Today marks the 55th anniversary of the 1961 date when Liverpool record store owner Brian Epstein visited the Cavern Club during lunchtime to hear a rock band performing there called The Beatles. Epstein ran NEMS (North End Music Store) in Liverpool, and had been alerted to the band's existence after two separate incidents in the two weeks preceding when a man, followed by two girls three days later, asked for a recording of the Beatles' performance of "My Bonnie" that was recorded in Hamburg. Epstein, who prided himself on keeping his record store well stocked with unusual releases, was astonished he did not know of the group's existence and tracked them down at the club. Here's his remembrance of the event from a 1964 interview: "They were rather scruffily dressed - in the nicest possible way or, I should say, in the most attractive way: black leather jackets and jeans, long hair of course. And they had a rather untidy stage presentation, not terribly aware, and not caring very much, what they looked like. I think they cared more even then for what they sounded like. I immediately liked what I heard. They were fresh and they were honest, and they had what I thought was a sort of presence and, this is a terribly vague term, star quality. Whatever that is, they had it, or I sensed that they had it." After catching a few more performances throughout the month, he would eventually meet The Beatles for the first time on Dec. 3, and a contract was eventually signed on Jan. 24, 1962. Here's a sample of what Epstein might have heard that day.
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Walburgh's BlogMostly retro, mainly music, but generally whatever's on my mind. Archives
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