The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)

This was The Beatles’ 106th evening show at the Cavern Club.

They shared a bill with The Echoes, who had previously been the backing group for Gene Vincent and Conway Twitty on package tours. As a result they would have been familiar to Cavern Club audiences.

I had seen The Echoes backing everybody on a package show and they were like The Shadows with lots of echo and reverb. They were on the Cavern one Wednesday night when The Beatles normally topped the bill. They had the main spot and they were OK, but everybody had come to see The Beatles who came on after them. I have a vivid memory of seeing The Echoes standing there with their mouths wide open. They had no idea what was going to follow them and they had never heard anything like them.

Overall this was The Beatles’ 243rd appearance at the cellar venue in Mathew Street, including their lunchtime shows.

Although the precise number of The Beatles’ Cavern performances is not known, they played at least 155 lunchtime and 125 evening shows between 9 February 1961 and 3 August 1963.