The Beatles played almost 300 gigs at The Cavern over two-and-a-half yearsIt was 50 years ago today that The Beatles played their first gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool - the venue where the band built their reputation and where Beatlemania was born.
Alex McKechnie, then 16, was in the crowd for that first show and went on to be a regular at the club:
"I saw The Beatles a few times in the north end of Liverpool and was working in Liverpool city centre as a messenger boy in a printing works when I heard that they were on at the Cavern in a lunchtime session.
"The Cavern was in the basement of a three or four storey warehouse. The public went down one flight of stone stairs and then there were three long arches.
"At the end of one of the long arches was a little tiny stage. That's where the Beatles performed 292 times.
"I remember it being very highly charged with excitement. The music sounded even more exciting [than the previous gigs] because The Cavern was this little squashed space so the music sounded a bit louder, a bit more exciting and a bit more vital. About 20 to 30 people were there.
"The Beatles were the complete package - they didn't just have a great singer, they had two great singers. They always did harmonies right from the very first time I saw them.
"They could probably only afford two microphones, and so when one was doing the lead singing the other two were facing each other on the mic, and it was quite charismatic, it was nice to look at. They had a camaraderie about them.
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