At the height of the Beatles fame, film crews and journalists attended the Cavern (and indeed Liverpool) from all over the world. The club seemed to become the cultural centre of the city, and indeed the place to be. The club became important to me too as it was there I met my husband Tommy on 27th February 1964 doing the Cavern Stomp.

He and his friend Alan asked Joy and I to dance. When I asked him why they chose us he said that it was because we were different from the other girls there and didn't have our hair backcombed. The truth was that Joy and I hadn't intended going out that night, but we decided to at the last minute. I remember phoning Joy that day from work to arrange to meet. I had washed my hair the night before and couldn't backcomb it which resulted in a more subdued version of my usual hairstyle (beehive with Cilla Black kiss curls on my cheeks!).

I remember the night as being one of the best ever that we had spent at the club. Towards the end of the night, the club had become more and more packed and we were dancing near the band room on the left hand side, about the second arch up when we were approached by Tommy and his friend. The only thing I remember him saying to me that first dance, apart from asking me if I were 'staying up' was that as the cement floor was very uneven there, it was like dancing on a ploughed field.

We made arrangements to meet again inside on the Sunday night but, of course, true love didn't run too smoothly. We did meet as a foursome a lot but my parents weren't too happy that I was going out with someone I had met at the Cavern who never seemed to take me anywhere respectable!

It all came to a head when Tommy called at our house one night in 1965 to see me and my Mum told him I had gone to the Mardi Gras club, to which Joy and I had recently defected. Having decided that he did like me after all and afraid that I might meet someone else, Tommy announced his intentions and we started going out properly. Joy wasn't so lucky and her romance with Alan ended when she discovered that he was going out with someone else. However, she was married soon after to a work colleague.

The Cavern was open every night of the week and there were lunchtime sessions too. My job was in a city centre office. I would travel home from work by bus, have tea, change and be back for eight to meet Joy. We usually had to queue along Mathew Street to get in but it was all part of the excitement.

We attended the club on at least four nights a week, but it wasn't expensive, membership cost 2/6d per year and members paid 1/- entrance fee. My bus fare cost 3d each way so my nightly expenditure was 1/6d! The clubs in those days weren't drinking clubs and they generally opened at 7.00pm and closed at midnight. The Cavern sold soft drinks or soup while the Iron Door sold coffee and snacks. We would leave at 11.30pm to get the last bus home from Castle Street.

The fact that neither Joy nor I ever had any problems in getting home safely seems unbelievable now. There seemed to be a different code of behaviour then, or perhaps I was very naive but the only thing which worried me about getting home was the fact that I had to walk along a dark country lane and I imagined things lingering in the hedgerow.

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