Bob Garroch
The customer that requested the record "My Bonnie" from Brian Epstein was me.

I was 17 years of age and a student at a Merchant Navy Radio School in Liverpool. During our lunch hours we used to go to the Cavern to listen to the Beatles on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. Gerry and the Pacemakers appeared on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Cilla Black was working there as the Cloakroom attendant. She used to sing on occasions and she had a dreadful voice.

The entrance fee was Two & Six pence. The club was dingy and dark but with a wonderful atmosphere. No Drugs and only soft drinks. Outside the Cavern was the pub called the Grapes. We used to take the girls there at night and get them drunk on Rum and Black.

There was another club nearby called the Iron Door. On Saturday night we used to party from six to six and get the Ferry Across the Mersey"

The Beatles were the best band and we used to do the "Cavern Stomp" dance. One day Dusty Springfield came in looking for someone to do the brand new dance "The Twist” I was photographed with her doing the dance and it was published in the Liverpool Echo.

The Beatles standard song was "Red Sails in the Sunset" which was done with a very heavy rock beat. They never sang their own songs. Which I think is very strange. They were very laid back and would talk to all of us and play our requests.

I was chatting to the Beatle during a break and Paul told me about the record they had made in Germany. I popped round to NEMS which was just round the corner from the Cavern. The ground floor was Classical Music only and there was a staircase on the left of the shop going down to the basement. Brian was behind the counter and I asked him to trace ‘My Bonnie’. He asked me who the Beatles were and I told him they where playing at the Cavern.

Two weeks later Brian had the record for me, a single.

Two or three months later the Beatles launched their first record. I was working in my future father in law’s pub "the Claughton Hotel" in Birkenhead. Paul's Auntie and Uncle lived across the road and the Beatles came in for drinks just after their first record. My future wife was so excited. Paul's Auntie was a lovely lady. One day I had a bad pint of beer and left the pub and ended up puking in the gutter.

She came across the road and helped me up, took me into her house and made me a cup of tea and made sure I was ok before sending me home. She said to me when I was better "Go home to your mum son and don't do that again"

(Bob now lives in South Africa. Actually, several youngsters went into NEMS to request a copy of ‘My Bonnie’, which had been featured strongly in Mersey Beat and I had been discussing the Beatles with Brian since July 1961. There is no reason to doubt that Bob may have been the first person to ask for the disc prior to Raymond Jones. When Brian was taping his story for Derek Taylor, he might well have just picked the Jones name from the various youngsters who had ordered the disc whose names he’d placed in an order book.

The story of Cilla being the cloakroom girl (some books refer to her as ‘the hat check’ girl. Whoever wore hats to the Cavern!) is much exaggerated, but was part of the publicity drive when she was launched to link her name with the famous club. Apparently she did help out once or twice, but she wasn’t a regular cloakroom attendant there.

The Beatles began making their regular lunchtime appearances at the Cavern in March 1961 and would often drift round to NEMS after the session to listen to records in the tiny record booths. According to Pete Best, Brian noticed them and asked the girls who they were.

Although NEMS was to sell tickets for Sam Leach’s ‘Operation Big Beat’ promotions, I’m not sure whether Brian was actually selling them for the first of the Tower Ballroom concerts on Friday 10 November 1961 because the actual poster reads: “Tickets 5/- from Rushworths, Lewis’s, Cranes, Strothers, Tower Ballroom.’ If NEMS were selling tickets for that concert they would have had to have the NEMS name on the poster, and Brian wouldn’t have displayed a poster publicizing the rival music stores).


Owen Martin
I am hoping this email will reach Bill Harry. I was researching the internet for John Lennon's family tree and came across Bill's article on Charlie Lennon. My father once told me that our family was related to John Lennon.

I am from Cavan in Ireland. My father is from Kingscourt, Co.Cavan Ireland. In 63, when the Beatles broke, my grandfather, PJ Martin, instantly recognised John as one of the local Lennon's from West Monaghan (beside Kingscourt). PJ's father (my great grandfather) married Elizabeth Lennon (the same Lennon's. In fact, as far as I know, it was just accepted around the area that John was one of the 'fiddler' Lennon's - this was their nickname. There were two reasons as to why they thought this. 1) Some of the local Lennon's had the same bushy eyebrows and distinguishable nose that John had. 2) Their name was spelt the same. The second one I don't think is valid as Lennon is spelt the same everywhere as far as I can see. There may be something to the first one.

