The Beatles At The Iron Door

[admin]

While the Beatles are associated with the Cavern, many fans do not know that they appeared first at the Iron Door Club.

I was surprised to see on page 57 of the Beatles' Anthology, Neil Aspinall (their roadie) is quoted with the following.

"There were a lot of gigs in and around Liverpool at the time. There were a lot of ballrooms and townhalls and clubs like the Cavern and the Iron Door and the Blue Angel that bands could play in, but they were mainly jazz clubs. They'd never let the Beatles play. You had to try and force your way in. It was Kenny Ball/Acker Bilk stuff at the Cavern. Thye might let a rock 'n' Roll group play in the break, before the main band came on, a jazz band."

While some jazz clubs may not have welcomed The Beatles, this hardly seems to have applied to the Iron Door Club. Perhaps Geoff and Clem could comment on how The Beatles were received at the Iron Door Club.

[13_temple_street]

The Beatles were just another rock band in 1960. Their first appearance at The Iron Door they were called The Silver Beatles was on a Sunday afternoon May 15th 1960.(The Iron Door site describes this first visit in some detail)it was obvious they had a lot of catching up to do with the bands that were around at the time Rory Storm, Kingsize Taylor Cass & The Cassanovas (Later to become the Big Three)The adverts in The Liverpool Echo show that The Iron Door were booking Beat groups as early as 1960.

[13_temple_street]

Just in case some one spots the deliberate error
AS we all know they were THE SILVER BEETLES.

[admin]

Thanks Geoff. I would seem to me that the Iron Door was more than willing to let the Beatles play and in fact was one of their first gigs.

Perhaps Neil Aspinall would qualify his general comment about certain establishments not letting the Beatles perform, if asked more specific questions. Certainly it would not be too long before they could play anywhere they wanted.

[13_temple_street]

Any group who applied to play at the Iron Door were always given the chance.
There were numerous halls on the outskirts of Liverpool City promoting Beat groups one or two nights per week.
In 1958 before we opened the Iron Door Harry Ormesher & myself promoted Beat groups in the City centre on a one night stand basis.These were pioneering days we were both hooked on this new form of music so much so we resolved to promote it in the new club we were planning to open in Temple Street.
The Iron Door was licenced by the local Authority so sell Wines spirits Beer etc,the age limit had to be strictly adhered to,we found it was mainly the younger element who were interested in this new kind of music in consequence we decided to promote Beat music on Monday Evenings.Later on when we forfeited the drinks licence we promoted Rock & Roll every night.
Early in 1961 Sam Leach approached me with a proposal to promote a series of all-night Rock & Roll shows(Sam's book The Rocking City) the first one started on Saturday March 11th 1961,eleven bands were booked to play including The Beatles,Gerry& The Pacemakers,Kingsize Taylor,Rory Storm & The Hurricans.Twenty two bouncers were employed.Two thousand people turned up for the event.I understand The Cavern had less than 50 people in that night.Nothing had ever been attempted on this scale in Liverpool before it was a talking point for weeks to come.

[13_temple_street]

All Night Advert

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

I've been reading Marc Lewisohn's "The Beatles Chronicles" and have always heard about his obsessive scholarship and presentation of all the details of the Beatles' activities. His work is usually accepted as definitive. He presents a nearly day-to-day accounting, and displays where and when they played. I'm disappointed that he never mentions The Iron Door, whereas he does catch their every appearance at the Cavern or the Casbah, etc. I wonder why he dropped the ball on the Iron Door...and if he ever plans an update?