Ray McFall

Last week, 9 January, 2015 ( feel's weird writing/reading 2015 doesn't it? ), we lost a true music legend who is often over looked; Ray McFall. Some of us have never even heard of his name but we've all heard of the legacy he established; a little club in a warehouse cellar called The Cavern Club. Also, yesterday, 16 January, 2015 (still weird), we celebrated the fifty-eight year anniversary of the club it's self. With all this being said, it's only fitting to write about McFall's story and his role in Cavern history.

Alan Sytner, born in Liverpool in 1935, was brought up with vacations in Paris where his music influence flourished and nurtured the melodies of jazz. At age twenty-one Sytner received a generous amount of money from a life insurance policy, four-hundred pounds, which he used towards bringing the swinging jazz sound to his home on the Merseyside. After being inspired by a jazz club called Le Caveau De La Huchette, from his Paris days, Alan went on to pursuit his love for the art and bought an old air-raid shelter of World War II and tunnel system on Mathew Street, Liverpool England.

The property was located near a market and tucked away in an alley way at the proud address of number Ten. Sytner put a lot of effort into opening his new club, from installing toilets, coatrooms, snacks, and even a stage made of wood in the far end, but finally on the cold January day 1957 the club was opened to the public and soon became a well-renowned Jazz club, with the opening night's act Merseyippi Jazz Band, Wall City Jazzmen, Ralph Watmough Jazz Band, and Coney Island Skiffle Group. It wasn't until that coming June that McFall would accept any other music genres to play at his club when he hired Gin Mill Skiffle Group.

Hiring a Skiffle Group, a kind of music based off of the roots of folk and rock'n'roll, attracted more young audiences and more bands, including the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, who made their debut on 31 July, 1957 with their beloved drummer, Richard Starkey (bet you can't guess who that is). That coming August, another local group called The Quarrymen, made their first appearance at the club with members, John Lennon, Len Garry, Rod Davis, Colin Hanton, Pete Shotton, and Eric Griffiths- unfortunately their lead guitar player at the time, Paul McCartney, was away on a boyscout trip. During their lunch-time set, Lennon received a note from Sytner thinking it was a request or a 'great job' message, but when he unraveled he paper and squinted he made out the words 'Cut out the rock!'.

McFall is the one with the hat

From many different jazz musicians like Ronnie Scott, Mr. Acker Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band... performed under the roof of the dingy, dim, and damp club, things were about to change in 1959.

3 October, 1959 The Cavern Club was bought out by Ray McFall for 2,750 pounds, after Alan Sytner moved to a more popular club in London, The Marquee Jazz Club.

Ray McFall was born 14 November, 1926 in Garston, Liverpool to a sea merahnt. His family and himself then moved to Maghull where he would sit behind a desk at St Mary's Roman Catholic College, Crosby. From time to time he found himself working at the Clock Face Colliery and then as a clerk as an accountant. He later found himself working as a cashier part-time for Alan Sytner at The Cavern Club and the rest went like this...

McFall opened his night with two blues musician's, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Unlike Sytner, McFall understood that times were changing and skiffle and rock'n'roll were making their way into the hearts of the young Liverpudlians and The Cavern began to change, starting with  Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, who provided high energy levels anytime they performed by their lead singer, Rory Storm, and their loveable drummer, Richard Starkey, who would later be known as Ringo Starr.

Ray then hired a stage manager and announcer, Bob Wooler, who began advertising for young rock'n'roll groups, McFall was successful when Wooler finally closed the deal with a charming mother, Mona Best, and hired her son's band, The Beatles, to play. In 1961, The Beatles, featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best started their fame at The Cavern. Prior to their Mathew Street productions, the band were frequently playing in Best's basement, after his mother decided to open up a club in their home called The Casbah.

In total The Beatles played 292 time sat The Cavern earning about twenty-five shillings per act. The group became The Cavern's top act with lines flooding up the turning staircases and onto the street. If girls weren't getting all dolled-up in the bathrooms they would either be fantasizing about The Beatles or fighting for a closer spot, and even fighting over the boys affections.  Despite the fighting, damp, dark, and awful mixture of spoiled fruit from the market and sweat, The Beatles were untouchable. The following video is The Beatles performing "Some Other Guy" at The Cavern, 1962;

Amongst The Beatles other acts such as, The Searchers, Rory Storm and The Hurricanes (whose drummer, Ringo Starr, joined The Beatles in 1962, which lead to a HUGE upset amongst Beatles fans- but that a story for another post), Gene Vincent, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Swinging Blue Jeans, and others. Even in the later years after The Beatles took off, broke out of Liverpool and started the worldwide trend called "Beatlemania" (maybe you've heard of it), bands like The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who, The Kings, John Lee Hooker... would make their debut at the city's now over populated club.

