Beatles Feature on Cavern Album
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the original Cavern Club, EMI will be releasing a three CD set featuring songs from a selection of acts that have appeared at the famous venue during its storied history.
Topping the bill, of course, is the group that called The Cavern home for many years, and bought it to international prominence, The Beatles. The album starts with an introduction from Cavern DJ Bob Wooler and is immediately followed by The Beatles performing “Please Please Me.” Also included is a solo performance by Paul McCartney of “All Shook Up“, recorded at the modern version of The Cavern.
I cover the story behind the founding of The Cavern and its early days in “Before They Were Beatles,” after the glory days of the 1960s (including a brief flirtation with bankruptcy in 1966) it eventually faded away and closed in the 1970s. The warehouse above was demolished and the original cavern filled with bricks and paved over to be used as a parking lot. During my days in Liverpool all that marked the spot was a small plaque on the wall above the site. But in 1984 a new Cavern was recreated as close to the original as possible, and continues to both draw top name acts and encourage and promote local music.
The album, “The Cavern – The Most Famous Club In The World” will be released on August 20th by EMI, just a few days before this year’s Matthew Street Festival. The full, very impressive, track listing can be found here.
