Hi,
Sorry
I've not posted in a while. As someone once said 'Life is what happens to you
while you're busy making other plans' and that has certainly been true this
year.
That
said, I've done a lot of writing off line and hopefully with things getting
back to normal now I can start posting them fairly regularly again.
So,
without further ado, let's head over to the Wirral and visit the Grosvenor
Ballroom in Liscard, Wallasey.
In 1905
it was decided that Liscard's existing concert hall on the corner of Manor Road
and Grosvenor Street was inadequate for the numerous demands made upon its
resources. Plans were made for a new hall and ballroom capable of accommodating
200 dancers which opened onto Grosvenor Street. A firm of Liverpool architects,
Messrs T T Wainwright were commissioned to design the new building which was
built by a local contractor, Mr J Bellis of Liscard.
The new
building was ready for use on 1st March 1906 and could be hired for 4 guineas
per night. It proved very successful and during both World Wars the inter-war
years Grosvenor flourished as a beacon for the social life of the community and
was in use for dances, social events and meetings most nights of the week. It
is said that many wartime romances started on this dancefloor!
In
August 1920 the original concert hall and the Grosvenor were sold to Wallasey
Corporation (the local Council) for the sum of £22,200. Reportedly the council
only wanted the original concert hall (for offices) but the owner would only
sell both premises together.
Initially
the new lessors intended to convert the Grosvenor into a Quarter Sessions
County Court but the plans never materialised. Instead it was kept for the
purpose it was built. There would have been a public outcry had it not.
On 1
February 1947 Les Dodd’s Paramount Dance Association started promoting regular
Strict Tempo Ballroom Dances at the Grosvenor. From April that year Dodd ran a
regular Tuesday evening dance, advertised as 50% Modern and 50% Old Time.
The
1950s brought skiffle music and rock ‘n’ roll and while many of the ballrooms
moved with the times Les Dodd stood fast, maintaining his regular Strict Tempo
sessions at the Grosvenor in the face of more youthful forms of dance.
By 1960
Dodd had belatedly began booking rock 'n' roll acts, grudgingly accepting that
rock ‘n’ roll / jive sessions was where the money was. During this time
attendances at his Strict Tempo dances would be sparse but he was determined to
carry on and maintain the tradition. He managed to do this with some success
for a further 25 years until retiring from the dance scene in 1971.
Dodd
could only run his dances on week nights, Wallasey Corporation (the lessors)
retaining the coveted Saturday night at the Grosvenor for private hire or their
own
promotions.
The Beatles at the Grosvenor
Stuart
Sutcliffe, John Lennon, Tommy Moore, Paul McCartney and George Harrison at the
Wyvern in May 1960. This same line up played the Grosvenor Ballroom the
following month. (credit: Cheniston Rowland)
The
Beatles performed at the Grosvenor Ballroom on 14 occasions between 4 June 1960
and 15 September 1961, for the most part during the two months that followed
their tour of Scotland in May 1960 backing the singer Johnny Gentle.
The
group had dispensed with the ‘Silver’ pre-fix since the tour. From now on they
would be Beatles (with an ‘a’) and any variations of this name appearing on
subsequent handbills and posters were the consequence of one man’s difficulty
in remembering the correct one. 'Manager' Allan Williams not only had problems
with the name of the group - as late as April 1961 he was still writing to the
‘Beetles’ while they were in Hamburg - he struggled to remember the names of
the individual members, often confusing John with Paul or George.
What he
could do, when no-one else was
prepared to, was arrange work for the group.
The
Grosvenor dates had been arranged by Allan while the Beatles were away in
Scotland. He fixed a Saturday night residency there with Wallasey Corporation
and a Whitsun bank holiday Monday engagement with Les Dodd who also agreed to
put the group on at Neston Institute during this same period – see my separate
post entitled, imaginatively enough, ‘Neston’.
The
Beatles would make their way into town and meet at the Jacaranda, Allan
Williams' coffee bar in Slater Street. They'd travel to the Grosvenor together
in Allan's van, usually driven by Tommy Hartley a former professional boxer who
worked for Williams as a bouncer. On one occasion the van was driven by Rod
Murray, Stu and John’s Gambier Terrace flat-mate.
Paul
McCartney cut the above advert from the paper and his brother Mike included it
in his book Thank U Very Much.
