cavern club 50th birthday

JANUARY isn't normally party time - unless you run one of the world's most famous clubs that is.

So yesterday it was 'happy 50th birthday' to the Cavern Club with the biggest bash Mathew Street has seen in a long time.

The Cavern's prosperity, the brand's longevity, the club's profile, is - let's face it - down to four/five lads from Liverpool who, as the saying goes, 'rocked the world'.
There was no sign of the surviving Beatles while I was at the party last night, with the message being they were holed up with Olivia and Yoko at the Apple AGM.
It would have been fun though to think of the four of them sitting there and saying, 'shall we?', then hopping on a helicopter/jet and simply turning up.
There was one McCartney there to fly the family flag - McCartney Jr who lives across the water in Wirral.
He was in the party mood, but not the party spirit, after telling me he was the 'designated driver' for the evening.
And Julia Baird, John Lennon's half-sister who is a director of Cavern City Tours, was also at the party for the duration.
She never saw her brother play, being a bit too young, but recalled watching the likes of the Mojos, the Big Three and Gerry and the Pacemakers.
She also champions the new bands coming out of the Cavern now, and said she was sad Liverpool's band-du-jour the Zutons weren't able to make it as they were waiting on the Brit Award nominations.
There had been idle chat about players from Liverpool and Everton turning up, about Paul Gambaccini being invited, about the likes of Willie Russell and other celebrities.
But whether they were there on not didn't really matter.
Essentially, last night was a big reunion for those bands and performers who made the Cavern their home up to half a century ago.
So, party goers found singer Beryl Marsden (described by many as the best female vocalist to come out of Liverpool in the 60s) performing a set before popping off for dinner with Pauline Daniels and Mary McNally.

Mary used to come to the Cavern in the days when she was Mary Hollywood (what a great name!), secretary of the Searchers fan club.
She went on to marry the band's John McNally and they have been together ever since.
The Searchers are currently in Australia on tour, but Mary had been persuaded along to the party by her pal Beryl.
She showed me her Cavern Club membership booklet from 1963, signed by among others Paul McCartney and Bob Murray. Just some of her Merseybeat memorabilia.
Sitting on sofas behind the 'girls' were the Quarrymen, John Lennon's original band, tucking into their pints of Guinness and enjoying their latter-found fame.
Band member Rod Davis told me they first played the Cavern as early as January 1957, and not August as it has always been reported: "August was the first time Mark Lewisohn found a small add for us in the Echo, but we played about four times between January and July."
They also played the Woolton church fete that year, when famously John met Paul and the face of popular music started slowly to change forever.
The Quarrymen will repeat the performance in July this year too for THAT 50th anniversary.
They have also been recording a programme with Bob Harris of Old Grey Whistletest fame.
Indicently, Rod Davis - who left the Quarrymen in the autumn of 1957 - is the proud owner of John Lennon's copy of the Lonnie Donegan skiffle classic Rock Island Line.
He tells me he bought the record from the teenage Lennon for half-a-crown, and subsequently had it signed by Donegan himself.
Back at the party, Geoff Baker - Paul McCartney's former press officer - was sitting chatting on the steps, Pete Wylie was at the bar, while the Echo's arts editor Joe Riley - pipe in hand - chewed the fat with Mirror columnist Brian Reade about Capital of Culture.

Me? I somehow ended up ensconced in the ladies with a journalist from Siberia called Jane, and Cat from Seattle whose backcombed beehive hairdo was a sight to see.
It was that type of night.