The sign above the door proudly stated the commercial and the endearing truth, “It all started here”, one of the city’s music ambassadors, Ian Prowse, reflects in his song Does This Train Stop On Merseyside that a lay line runs down the very street the club is situated upon and to many, whether in the heyday of the Mersey Sound with bands such as The Beatles, Gerry and The Pacemakers and The Swinging Blue Jeans permanently filling out the venue or to modern day audiences who find themselves in a slightly different version of the brick built cellar but still immerse themselves in the music provided over the years by such bands and artists as The Fast Camels, Steve Hogarth, Fish, The Arctic Monkeys, Adele and Whisky Ginger Johnson; regardless of the era The Cavern is a musical shrine to the best and the beautiful who have and who still wish, to perform in Liverpool’s most iconic music venue.
The 60th Anniversary of The Cavern is one not only to celebrate, it is to be preserved, not one to ever see the corporate vandalism of times past punch a hole in its broad historic side, the music brings people who have lost their way, their hope and perhaps their soul, it adds colour to the already happening and whispered futures of many a band and it is one in which The Overtures played out superbly for a Philharmonic Hall audience the hits, the songs and the times of the “World’s Most Famous Club”.
History has a way of making you feel small, of being you feel proud for something you didn’t do, of making you trapped in a way that human interaction with the past can only achieve, yet a night of music celebrating The Cavern, all its pomp, all its glory, the defining spirit of a city at times forgotten by the Westminster village and ridiculed by others who only envy what the city has; for that History builds up the character of those who go through the famous doors and who placed themselves in the Philharmonic Hall for the memories and the narration of the night.
With bands such as The Hollies, The Moody Blues, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Merseybeats, Chuck Berry, The Spencer Davies Group, The Who, Status Quo, Cilla Black, Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Rolling Stones and The Who all being performed with passion, dedication and absolute sincerity by The Overtures and their special guests, this was a night not to be missed, a celebration, a party, a gathering of souls who know that The Cavern, its spirit, if not its bricks and mortar, is to be preserved and saluted for its achievement of reaching its 60th anniversary.
Ian D. Hall