Saturday
4 June 1960
The
Wallasey Corporation ran ‘Dances for Youth’ on Saturday nights, sometimes
drawing 200 teenagers on the nights a group was featured. Not only had Williams
arranged for the Beatles to be the resident group every Saturday, he'd also
convinced the Corporation to pay them a weekly fee of 10 guineas for heading up
the four hour session.
It was
apparent from the very first night that this was a rough venue. Girls danced
together while the men stood on the other side of the ballroom eyeing them up
and trying to look tough, the local Teds amongst them taking the opportunity to
start a fight at the slightest provocation. With the stage only a foot or so
off the ground the Beatles must have played through the carnage praying they
weren’t dragged off it and into the melee. Well, most of them. Drummer Tommy
Moore would recall how John Lennon ‘seemed
to love watching the fights that broke out in the dance halls between the rival
gangs. He’d say ‘Hey look at that guy putting the boot in there’. He got a
sadistic delight out of it all. He used to think it was funny watching someone
get kicked in the head, like ‘did you see that?’ He used to gloat at anything
like that.’
Two
days after their debut at the Grosvenor Ballroom, the Beatles returned to take
part in a Whit-sun bank holiday ‘rock and roll jive’ session promoted by Les
Dodd’s Paramount Enterprises. This was the first of many occasions over the
next couple of years where the Beatles shared the bill with Gerry and the
Pacemakers, the Liscard audience getting an early glimpse of the two Liverpool
groups who would achieve the greatest success during the Mersey Beat boom. Dodd
paid the Beatles £10 for their night’s work, and probably hated every second of
it.
The
Beatles’ third booking at the Grosvenor within a week, and one that didn't pass
without incident.
Tommy
Moore had had enough. Tired of John Lennon's sniping wit and browbeaten by the
woman he was living with over his irregular source of income he decided to pack
it in on 9 June after appearing with the Beatles at a Les Dodd promotion in
Neston.
When
the Beatles assembled at the Jacaranda two nights later and waited for their
lift over to Liscard Tommy failed to show.
Panicking,
the Beatles nominated Stuart to ring Allan at home in Huskisson Street and ask
for help. Williams was having his tea but, with ‘the taste of Manx kippers'*
still in his mouth he dutifully zoomed (zoom zoom) down to the Jacaranda in his
Jaguar, collected the Beatles and raced back up Duke Street to Tommy’s first
floor flat in Fern Grove, Toxteth to ask what was going on.
Upon
their arrival Moore's woman opened an upstairs window and shouted ‘you can all
piss off! He’s quit your group and got a job working the night shift at Garston
bottle works.’
Grateful
to the lady for her kind words but undeterred, Williams, a ‘spectacularly fast’
driver, zoomed them from Toxteth to Garston (zoom zoom) to find Moore. Despite
the Beatles and Allan pleading with him to join them he refused to
dismount his forklift truck, under orders from his girl to stick to the job or
she’d be off. ‘It’s a no go lads, I just can’t do it anymore.’
Realising
they couldn’t change his mind they reluctantly went on to the Grosvenor without
him. Their instruments, including Tommy’s drum kit had travelled ahead of them
in the van.
Not
wishing to antagonise the audience by performing with an incomplete group John
Lennon stepped up to the microphone before the first song:
Ladies
and gentlemen, boys and girls, women and children..ahem.....no doubt some of
you have noticed that because of circumstances quite beyond our control, as
they say in Government circles, we have arrived here with no drummer. Now, we
can play with no drummer. But it would be a better sound if we had one. If
there is anyone among you lot who fancies himself on the skins, let’s be having
yer... *
It was
meant as a joke, to placate the audience and explain why one of the group was
missing, but it backfired spectacularly.
A huge
Teddy boy gang leader, remembered as ‘Ronnie’ by William Marshall* took to the
stage and sat behind Moore's kit, which was still being paid for on hire
purchase. He approached Tommy’s skins the way he approached rival gang members
and proceeded to beat the hell out of them. Evidently he’d never played the
drums before but nobody had the courage to point this out. During the interval
he made it clear to the Beatles that they would be using him every week from
now on.
