Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Paul returns to the Cavern 1968







It is a little known fact that when the Cavern Club in Liverpool re-opened in 1968, Paul McCartney made a secret appearance. It is not known if Paul played any music while he was there but the photographs show him posing behind the drums with a local band called "The Curiosity Shop." From what I read, the owner of the Cavern,
Alf Georghegan, asked Paul if he could take some photographs of him at the club. Paul said that he could as long as he kept them out of the press, so Alf went out and bought a camera to take some photos. The date that has always been given for this trip to Liverpool was Oct 25, 1968. However, this date does not add up with the Beatles timeline because Paul and Linda were supposed to be in New York City during that time. The Cavern re-opened in July of 1968 and reports said that Paul was there with Jane.

When I was at the current Cavern Club in Liverpool a few weeks ago, my mom and I sat on the left side near the loo and the dressing room. On the wall right next to the table where we sat were two photographs that caught my eye. They were of Paul and this mystery time in the Cavern! One was similar to the one I had in my files and another was Paul posing with what appears to be a fan. What really caught my eye was that there was a caption under each photo that said "Paul McCartney returns to the Cavern 1968. Photo by Linda." Huh? Linda?? I am afraid that these photos, while they are really cool.....had me even MORE confused about what this took place.

Do any of you know more about this??? If so please let me know. And if not, enjoy the photos. In a break from the set of the singer on stage, I took the two photos of the pictures hanging on the wall of the Cavern.

5 comments:

  1. Sara...
    I believe that the Oct 25th date is correct. Paul, Linda, and Neil made a couple back and forth trips to NYC. Paul & Linda were there from the 20th to the 23rd. They came back & then they & Neil flew back to NYC on the 27th. On the 30th they flew to Jamaica and then came back to London on the 1st of November. They spent some after that in Scotland.

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  2. Clearly not the original Cavern?

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  3. It is indeed the original Cavern. The original didn't get knocked down until the early 1970's. There are photos of a fan taken inside the Cavern from the summer of 1968 and it looks just as it does here.

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  4. It does make more sense that this visit to the Cavern would have been towards the end of 1968, because Paul's hair wasn't that long in July 1968.

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  5. He's posing with Debbie Greenberg, the manager at the time, and daughter of co-owner Alf Geoghegan

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