Cellar Dweller From Norris Green

Frank McCormick was a young teen when The Quarry Men performed near where he lived at the Woolton Parish Church on July 6, 1957. This amateur performance, where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, would mark the beginning of a relationship of what was to become The Beatles. Frank recalls

“In 1957 I was still a three years away from leaving De la Salle Grammar School in neighbouring Gillmoss, a ten minute walk from where I lived. I left in June 1960 aged 15, one of the two youngest in my year.”

Frank grew up in Norris Green, a community only few miles from central Liverpool and within a short bus ride of many Liverpool clubs where music history was made. As a young man of 16 he would have seen a street scape resembling that in the photo above which reminds us of the activity and the look of these times. While he would later move to Warwickshire in 1976, fortunately for us, the Merseybeat seed had been sown allowing for the fascinating story that he has penned for this Iron Door Club site.

The community of Norris Green was nearly 50 years younger when Frank first entered the cellar clubs and as such was faced with different challenges that it faces today. The passage of time has changed the infra-structure and social conditions as with any community. The photographs offered here are done so with a view to enriching the readers’ understanding of the context in which Frank’s story took place.