With his success came a dreadful ending in 1966. The Beatles had been gone for nearly four years, the sewage system went and McFall didn't have enough money to put fix it and had to declare bankruptcy. The Cavern Club closed on 28 February, 1966 but was reluctantly repaired by Alf Geoghegan and Joe Davey and was officially reopened with a souvenir shop, coffee lounge, eatery, and even a new entrance, by British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson on 23 July, 1966.

After selling The Cavern Club, Ray and his family, wife Shirley Wilkins and their six children, moved to a southern London town called, Balham where he did a number of jobs, from selling insurance to adding machines, to joining an office business.  On 8 January, 2015, we said goodbye to Ray McFall, at age eighty-eight.

Some Articles That May Interest You;

• The Quarrymen
• John and Paul meeting
• Decca Auditions
• The Cavern Walk for Sale
• Ron Howard Beatles Touring Documentary
• Ringo Starr's Early Music

Sources; TheCavernClub.org, Allmusic.com

7 Days of Starr Day 2- Early Music

Before reading this post it might help if you read Day 1 of 7 Days of Starr about his childhood.

“Music possessed me and I got out.”-Ringo Starr, The Anthology

Ringo had outgrown his illness after age sixteen, but a few years before his sixteenth year he was diagnosed with pleurisy it was in this hospital visit he had grown a liking to drums. Prior to the hospital he had seen drums in a music store on Park Road, the store had all instruments like guitars, banjos and what not but it was the drums that he was drawn too but they were too expensive. He was given a harmonica by his grandfather when he was seven, a mandolin and banjo, and a piano was around but he never had much interest in any of them. It had to be the drums; that was it. When he was in the hospital he started hitting cabinets next to the bed with cotton bobbins, there was nothing else to do. A teacher would come in and teach the child patients, one subject would be music where the kids would be allowed to play percussion instruments like triangles, tambourines, and the drums; Ringo would only play if he could play the drums. 

He bought his first drum for thirty shillings. His uncle played banjo or harmonica and his grandparents played mandolin and banjo, and he would play his drum. When he was fifteen he began singing in choir. His favorite music at the time was The Four Aces’ ‘Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing’, Eddie Calvert, and David Whitfield. Hank Williams was another favorite of his, he had a love for country. When Skiffle was coming out he became a fan of Johnnie Ray but he found his hero when he was sixteen, Frankie Laine; Bill Haley and Carl Perkins later became other favorites of his. When he met Roy Trafford, years later, they would soon share the same love for music and ease on their teddy boy days to become musicians. 

"Ritchie joined the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group with Ed Miles, the boy who lived next door. Roy Trafford and Johnny Dougherty - they all worked together in the same place. Eddie used to take his guitar to work every day. He was a smashing fellow - if ever a lad should have got somewhere he would have. I believe he's the Hank Walters & His Dusty Road Ramblers."-Elsie Gleave, The Mersey Beat

Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group

At age seventeen the skiffle sound had boomed thanks to Lonnie Donegan and The Vipers. Roy Trafford, Eddie Miles (a lathe operator where Ringo and Roy worked and would go by the name Eddie Clayton), John Dougherty, Frank Walsh, and Ringo started their own skiffle group. His first band was called the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. It was around this time that Ringo had received his first drum kit for Christmas from his family. With his drums he took three lessons from an older man, after three lessons it became too routine for Ringo and he never returned. After his lessons and he set up the drums in his bedroom; he only played their twice due to complaints from the neighbors. The band started playing at the factory where they worked, then moved onto doing weddings, which lead to them soon being regulars at Peel Street Labour Club along with appearances at the Cavern Club. 

At age eighteen Ringo began thinking about emigrating to the United States with his friend Johnny and live with one of his favorite Blues musicians, Lightinin’ Hopkins; Ringo even got paper work from the Embassy to go. By this time he was beginning to become well known as a drummer in Liverpool’s best bands like The Darktown Skiffle Group then with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes leaving his band with Eddie and Roy who had become wrapped up in their own personal lives of starting families and focusing more on their careers.

