The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)

The Beatles gave their 146th lunchtime performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club on this day.

The group’s lunchtime shows in the Cavern typically lasted from 12-2pm. Overall this was their 261st appearance at the Mathew Street cellar club, including their late-night shows.

The Beatles appeared onstage twice on this day, at 12.20pm and 1.40pm. Also on the bill were Pete Maclaine and The Dakotas.

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

A poster for The Beatles’ 30 November 1962 show was auctioned at Christie’s in London on 12 June 2012 for £27,500 ($42,500). It measured 30″x20″ and was the earliest Beatles concert poster the auctioneers had ever offered.

The poster was hand-painted specifically for the lunchtime concert, and is the only known example from the event.

Fifty years after The Beatles released their debut single ‘Love Me Do’, Christie’s is delighted to offer at auction one the earliest Beatles concert posters ever made, dating from an early appearance at Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club in November 1962 illustrated above left. Hand-painted and featuring striking, brightly-coloured text, it is the only known copy of this poster. The work marks a significant moment in the history of The Beatles who had secured their recording contract with Parlophone in June earlier that same year, and had recently released their debut single Love Me Do, peaking at number seventeen in the Record Retailer chart. Over the course of their career as a band The Beatles made a total of 292 appearances at The Cavern Club, where they experienced some of the most pivotal moments in their career, notably it was where their subsequent manager Brian Epstein first heard them play in November 1961.