Teddy Boys
at a dance in London, 1954 (credit: Alex Dellow/Picture Post/Getty)
It was
John’s turn to make a frantic SOS call to Allan. Sensing genuine fear in
Lennon’s voice and weary of gang trouble, Williams (all five feet nothing of
him) took the van and his bouncer back over to Liscard, smoothed things with
‘Ronnie’ (I told him their drummer was only temporarily indisposed, but that if
we ever needed one the boys would be pleased to have him back on board) and had
the Beatles away from the Grosvenor before any harm could come to them.
According
to Allan’s ‘partially true’ book, he persuaded the Beatles to give Tommy one
last chance, driving them home via the bottle works where Moore was nearing the
end of his shift. It took some sweet talking from Allan to convince Tommy to
turn up at the Jacaranda the following Monday for one final time. Monday was
the resident Royal Caribbean Steel Band’s weekly night off, and Allan let the
Beatles play in their absence.
And so,
Tommy Moore, the man described by Allan Williams as ‘the best drummer the
Beatles ever had’ re-joined the group on June 13 for one last appearance before
packing it all in for a life at the bottle works.
Paul
McCartney and Tommy Moore, May 1960 (credit: Cheniston Rowland)
Moore
was interviewed in 1970 for a magazine article which naturally focused on the
'if only' angle:
Worse
than wanting to be a Beatle in your life, is once being one and then having no
chance to continue being one.... (Tommy Moore) is 38 years old and works in a
bottle factory carrying bottles. He
lives regretting the big mistake he made ten years ago. In 1960, Tommy was the drummer for three boys
called John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The band didn’t even have a name and they
were playing in a night club called Grosvenor Ballroom, in Wallasey, for (10
guineas) per night. Tommy felt it was
just a part-time job and he decided to find a more “secure” job. He started to carry the crates with the
bottles at the factory and today he still regrets that decision.
Tommy
Moore: I needed something more
secure. I abandoned the hobby of playing
drums. The three boys later came to look
for me. They already were called the
Beatles and they showed up in a white Jaguar.
I played for them for two more nights (sic). But still I couldn’t see any future in that
and I decided to quit once for all.
Paul
McCartney's hand written list of the songs he was singing at the Grosvenor
during the Beatles' residency. Note also his reminder to bring the 'words,
strings and plec(trums)'. There would also have been a list for John, and
possibly George.
Saturday
18 June 1960
But it wasn't always such a pretty sight,
'Cause we used to fight like cats and dogs
'Til we made it up in the ballroom,
Ballroom dancing made a man of me
('Ballroom Dancing' by Paul McCartney)
Paul
McCartney spent the night of his 18th birthday dodging the punches at the
Grosvenor.
Paul
McCartney: The Grosvenor Ballroom in
Wallasey was one of the worst places; there would be a hundred Wallasey lads
squaring up to a hundred lads from Seacombe and all hell would break loose (Anthology)
Memories
blur with time. If you’ve watched the behind the scenes documentary of
McCartney’s ‘Give My Regards to Broad St’ film you may recall an interview he
gives on the 'Ballroom Dancing' set. Recalling that whenever the early Beatles
played a ballroom there would usually be fighting he tells of the occasion when
a Ted grabbed his amp and said ‘One move and you're dead!’ McCartney says he
replied, ‘Ok, you can have it!’ but his memory must be faulty because the amp
is still in his possession to this day as evidenced by these 1997 photographs.
In self acknowledgement of this he would amend his story in a re-telling for the Anthology project:
I remember one night a rumble had started before I realised what was happening. I ran to the stage to save my Elpico amp, my pride and joy at the time. There were fists flying everywhere. One Ted grabbed me and said, 'Don't move, or you're bloody dead!' I was scared for my life, but I had to get that amp. (Anthology)
Chris
Huston was lead guitarist with local group Bob Evans and his Five Shillings.
The Grosvenor was his ‘local’ on Saturday nights and he remembers the Beatles
there: ‘Teds from Birkenhead arrived to confront Teds from Wallasey and the
Beatles went on stage for their second set knowing a fight was in the offing.
We all knew it. I don’t remember how many songs they got through before it
started, two or three maybe but suddenly a couple of dozen bodies from each
side met in the middle of the dance floor and all hell broke loose.
