A new exhibition celebrates one of the UK’s most important music venues

Music venues don’t get much more iconic than The Cavern Club. In Liverpool’s lively Cavern Quarter, the legendary cellar hosted The Beatles’ first ever performance back in 1961. Sixty years on, the venue is still thriving – and now, a new exhibition will celebrate its incredible legacy.

The exhibition, called 70 Years Of The Cavern Club, will chart the venue’s history, from its early days as a post-war jazz club to pioneering the Merseybeat sound (the pop-rock sound that emerged in Liverpool in the early 1960s) through to its place at the heart of Liverpool’s contemporary live music scene. It will run at the Museum of Liverpool from Saturday January 16 2027 until Sunday October 3 2027.

Whether you’re a music buff or not, The Cavern Club’s importance is obvious. The venue, a former fruit house cellar on 19 Mathew Street, started life as a jazz venue modelled after Parisian clubs. It quickly took off, attracting popular jazz musicians such as Acker Bilk and Johnny Dankworth.

In the 1960s, under the new ownership of music promoter Ray McFall, the club moved towards rock and roll. The Beatles were scouted in its dimly lit cellar by Brian Epstein when they performed on November 9, 1961 and became the Cavern Club’s resident band, performing there an astonishing 292 times before a final show in August 1963 at the height of Beatlemania.

But, Beatles aside, there’s a whole host of other legendary musicians who have performed at the venue, including The Rolling Stones, The Who, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and The Kinks. More recently, Adele, Oasis, and Arctic Monkeys have taken to the cellar’s stage. 

Using personal stories, films, photographs and first-hand accounts, visitors at the Museum of Liverpool exhibition will be able to immerse themselves in the Cavern’s journey, from facing closures in 1973 and 1989 to re-opening and becoming a world-famous music venue. 

Karen O’Rourke, curator of sport, music and performance at Museum of Liverpool, said The Cavern Club is ‘so much more than the dank basement where The Beatles were discovered,’ adding ‘it's a cellar full of noise that has shaped Liverpool's identity for 70 years’.

70 Years Of The Cavern Club at the Museum of Liverpool (Pier Head, L3 1DG) from Saturday January 16 2027 - Sunday October 3 2027.

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