 “I thought Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were great. They were the first ones in Liverpool who really wanted to get into rock’n’roll.” -Ringo Starr, Anthology

Rory Storm and the Hurricanes

Ringo auditioned for Rory; a blonde haired, front man singer, with guitarist, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Byrne (“…was Liverpool’s Jimi Hendrix.”), in 1958 after Ringo had bought his new drum kit, an Ajax single-headed kit from Frank Hessy’s music shop. On first impression Ringo looked tough to the Hurricanes, as he still dressed in his Teddy boy apparel. That was the impression Ringo got often, even when The Beatles met him, they were a bit frightened by him because of his appearance. Ringo passed the audition and became known as one of the greatest drummers in Liverpool during the time, everyone wanted him; some groups didn’t even want Ringo as a drummer, they wanted him as a bassist or anything they could get him to play. 

Rory Storm and the Hurricanes

 The Hurricanes started playing at various places, one being at The Cavern Club on Mathew Street, where they were kicked off stage for being a progressive rock’n’roll group rather than a jazz or skiffle group that the audience wanted to hear. It was around 1959 when it had been announced that those born after September 1939 would be safe from being enlisted into war which was fantastic for Ringo, he stopped working at the factory  and decided he was going to be professional with Rory; the DHSS said ‘He left the factory to join a dance band.’. The Hurricanes were offered a gig to play for £16 a week at the rock and Calypso Ballroom in Butlins. His family told him, 

“'You’ll come back in three months, and you’ll only be semi-skilled when you do.'”  -Ringo Starr, Anthology

Ringo’s response was,

 “I don’t care. Drums are my life, I want to be a musicians and I’m going away with Rory to Butlins to fulfill this dream.” - Anthology

They were in Butlins for three months where they decided to give each other names, John Byrne became Johnny Guitar, and this is when Ringo, became Ringo because of the amount of rings he wore. He began calling himself Ringo Starkey, but Starkey didn’t flow well with his new nick name so he dropped with ending and added an extra ‘r’ making Richard Starkey to Ringo Starr.  

Rory Storm and his Rockette?

 The Hurricanes were in Butlins and the right time, the summer months, where they would perform week after week doing their performances of songs like Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and Rory’s athletics of jumping over Ringo’s head after he finished playing the piano that was located behind the drums.  From Butlins The Hurricanes were offered gigs playing at American army bases in France.

 “The problem was we need a girl singer, because the army didn’t want to look at us guys. So we found a blonde girl in Liverpool (whose name I can’t remember) and we went out there and played in all those bases in the wilderness.”-Ringo Starr, Anthology

 It was during this time that the French were fighting the Algerians and once the band got to Paris by train they were forced off, which wasn’t the most welcoming experience but the band overcame that and stayed in cheap rooms; they survived off of hamburgers and Hershey bars that they got at solider prices. By autumn 1960 Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were to play in Hamburg, Germany where everything seemed to fall into place.

 

George, Pete, Paul, John at the Cavern

With gigs in Germany and around venues near their home town Rory Storm and the Hurricanes became the greatest rock 'n' roll group in Liverpool, amongst with another favorite band whose name changed from The Quarrymen to Long John and the Silver Beetles to The Beatles. During this time The Beatles were held together by three guitarist, the leader seeming to be John Lennon who shared the leadership with a chubby cheeked Paul McCartney who had recently picked up bass after their bass player, Stu Sutcliffe, fell in love with a German photographer, and the shy lead guitarist, George Harrison. Behind the three standing at the microphones was drummer, Pete Best, whose mother owns the Casbah Club, a coffee club in the Best's basement where The Beatles played regularly when they weren't playing in Germany or The Cavern. The Beatles were well known due to bookings from their manager, Brian Epstein, in fact The Beatles were already looking for a record label after making an album with another English performer, Tony Sheridan, where they were listed as The Beats. The group went to London where they were shot down by Decca records, read about their experience here. From their they went on to EMI Studios were producer George Martin had made the suggestion that the group was strong but needed a new drummer, with that standing in the way The Beatles had their manager fire Pete. 

"We were cowards. We got Epstein to do the dirty work for us."- John Lennon, Anthology

Ringo and The Beatles

On 12 August, 1962 Brian broke the news to Pete. Six days later Ringo had joined the band after being offered the job two days earlier. When he joined the band the fans were furious, especially the girls who found  Pete  the most attractive one out of all of The Beatles. At gigs the crowd would chant,

"Ringo never, Pete Best forever!"