The
Beatles kept playing, as was the tradition – the management encouraged the
bands to play on during fights - and suddenly I saw a Pepsi bottle fly across
the stage and break through the bass drum skin’. (Chris Huston in Tune In by
Mark Lewisohn)
Ignoring
the contract with Wallasey Corporation stipulating that no-one from the floor
be allowed upon stage, and presumably having first checked to ensure ‘Ronnie’
was absent John Lennon once again asked for a volunteer from the audience and
it was likely on this night (or the previous Saturday) that the Beatles’ drum
seat was filled, temporarily by Jackie Lomax, soon to become a member of the Undertakers
(and even later, a solo artist for Apple Records) but in 1960 the singer and
bass guitarist in Dee and the Dynamites, a local group from Wallasey.
One
song was enough – I was terrible. But I thought the Beatles were great. You
know how hard it is to harmonise? John and Paul were a unique blend – they
sounded like the same person and they sounded like a record. That’s very hard
to find in a band. I could never get harmonisers in mine. (Jackie Lomax in Tune
In by Mark Lewisohn)
Jackie
Lomax (on the drums again) and George Harrison in 1968.
It was around late June 1960 that the Beatles found their next drummer.
Sitting in the Jacaranda one day Paul and maybe the others, heard the sound of
someone playing the drums in a vacant workshop above Sharples (manufacturers of
cash-registers) at 30-32 Slater Street which stands at the junction with Seel
Street.
After
making some enquiries Norman Chapman (for it was he, drumming) was traced to
Jacksons, the art supplies shop facing the Jacaranda, where he was working as a
picture-frame maker. Paul called into the shop, asked to speak to Chapman and
then invited him to sit in with them that night, which he did.
Johnny
Gentle with George during the Scottish Tour (credit: Johnny Gentle / Gavin
Askew)
On a
rare weekend off Johnny Gentle returned home to visit his family in Litherland
and decided to try and meet up with his former backing group. Heading into town
with his father they visited the Jacaranda Club where they were informed that
the Beatles were over in Liscard. His arrival at the Grosvenor was a welcome
surprise and the Beatles invited him to join them on stage, reportedly running
through their complete Scottish tour repertoire of song such as Buddy Holly's
It Doesn't Matter Anymore and Raining In My Heart, Elvis Presley's I Need Your
Love Tonight, Ricky Nelson's Poor Little Fool, Clarence Frogman Henry's I Don't
Know Why I Love You But I Do, Eddie Cochran's C’mon Everybody and Jim Reeves'
He'll Have To Go.
Saturday 9 July 1960
Pat
Moran (an early fan): I loved their music and the way they played it. My
favourites were Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, Cathy’s Clown and Whole Lotta
Shakin Goin’ On – oh and Red Sails in the Sunset was beautiful. When John and
Paul sang a rock and roll song together we’d all be dancing. John was the
leader. He used to talk to Paul and then they’d play something, but Paul was
also the leader in a way because he was very much part of it. Certainly it was
between Paul and John as to who took the lead. Paul was my favourite. I can
still see picture him at the front with his guitar, left handed. He was on the
left side of the stage, then George alongside him, then John, and Stuart on the
right.( Pat Moran in Tune In, by Mark Lewisohn)
Norman
Chapman would later recall how as a consequence of the fighting the Beatles
always had to keep an eye on the dance floor ‘for fear of getting a missile on
the bonce’.
On one
of the Saturdays at the Grosvenor John jumped off the stage to join in, only to
be punched by a local Ted called Jim Kennedy: There was no real malice in my
punch: it was just a melee, and after I’d hit him I moved on to punching
someone else’. Kennedy would also remember Paul McCartney remaining on stage
shouting ‘mind me new guitar, mind me new guitar!’
Paul’s
new guitar, a Rosetti Solid 7 had been purchased on 30 June.
Saturday
16 July 1960
Saturday
23 July 1960
Saturday
30 July 1960
And so
the Beatles Saturday night residency came to an end after nine weeks. The
Grosvenor was in a residential area (and still is) and the constant violence in
the ballroom inevitably spilled out onto the street afterwards. By late July
the trouble had escalated to the point that local residents lodged a complaint
with the Wallasey Corporation who had no alternative but to cancel the ‘Dances
for Youth’ with immediate effect. Les Dodd’s rock ‘n’ roll promotions were also
terminated and he was ordered to reintroduce ‘strict tempo’ dances on Saturday
nights.
