, she started working with her father, Alf Geoghegan, who ran three butchers shops. By age 20 she was managing the family business and also working part-time as a fashion model.

Her life changed forever when her father took over the lease of the Cavern Club in 1966 after the previous owner went bankrupt. Now she had to immerse herself in the running of the worlds most famous club.

Debbie lives with her husband Nigel in Liverpool and partners with him in their 44-year-old business, Solo Security.

Acknowledgments

With grateful thanks to Tim Mobbs, who rescued my manuscript from a crashed computer when all seemed lost; Ian Pennington for his expert IT help; Colin Hall for his editorial guidance in the early stages; and Frank Cottrell Boyce for pointing me in the direction of Jorvik Press.

For their professional expertise and valuable time I must also thank Daniella King and Alison Gorlov for invaluable advice and research; Margaret Roberts and Les Chadwick of Peter Kaye Photography for their generous help and kind permission to reproduce early photographs; Harry Lea of MPS Imaging for his expertise; Roger Hull at Liverpool Record Office; Liverpool Echo for permission to print article excerpts and photos; and Paul Wayne of Tracks Ltd.

Sam Leach, legendary Liverpool promoter, has always been there to share his memories and photographs with me, which I especially appreciate.

The current owners of the Cavern have helped me at every turn. Special thanks to Dave Jones, Bill Heckle and Jon Keats for their magnanimous assistance. And kudos to Peter Stansill and all at Jorvik Press for believing in me and allowing me the opportunity to tell my story.

Of course, acknowledgements would not be complete without a word of thanks to my husband Nigel, who has encouraged and supported me every step of the way and shared all his memories he was, after all, at the Cavern even before I was. Many were the times during the writing of this book that he was prepared to live on anything that could be put on a piece of toast.

DG
Liverpool, 2016

Dedicated with love

to my father,

Alfred Geoghegan

A Chance to Save the Beatles Shrine

I was twenty years old in March 1966 when my father said to me, Ive got the chance to buy the Cavern. What do you think?

Oh my God, I couldnt believe my own ears. Was my Dad really considering buying the most amazing club on the planet? One which I had been fanatical about ever since my first visit in the late fifties when it was still a jazz club and where I had later witnessed the birth and the ultimate success of the Beatles?

Being what could only be described as a Cavern addict, who had hardly ever missed a lunchtime or evening session from the early sixties to its closure a few weeks before, my reply was swift and decisive.

What do you mean, you dont know what to do? Take it! Ive seen the Cavern at its peak and it could happen again.

My mother was amazed at his question.

Fancy asking Deb! She practically lives in the place.

My grandmother, who lived with us, used to say, I dont know why she doesnt take her bed down there.

Mother pointed out that it was a very serious matter and that all their lifes savings would be going into the venture.

Look, Dad, besides the fact that you would make me the happiest girl in the world, from a business point of view I really think it could be great again.

I was excited at the prospect but at the same time I realised how serious a step this was for him. My Dad and I shared an amazing degree of trust and were very close, especially as I was an only child. He knew I would only give him what I believed to be the right advice. Since I knew the Cavern well and realised its full potential he respected my judgement.

Just a few weeks before, on the 28th of February, the Cavern Club had been closed down after the owner, Ray McFall, could not pay his debts. It was a huge blow to the Cavern regulars, but now a life-line was being thrown out to save it and my Dad was grasping at it.

I had read the article about the clubs closure in the Liverpool Echo only days before on the 1st of March:

A HARD DAYS FIGHT ON THE BARRICADES

One hundred and fifty teenagers locked themselves inside the worlds most famous beat club and began a fantastic three-hour siege. They pulled down the roller shutter across the main entrance and piled chairs, tables and boxes against the entrance to form a barricade. They danced, sang and chanted inside the dimly lit cellar, as police and other officials tried to get in.

The battle was staged in a bid to prevent the shutdown of Liverpools beat world mecca the Cavern Club in Mathew Street, where the Beatles made their name.

It happened after club owner Ray McFall, 38, appeared at Liverpool County Court.

A receiving order was made against him for non-payment of 1,500.00 which he owed to a building firm for work done at the club. The official receiver stepped in to close down the cellar and signal the start of the siege of Mathew Street.

Youngsters, some of whom had been there since a marathon beat session started at 3 p.m. the previous day, Sunday 27th February, had defied the closing order and started to build the barricade. The time-table of the battle went like this.

10.03 a.m. The receiving order was issued.

10.30 a.m. Mr. McFall reports to the nearby Official Receivers Office.

11.20 a.m. Word is received at the Cavern Club and barricades go up.

11.35 a.m. Mr. McFall arrives at the club with the Assistant Official Receiver Mr. Thomas Wilks and the Examiner Mr. R Morley. They cant get in.

11.50 a.m. Police arrive to clear more than 100 teenagers waiting outside the club.

1.05 p.m. Work starts on moving the tables and chairs blocking the steps into the Cavern as the boys and girls sing the American freedom movement song, We Shall Not Be Moved.

1.20 p.m. The teenagers give in. the Cavern is officially closed. But the teenagers, many of them having spent 20 hours below, had not finished their protest. They carried letters spelling out the word CAVERN in a march to the Town Hall.

Finally, the marchers, more than 300 strong, squatted outside the Cavern Club, still singing.

Again police moved in to clear the street, and at last the party was over bar the talking. Talk about the famous stars that have appeared at the Cavern the Beatles, Cilla Black, The Searchers, Billy J Kramer.

They were wonderful years, said Mr. McFall, who admitted that he was 10,000.00 in the red. The demonstration was fantastic but I had nothing to do with it. It was the kids idea. Now its all over I suppose Ill have to find a job.