George was even headbutted and received a black eye outside of the Cavern by a Best fan. But that all died down and Ringo became (in John Lennon's words) The greatest drummer. George described the situation in a joke matter saying, "How many Beatles does it take to screw in a light bulb? Four." Ringo being the fourth piece.

The Beatles Decca Audtion

 "I hope he kicks himself to death!" -John Lennon

New Years Eve 1961 The Beatles; featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best, and their road manager and friend Neil Aspinall were driving from Liverpool to London (getting lost in the midlands) in hopes to pass an audition with Decca records on the following day (1 January, 1962).

"Brian put in a lot of time getting us off the ground. He believed in us from the start."- George Harrison

The idea of the audition came across when Beatles manager, Brian Epstein met with Mike Smith, from Decca, who had seen The Beatles preform at The Cavern Club on 13 December, 1961.

"...We were all excited: it was Decca. He'd met this Mike Smith guy and we were to go down there. So we went down and we did all these numbers; terrified and nervous, you can heart it...we virtually recorded our Cavern stage show, with a few omissions- around twenty songs."- John Lennon

The Beatles arrived for their first time in London on New Years Day and headed to Decca studios where they set up their amps and started recording their demo. The group preformed fifteen songs at this audition (three of their originals, which are in bold)  and what is the believed set list is as followed;

(L-R) George Harrison, Pete Best, Paul McCartney, John Lennon

•  Like Dreamers Do
• Money (That's What I Want)
• Till There Was You
• The Sheik of Araby
• To Know Her Is to Love Her
• Take Good Care of My Baby
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Sure To Fall (In Love With You)
• Hello Little Girl
• Three Cool Cats
• Crying, Waiting, Hoping
• Love Of  The Loved
• September in The Rain
• Besame Mucho
• Searchin'

 They each picked numbers that they wanted to preform, George for example was a fan of Joe Brown and sang Brown's rock 'n' roll version of "The Sheik of Araby". Paul choose to sing "September Rain".

The audition lasted a few hours and the group found themselves broke and looking for a place to go. Neil Aspinall remembers it as,

"... We went to Shaftesbury Avenue and around there; amazing things to buy. The bootshop Anello and Davide was on one corner, then Cecil Gee, the clothes store. We went into a club up by St. Giles Circus. We didn't stay long because it was boring. Some of the women had an after-eight shadow. We were starving and went into a restaurant. All that we could afford was the soup so they threw us out and we went into Soho and got something there. London was all very exciting and new."

 While waiting to hear from Decca the band found themselves in Anello and Davide's bootshop which created what later became known as 'Beatles Boots'.

 "We went back and we waited and waited, and then found out that they hadn't accepted it; we really thought that was it then, that was the end."- John Lennon

Brian Epstein

 Decca decided to pick another group, Brian Poole and the Tremeoloes. Paul McCartney does now admit that he can see why they didn't get in. Saying that when he listens to the tape now they weren't good but they did play interesting and original things. John Lennon on the other hand says that he wouldn't of turned The Beatles down. Saying that many people weren't playing like they were playing and that the record was OK, it was just a demo and they weren't trying to be all polished. He wanted Decca to recognize their potential and that they should of been accepted.

"As for Deccas response, we didn't hear anything for ages, though Brian kept bugging them to find out; and in the end they turned us down, the funny thing is that it was by someone from one of those 'Dum de dum' bands, Tony Meehan, a drummer who had become big-time as the A&R man for Decca. there's a famous story that Brian Epstein was trying to get him to say whether he liked us, whether we'd got the job or not. He replied, ' I'm a busy many, Mr. Epstein,' and he was just a kid."- George Harrison

Dick Rowe, head of Decca recalls the experience as,

"I told Mike he'd have to decide between them. It was up to him - The Beatles or Brian Poole and the Tremeoloes. He said, 'They're both good, but one's a local group, the other comes from Liverpool.' We decided it was better to take the local group. We could work with them more easily and stay closer in touch as they came from Dagenham."

It's even said that Brian didn't take the rejection easy, he kept trying and making trips to talk to Decca, even saying he'd by 3,000 copies if they produced a Beatles record. David Rowe says he never heard that offer and if he did he would of considered the offer and maybe The Beatles would of recorded with Decca. Decca did however sign The Rolling Stones in George Harrison's recommendation.

"'It's too bluesy,' or 'It's too much like rock 'n' roll and that's all over now', they used to keep telling us. Even in Hamburg when we audition for these German companies they would tell us. Even in Hamburg when we auditioned for these stuff, because they all thought rock was dead; but they were wrong." -John Lennon