A new exhibition celebrating The Cavern Club’s 70 years is set to open in Liverpool.
January 16 will mark a full seven decades since the iconic live music venue was opened in the city’s Mathew Street area by Alan Sytner initially as a jazz club.
The Cavern quickly attracted big jazz names such as Acker Bilk and Johnny Dankworth before it became the birthplace of the iconic Merseybeat scene.
Its basement stage became home to local emerging talet including the future line-up of The Beatles with all four members performing in their respective formative bands.
The Fab Four became the Cavern’s resident band, building their reputation and their sound before going on to spark the worldwide phenomenon of Beatlemania.
International artists flocked to the club during its 1960s heyday with Chuck Berry and Stevie Wonder, who performed there at the age of just 15 in 1966.
The venue has welcomed a host of iconic artists including The Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen and Elton John to Oasis, Adele, The Arctic Monkeys and local stars such as Jamie Webster.
To mark its latest milestone, the Museum of Liverpool will be showcasing ’70 Years of The Cavern Club’ that traces its original closure, redevelopment and revival.
Personal stories and first-hand accounts run throughout, bringing the wider story of Liverpool’s music culture to life through the voices of the communities who lived it.
The exhibition presents The Cavern Club as a shared cultural experience, shaped by those who were there and those who continue to be part of it today.
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, it’s a cellar full of noise that has shaped Liverpool’s identity for seventy years.
“This exhibition is our chance to tell that fuller story: the rise, the fall, the emotion, the people and its life today as a hard-working venue.
“We want visitors to leave our exhibition feeling The Cavern Club the way generations from across the globe have felt it, not as a historic place, but as a living, breathing part of our amazing city.”
70 Years of The Cavern Club opens at Museum of Liverpool from Saturday, January 16 until Sunday, October 31, 2027.
To find out more and to sign up to become a National Museums Liverpool member, visit liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/cavern-club-70
Ahead of the exhibition’s opening, Museum of Liverpool and The Cavern Club will host Summer of Sound, a month of live music bringing some of Liverpool’s most celebrated acts to the museum this summer.
The line-up includes The Quarrymen and Friends, Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band, and Ian Prowse and The Monday Club.
Artists from Argentina, Spain and Brazil will also perform while taking part in the International Beatleweek Festival.
Full details and tickets are available at liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/summer-of-sound.