Norman
Chapman (credit: Ann-Marie Opone)
Following
the summer ban on rock ‘n’ roll dances the Wallasey Corporation relented for
this Christmas Eve show. The Beatles appearance was arranged by Allan Williams
on 19 December 1960. Sharing the bill was Derry and the Seniors. Both groups
received £10.50 (ten guineas).
The
Beatles' performance this evening must have come as something of a shock to
those members of the audience who’d seen them five months earlier. The group
who returned from Hamburg in December 1960 was barely recognisable as the one
that had appeared in Liscard that summer, such was their improvement.
The
line up had also changed. John, Paul, George and Stuart had recruited drummer
Pete Best just before leaving for Hamburg but when they returned to Liverpool
they were another member down. Stuart had decided to remain in Germany and
would not come home until February 1961.
For
four consecutive engagements over the Christmas 1960 period Stuart's vacant
position was filled by Chas Newby.
Formerly the rhythm guitarist in Pete Best’s group the Black Jacks Chas
joined the Beatles on the drummer’s invitation, agreeing to play with them
during the Christmas holidays until he had to return to University.
Chas Newby (circa 1960 above, and in 2017, below)
The
Beatles did not appear at the Grosvenor again until February 1961 and when they
did they found that little had changed from previous visits, the threat of
violence as constant as it had been in 1960. Stuart was back with them, for
now.
10
March 1961
Their
second appearance at the Grosvenor in 1961 was also the last engagement for the
Beatles arranged by Allan Williams.
Despite doing so much for them in 1960 he had not provided them with
bookings at any other venues in the three months since their return from
Hamburg.
Earlier
in the day the Beatles played a lunchtime session at the Cavern club and
following the Liscard booking returned to Liverpool to perform at St. John’s
Hall in Tuebrook, a dance promoted by Mona Best, Pete’s mum. Playing two or
three shows a day would become commonplace in 1961.
The
Beatles returned to Hamburg at the end of March and did not come home until
early July.
15
September 1961
Announced
as their first Wallasey appearance since their German 'tour' the Beatles’ third
appearance of 1961 was also the final time they performed at the Grosvenor.
Admission was 4/- and the Beatles were billed to play from 7.45pm, followed by
Cliff Roberts and the Rockers.
The
group nights had to be stopped. Les Dodd was able to reinstate the institution
of a regular strict tempo Saturday night dance with live bands at the
Grosvenor, an institution which was to continue uninterrupted for 38 years
until 1999.
Ann
Corlett was one of the regular dancers in the 60’s and has continued to dance
at the Grosvenor almost every week since: The Grosvenor dances were the
highlight of my week, the Ernie Hignett Quartet played on a Tuesday and
Saturday night. Mr Dodd was the MC. and always looked smart and very much the
part in his suit and dickie bow. We had a dance called the Parabola in which a
basket was placed in the centre of the dance floor and you had a numbered card,
numbers would be called out and if your number was called you would place your
card in the basket and sit down, the last couple left standing would win a
prize.
They
always had a bar in the side room on New Years Eve, one year they used the
Studio upstairs but you still danced in the Ballroom. There was a Doorman on a
Tuesday and Saturday nights. If there was any trouble with the men, he would
see them off the premises. We used to pass round polo mints when the men smelt
of drink. Dennis and Pam White were in the tea room, they always served good
refreshments, Dennis was a ex Navy Chef. We used to jive and twist the night
away.
They
had a separate Handbag Room. Lena and Eddie Cole looked after this and the
Cloakroom. We used to have a lady dancer we called the Duchess, she would bring
a case full of dresses and change in the Ladies loo every other dance. The men
would all stand around the door under the clock and would eye all the girls up
to see the best dancers or the best looking ones.
Like
the majority of the surviving Wirral venues the Grosvenor has a plaque
commemorating the Beatles regular appearances here.
Today,
as the Grosvenor Assembly Rooms celebrates its 111th anniversary of that first
dance on 5th March 1906, the venue is still fully used for the purposes it was
built. In addition to many private functions, there are regular weekly
Ballroom, Sequence, Social and Tea Dances, and Line Dancing. Choral and
Orchestral Concerts are often held. The rooms are used for educational
purposes, for Sequence, Ballet and Tap Dance Classes, Keep Fit, Yoga and even a
Sunday Church Service. For the youth and young people of the area there are
monthly Disco and Pop Concerts. 