I did a bit of research into Lennon's family and I discovered that Jack (John's grandfather as I am sure you know) was born in Dublin. This pretty much ruled out the connection.

However, I came across a website which stated that he came from Co.Fermanagh. Fermanagh borders Monaghan and Cavan, so it could be possible that they are the same family of Lennon's.

I read your article on Charlie Lennon, and it is interesting that he maintained Jack was born in Fermanagh also.

I would love to hear what you think about this. I have often wondered if I am really related to John Lennon. I got to know my grandfather well before he passed away, and he didn't seem the kind of man to make something up like this. And as I have said, he was not the only one who was sure of where John Lennon was from. Anyway, I hope this e-mail reaches Bill Harry. I know he was trying to research John's family history.

(A lot is known about the maternal side of John’s family. In fact, John’s cousin Stan Parkes has spent several years researching it and has traced the family back to the 16th century. However, very few facts have come forth about John’s paternal relations, particularly from the Irish side. Serious genealogical research needs to be done.

In the meantime Owen, you might like to contact the message board: http://genforum.genealogy.com/lennon

This specializes in Lennon family trees and there are a number of Irish Lennons who have contacted each other via this message board. However, it doesn’t really give any more information than is already known and I think the Mersey Beat site probably has more information on John’s paternal side than any other source. My interest in tracing the roots continues!

From my own point of view, Jack Lennon, the grandfather John never knew, was born in 1855. Jack and his brother were born in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Their father, a ship’s cook, and mother Elizabeth Lennon, nee Morris, immigrated to America with their two sons. Jack Lennon, for a time, joined Andrew Robertson’s Kentucky Minstrels, touring extensively across the United States, and in later years married an American girl. Jack’s brother was ordained a priest and his ministry was in Wallasey, Cheshire.

Jack returned to Liverpool with his American wife, who died in childbirth. He became a shipping clerk and settled in a terraced house at 27 Copperfield Street. The former minstrel also began to entertain in local pubs. He then employed Mary Maguire, known as Polly, as his housekeeper and they were later married. She gave birth to eight children, six of whom survived. There were five boys and one girl.

Jack died of a liver disease on 3 August 1921.)


Leonardo Navia
My name is Leonardo, I'm 30 years old, I live in Argentina, South America and I'm a great fan of the Mersey Sound. Since I was so young I was collecting everything about the Mersey groups. I've just found your web page and it is fantastic. I'm sure you can tell me some things I don't know. I thought you might be interested in some rare recordings that I have.

You won't believe that a guy in Argentina has these recordings, it took me years to find them: ‘The Isle of Capri’ and ‘Bonaparte’s Retreat’ by the Swinging Blue Jeans. I can't remember now cause I haven't got the CD with me but I think these two songs were recorded live at a club in Liverpool.

I also have ‘Green Onions’ and ‘Lend Me Your Comb’ by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and recordings of the Kinsleys (one of the songs of the Kinsleys are pretty similar to one that the Swinging Blue Jeans recorded later – ‘Promise You'll Tell Her’); ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, a 1957 demo by Kingsize Taylor and the Big Three’s ‘Resurrection’ album.

(You’ll be very pleased to hear that an amazing range of extremely rare recordings of Mersey groups from the heyday of the Mersey Sound have been discovered and released by Liverpool-based record companies such as Viper Records and Mayfield Records. In fact, Viper has issued no less than THREE CDs of tracks rediscovered in attics and cupboards by groups such as the Four Just Men, Earl Preston & the TTs, the Swinging Bluejeans and many others. Mayfield Records has also unearthed rare recordings by a host of Mersey bands, including the Hideaways, the Almost Blues and the Liverbirds. The Mersey Beat news section will keep you informed of further releases.

Incidentally, I believe the Swinging Bluejeans tracks you have may have been produced by Joe Meek.)

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