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February 9th – From the Cavern to Ed Sullivan to Wings

February 9th was very much ‘A Day in the Life’ of the Beatles! On February 9th 1961, the Beatles first appeared at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. The Quarrymen had played at the Cavern a few times in the late 1950s, when still mainly a skiffle group. However, they also did a few rock and roll songs, and club owner Alan Sytner, a jazz lover, told them to “Cut out the bloody rock!”

Finally, now called ‘The Beatles’ they got back into the Cavern. However there was a doubt whether Paul McCartney would be able to get to the gig. He had a full time job at Massey and Coggins, and although the gig was at lunchtime, there was no way Paul could get to the gig and back during his lunch hour. However, Paul just bunked over the wall and played the gig.

The Beatles went onto play at the Cavern nearly 300 times in the next 2.5 years…

Exactly three years later, on February 9th 1964, the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, in front of a TV audience of 73 million people. Quite a leap in three years!!

Oh – and on 9th February 1972, Wings gave their first ever concert, at Nottingham University, 11 years to the day since the Beatles first played the Cavern!

To find out more about these events see ‘Beatles Fab Four Cities’

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