Various - The Cavern - The Most Famous Club In The World

Year of Release: 2007
Label: Zonophone/EMI
Catalog Number: 0946 396921 2 5 (ZONO2007
Format: CD
Total Time: 156:55:00

Having turned fifty this year, I guess it was the very first birthday that made me realize how mortal life really is. Previously I lived life from day to day without looking back. This time, however, it felt weird being "half a century" old. Nevertheless I am proud to be fifty, as I never realized that none other than the world famous Cavern Club also started life in 1957. It kinda makes me proud being linked to this terrific place in Liverpool that way.

For sure everyone thinks of The Cavern as the place where it all happened for The Beatles and subsequently it became the club that changed the world. The Beatles played The Cavern no fewer than 282 times (including lunchtime sessions), but many more famous names played there. Not only was Cilla Black the cloak girl downstairs but she also performed on the small stage. Forget about the Marquee or CBGBs and descend into the cellar of 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool breathing in the fusty air that maybe once circulated inside the lungs of a young John Lennon.

Spread over three discs are fifty songs, one for each year the Cavern has existed until now. I was surprised to see the names of Queen, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, The Who and Wishbone Ash pop up, but also that of recent acts such as Oasis, Travis, The Coral, KT Tunstall and even The Arctic Monkeys.

Trying to emulate the Parisian Left Bank jazz clubs it was local promoter Alan Sytner who set the wheels in motion. The opening night on 16th January 1957, no less than 600 fans crammed inside to see The Merseysippi Jazz Band. Would you believe a further 1500 had to wait outside? Talk about instant success. Jazz was soon followed by skiffle including John Lennon's Quarrymen and a rival Ringo Starr skiffle act who both played The Cavern as early as then. Two years later new owner Ray McFall took over beefing up the sound, adding a distinctive Liverpool style that would later be christened the Merseybeat.

This 3CD set brings you back all the energy and emotion that was present at The Cavern. Close your eyes and imagine a smell of body odour, cigarette smoke, hamburger smells and a little extra from the toilets and you're in The Cavern yourself. The actual Cavern was demolished to make way for work on an underground railway line. However, years later the club was rebuilt using 15,000 bricks from the original cellar. It's in this revamped Cavern that none other than Paul McCartney put down a memorable show on the night of 14th December 1999. Macca had gone full circle by delivering one of his all-time favourites, "All Shook Up" in the place where it all started for him all those decades ago.

So don't be mistaken by the name as you'll find much more than only the sound of Merseybeat here. Especially the third disc sheds a light on the younger generation of musicians. Yet whatever way you look at it, The Cavern was, is, and will always be a milestone in the history of popular music. They couldn?t have released a more fitting tribute.

Tracklisting:
Disc One: Please Please Me (The Beatles) / No Particular Place To Go (Chuck Berry) / Apache (The Shadows) / Keep On Running (The Spencer Davis Group) / Shakin' All Over (Johnny Kid and the Pirates) / Anyone Who Had A Heart (Cilla Black) / I'm Alive (The Hollies) / Be Bop A Lula (Gene Vincent) / Cumberland Gap (Lonnie Donegan) / Hello Little Girl (The Fourmost) / Sweets For My Sweet (The Searchers) / Do Wah Diddy Diddy (Manfred Mann) / Out Of Time (Chris Farlowe) / In The Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett) / Stand By Me (Ben E. King) / I Was Made To Love Her (Stevie Wonder)

Disc Two: Killer Queen (Queen) / All Shook Up (Paul McCartney) / You Really Got Me (The Kinks) / Some Other Guy (The Big Three) / The House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals) / I'm Into Something Good (Herman?s Hermits) / Go Now (The Moody Blues) / Ferry Cross The Mersey (Gerry & The Pacemakers) / She's Not There (The Zombies) / Hippy Hippy Shake (The Swinging Blue Jeans) / The Locomotion (Little Eva) / Got To Get You Into My Life (Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers) / Little Children (Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas) / I Think Of You (The Merseybeats) / Let's Go To San Fransisco (The Flowerpot Men) / Border Song (Elton John)

Disc Three: It's All Over Now (The Rolling Stones) / My Generation (The Who) / Part Of The Queue (Oasis) / For Your Love (The Yardbirds) / Sunshine Superman (Donovan) / Blowin' Free (Wishbone Ash) / Yeh Yeh (Georgie Fame) / Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley) / Down Down (Status Quo) / 2-4-6-8 Motorway (The Tom Robinson Band) / War (Edwin Starr) / Whisky In The Jar (Thin Lizzy) / Handbags And Gladrags (Rod Stewart) / All You Good Good People (Embrace) / Black Horse & The Cherry Tree (KT Tunstall) / Why Does It Always Rain On Me (Travis) / In The Morning (The Coral) / The View From The Afternoon (Arctic Monkeys)

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Genre: Rock

Origin VA

Added: December 10th 2007
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: www.cavernclub.org
Hits: 2646
Language: english