Template:Infobox music venue

The Casbah Coffee Club was started by Mona Best (3 January 1924-9 September 1988) who was born in India. After moving to Liverpool from India, Mona supposedly pawned all of her jewellery and used the money to place a 33-1 bet on a horse named 'Never Say Die', and with her winnings bought a house at 8 Hayman's Green, in Liverpool. The story is not completely true, as Mona won the bet three years before she bought the house. Mona later opened The Casbah Coffee Club—a venue for rock music—in her cellar, as a members-only club for her sons and their friends. The club was often referred to as The Casbah Club, or The Casbah.

The Quarry Men—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ken Brown—frequently played at The Casbah and other venues such as the The Cavern Club, which had a jazz-only policy at that time. The Casbah Club cellar—with its original decoration—still exists. In 2006, the property was accorded a Grade II Heritage listing.

The idea

Mona Best came up with the idea of the club after watching a TV report about The 2i's Coffee Bar in London's Soho where several singers had been discovered. She decided to open The Casbah Club, which was located in her cellar, on 29 August 1959, for young people to meet and listen to the popular music of the day.^[1][2] Mona charged half a crown annually for membership—to "keep out the rough elements"—and served soft drinks, snacks, cakes, and coffee from an espresso machine, which no other club had at that time.^[3][4]

Mona had booked the Les Stewart Quartet to play the opening night with Harrison on guitar, but they cancelled the booking after Stewart and Brown had a quarrel. Stewart was angry that Brown had missed a rehearsal, but was because Brown was helping Mona to decorate the club.^[5] As 300 membership cards had already been sold, Harrison said that he had two friends in a band called The Quarrymen who would play instead.^[5] Lennon, McCartney, Sutcliffe and Harrison went to the club to arrange the booking, to which Mona agreed, but said she needed to finish painting the club first. All three took up brushes and helped Mona to finish painting the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars, but as Lennon was short-sighted, he mistook gloss for emulsion paint, which took a long time to dry in the dark, damp cellar.^[6][7]

The Quarrymen played a series of seven Saturday night concerts in The Casbah for 15 shillings each, starting on 29 August to October 1959, featuring Brown, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison (but without a drummer, or a PA system).^[8][9] The opening night concert was attended by about 300 local teenagers, but as the cellar had no air-conditioning, and people were dancing, the temperature rose until it became hard to breathe.^[10] After the success of the first night, Mona gave The Quarrymen a residency, and paid the whole group £3 a night.^[11] Every Saturday thereafter, queues lengthened onto the street and down towards Hayman's Green, which was financially good for Mona, as she charged a one shilling admission on top of the membership fee.^[12] As there was no amplification, Lennon later persuaded Mona to hire a young amateur guitar player called Harry to play a short set before The Quarrymen, but this was only so they could use his 40-Watt amplifier.^[13]

Pete was studying at the Collegiate Grammar School when he decided he wanted to be in a music group, so Mona bought him a drum kit from Blackler's music store and Best formed his own band; The Blackjacks.^[5][14][15] Chas Newby joined the group, as did Ken Brown, but only after he had left The Quarrymen.^[16][9][17] The reason for Brown's exit from the group was that he turned up on the seventh Saturday night of The Quarrymen residency with the flu, so Mona ordered him upstairs to the Best's living room to rest. This caused a massive quarrel with the rest of the group when Mona came to pay them, as they wanted Brown's money to be shared amongst the three of them, as Brown had not played. Mona refused, so The Quarrymen angrily cancelled their residency and stormed out.^[18] Colin Manley from The Remo Four was also given a booking to play in the club, which was the only venue that young amateur bands could play at the time.^[11] Other groups like The Searchers and Gerry & The Pacemakers later played in the club.^[19] The Blackjacks became the resident group at The Casbah, although The Quarrymen occasionally played there again and often visited.^[10] It was in The Casbah Club that Lennon and McCartney convinced Stuart Sutcliffe to use the prize money he had been given after an art competition to buy a Hofner bass guitar and join the group.^[20]

Even though the membership list later spiralled to over a thousand, Mona closed the club in 1962. In 2006, the Best's ex-coal cellar was given a "Grade II listed building status", after being recommended by English Heritage.^[7] It has now been opened as a tourist attraction in Liverpool, along with McCartney and Lennon's previous homes.^[21][22]

Notes

References

• Best, Roag and Pete (2003). The Beatles: The True Beginnings. Thomas Dunne. ISBN 0312319258.
• Clayson, Alan (2004). Paul McCartney (Beatle). Sanctuary Publishing Limited. ISBN 1-86074-482-6.
• Leigh, Spencer (1998). Drummed Out!: The Sacking of Pete Best. Northdown Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1900711043.
• Lennon, Cynthia (2006). John. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-89828-3.
• Lewisohn, Mark (1990). EMI's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years. Hamlyn. ISBN 0-681-03189-1.
• Martin, George (1994). All You Need Is Ears. St. Martin's Griffin (New York). ISBN 978-0312114824.
• Miles, Barry (1998). Many Years From Now. Vintage-Random House. ISBN 0-7493-8658-4.
• Norman, Philip (1996). Shout: The Beatles in Their Generation. Fireside 2nd edition. ISBN 978-0684830674.
• Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles: The Biography. Little, Brown and Company (New York). ISBN 1-84513-160-6.
• The Beatles (2003). The Beatles Anthology (DVD). Apple records. ASIN: B00008GKEG (Bar Code: 24349 29699).

External links

• Interview with Pete and Mona Best
• An Evening With Pete Best, Part I: The Interview
• Best interview with Stephen Cooke - 11 Sep 1996
• Rolling Stone on Best's DVD
• The medals and Sergeant Pepper