McCartney Times

When it opened in 1957, Liverpool’s Cavern Club featured acts like jazz greats Acker Bilk and Ronnie Scott and blues legends Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Rock ‘n’ roll was forbidden, though skiffle bands like the Quarrymen, John Lennon and Paul McCartney‘s early group, sometimes appeared.On May 25, 1960, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, with Ringo Starr, on drums played the club’s first advertised beat-night session. That paved the way for the Beatles to perform the first of a series of afternoon sessions on Feb. 9, 1961. The band had honed its act in the rough and tumble clubs of Hamburg but had yet to taste success at home.“We used to play lunchtime dates,” George Harrison recalled in Anthology. “We’d get up and go down to the Cavern and play from noon till about two. It was very casual. We’d have our tea and sandwiches and cigarettes onstage, sing a couple of tunes and tell a few jokes.”

Source: The Story of the Beatles’ Early Days at the Cavern Club