The Beatles concert at The Pavilion Theatre, Toxteth

I’m slowly getting round the old venues where The Beatles played (before they're demolished.) On the way to find some graves in Toxteth I called at Umrah Supermarket. In the sixties it was the Pavilion Theatre and the lads played here on Monday 2^nd April 1962.

They shared a bill with the Royal Waterford Showband who flew in from Ireland for the engagement. The Beatles weren’t well known outside Liverpool and were paid a total £5 for their one and only appearance.

The place was known locally as the “Pivvy” and The Pivvy Snooker Club is still within the hotpotch of businesses making up the building. The frontage has changed greatly but the size and general lines of the place tell of a former show venue. I wasn’t sure if I had the right address but once back home photos of the theatre in past times confirmed this was it. When the lads played here it was better known as a striptease venue.

They'd only just signed a contract with Brian Epstein three months before the concert and were a sort of warm-up act for the night. It would be a further two months before Brian Epstein's endless trips to London to garner a record contact reaped success. The stage was large so the lads probably looked undersized. Their amps were powered to fit much smaller spaces and may not have easily filled a capacious theatre space. No known photographs of the night have come to the surface. I can't recall visiting one of these venues where they played on a Monday night.

The theatre opened in 1908 but by 1961 it had been converted for use as a bingo hall. A fire destroyed the place in March 1986 and a new bingo hall was subsequently built on the site. I don’t know how long that lasted but now it’s a food place. I was glad my friend remained in the car as this seemed a threadbare area. I'd liked to have got inside the building to see if there stage still remained but it was closed. I did a salute and left.