“The first thing that hit me about the Cavern was, “There’s no light – how can I take pictures in this place?” I held the camera at 1/15th of a second - I don’t think there are many pictures taken without flash in the Cavern. […]
“People seem to make it all very complicated but it’s all really very simple – I just happened to be there.”
[Michael Ward, A Day In The Life: Photographs of The Beatles by Michael Ward]
Some of Michael Ward’s amazing photos of the Beatles rehearsing and performing in the Cavern Club, Liverpool, on the 19th February, 1963. He’d been hired by Honey magazine to travel to Liverpool and photograph The Beatles, a band he’d never heard of. These could well be the last photos of the Beatles at the Cavern Club, they would only play there twice more - once in April 1963 and once in August 1963.
This was the first Beatles Cavern Club appearance for two weeks, also the day it was announced to the Cavern Club audience that Please Please Me had gone to number one in the charts. It was met with mixed reactions.
The news that [Please Please Me] had topped the singles charts in the New Musical Express and Disc magazines was announced from the stage by the Cavern’s DJ Bob Wooler.
Wooler read out a telegram to The Beatles by their manager Brian Epstein, sent c/o the Cavern Club. As he announced the news of Please Please Me’s success, the audience went quiet. They sensed that The Beatles were no longer their secret. The Beatles, meanwhile, already knew that they were number one.
Also on the bill at the Cavern were Lee Curtis and the All Stars, The Pathfinders, and Freddie Starr and the Midnighters. And in the crowd for The Beatles’ set was Pete Best, drummer at the time for the All Stars, although both he and The Beatles were at pains to avoid an encounter with one another. It was the last time The Beatles set eyes on Best.
