CASBAH

On this date, August 29, 1959, The Quarry Men (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown) performed at the Casbah Coffee Club, Hayman's Green, West Derby, Liverpool. This is the opening night of a new teen club in a large Victorian house that is owned by Mrs. Mona Best and the first of seven straight Saturdays that The Quarry Men play here. The band shared one microphone connected to the house P.A.

Started by Mona Best in the cellar of the family home, the Casbah was planned as a members-only club for her sons Pete and Rory and their friends, to meet and listen to the popular music of the day. Mona came up with the idea of the club after watching a TV report about The 2i's Coffee Bar in London's Soho where several singers had been discovered.

The Quarrymen — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown — went to the club to arrange their first booking, to which Mona agreed, but said she needed to finish painting the club first. All four took up brushes and helped Mona to finish painting the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars. In addition to the four boys' artistic contributions, Cynthia Powell, later to become Cynthia Lennon, painted a silhouette of John on the wall, which can still be seen today. The group often played at The Casbah as other venues, like The Cavern Club, had a jazz-only policy at that time. The cellar — with its original decoration — still exists.

The Quarrymen played a series of seven Saturday night concerts in The Casbah for 15 shillings each, starting on 29 August to October 1959, featuring Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Brown, but without a drummer, and only one microphone connected to the club's small PA system. The opening night concert was attended by about 300 local teenagers, but as the cellar had no air-conditioning, and people were dancing, the temperature rose until it became hard to breathe. After the success of the first night, Mona gave The Quarrymen a residency, and paid the whole group £3 a night. Every Saturday thereafter, queues lengthened onto the street, which was financially good for Mona, as she charged one shilling admission on top of the annual membership fee.

Mona's son Pete eventually joined The Quarrymen as they became The Beatles.

~ John Einarson