The Casbah Begins to Fade

June 24, 1962

My pic of Number 8 Hayman's Green 
(Can't you just imagine them schlepping
guitars and amps up this walk?)

It is difficult to believe, but the Beatles, who have come so far, are still playing the neighborhood club run by Pete Best's mother out of their basement, the Casbah.  Three years ago, the teenage Beatles helped paint and decorate the club as a place for Pete's friends to hang out, drink coffee/cokes and listen to records played on a "hi-fi" turntable.  It has also been a place where, even when other venues weren't working out, the Beatles could play a few numbers for whatever members happened to be about.  Today, the polished Beatles play the Liverpool Casbah for the last time.

Did you notice that, more and more, events are beginning to be about leaving the past behind and moving on?  At the end of the month, the Casbah will officially close, its essential place in music history fully secure.

Of course, a special relationship between one of Pete's friends, their lodger and Beatle road manager Neil Aspinall, and his mother has blossomed and Mona is now 8 months pregnant with Neil's child.  (Scandal!)  I recon that may have had something to do with the closing.