There are places I'll remember

By Ray O Brien

Every Beatle Fan in the world knows the history of The Beatles playing in the Cavern , the Blue Angel, the Jakaranda and have made pilgrimages to these hallowed sites over the years but not many people know the history of many of the other Beatle venues like the where Ringo first played with them or the place they first wore their famous collarless jacket suits. Triva of coarse but this book is full of little gems from the very early days of the Quarrymen, Silver Beatles, and Early Beatles.

Every venue has a black and white photos taken recently to give the reader a sense of time , some venues are gone replaced by other buildings and some venues remain the same, (untouched by time). The author also gives a lot of details about each venue and how often they played there. This book also has ticket and advertising for many of the venues. A copy of a letter from Sir Paul McCartney to the author in response to a query is also in the book.

I enjoyed this book and found much of its content new and interesting, it is a great reference book and will certainly be used by me in the future. Every tourist office, hotel, guest house should have a copy of it and maybe in the future we will go on a Magical Mystery Tour, further than Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields. A labour of love from the author, a Liverpudlian, a Beatle fan and who was also there before and after it happened. Nice one Ray !!

In the Footsteps of The Beatles
By Paddy Shennan

It was like the eye of a hurricane. One minute we were playing small clubs in Liverpool, the next we are here."

A bemused John Lennon was still trying to get his head around Beatlemania. The time was 1984. The place America. And the "small clubs" were places like Litherland Town Hall, the Civil Service Club in Lower Castle Street, Liverpool, Knotty Ash Village Hall and the YMCA, Hoylake.

Now, 37 years on, we are being taken on a magical mystery tour of 60 of the venues - other than the world-famous Cavern - which helped The Beatles develop their stagecraft.

Ray O’Brien, from Wallasey, who attended the Liverpool Institute at the same time as Paul McCartney and George Harrison has compiled and published a booklet entitled There Are Places I’ll Remember: The Beatles Early Venues In And Around Merseyside.

The Beatles are still big business, but what about the halls and clubs where it all began? Ray visited and took photographs of 60 of them in Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens, Wirral and Chester. He also includes details about their appearances at each place. "Some of them are no longer standing and some have become supermarkets, but about 70% of the venues haven’t changed at all," explains Ray, 54, who estimates he saw the Fab Four about 50 times at the Cavern. Ray’s book also includes a 1960 picture of the Liverpool's Institute’s Upper School featuring a 17-year-aid Paul McCartney.

" It’s amazing to think that this ordinary-looking boy had been play-trig in The Quarrymen since 1957,’ says Ray. "And yet there he is just another lad in school uniform on a group photograph. We are standing outside The Lathom in Seaforth which holds a special place in Beatles history not least, says the author, because it featured in the film Backbeat". 

He adds: "Their first of 11 appearances at this venue took place on March 14 1960, when they auditioned as the Silver Beats - the only occasion they performed under this name. Ten further appearances followed in January and February 1961 as The Beatles on their first appearance they were attacked by some local youths and John Lennon sustained a broken Wrist."

A short drive away is another famous venue - Litherland Town Hall. where The Beatles first appeared on December 27 1960, shortly after returning from their first trip to Hamburg.

Ray says: "They proved so popular that they made a further 16 appearances in 1961, including a memorable occasion on October 19, when they joined forces with Gerry And The Pacemakers - performing as the Beatmakers."

Other places on Ray’s hit-list today look a little different: the former Odeon Cinema on Lord Street. South-port is now a Sainsbury supermarket; the Albany Cinema on Northway, Maghull is a Lidi supermarket and Blair Hall on Walton Road. Walton. is an Iceland supermarket.

One of the most intriguing venues for the author was Hambleton Hall in St David’s Road, Page Moss. Huyton -"The hall later became a probation office and continued to be so until fairly recently. It has now been demolished. In a former life, I was a probation officer and occasionally used to visit it."

The Grosvenor Ballroom on Grosvenor Street in Liscard today boasts a plaque which proudly states that The Beatles played there regularly between June 1960 and September 1961.

Something, Ray believes, which other venues could and should copy...

‘If this was America, there would be plaques on every building The Beatles played. And I think it is right to put them up, because a lot of’ people who go to these places today don’t realise that The Beatles used to play there. And they were actually appearing at some of these venues up until 1963 which, as John Lennon said, is incredible when you consider that in 1964 they were appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show and taking America by storm."

There Are Places I’ll Remember: The Beatles’ Early Venues In And Around Merseyside, by Ray O’Brien (Published by Ray O’Brien, £5.99) is available from The Liverpool Connection at the Blue-coat chambers, Liverpool, or from Ray, himself: Tel 0151-512-8398 or email rayo@cwctv.net

Pete Brennan
Beatles Ireland President.

There Are Places I’ll Remember: The Beatles’ Early Venues In And Around Merseyside, by Ray O’Brien (Published by Ray O’Brien, £5.99) is available from The Liverpool Connection at the Blue-coat chambers, Liverpool, or from Ray, himself: Tel 0151-512-8398 or email rayo@cwctv.net

Back to the Top

Web www.beatlesireland.info

© 2006 Beatles Ireland. All rights reserved. No part of these publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without express written permission of Beatles Ireland.
Beatles Ireland is a non-profit site.