Ray was to tell Tony Barrow in 'On The Scene At The Cavern': "A dozen or more suburban halls on the outskirts of Liverpool had been flourishing as a result of the increasing demand for beat groups. I decided to make the Cavern into Liverpool's first city-centre rock 'n' roll club. At the time I couldn't have dreamed of the destiny which lay ahead for many of the groups I began to use on Wednesdays. To me the introduction of a new rock 'n' roll night merely meant the drawing in of a separate crowd which wouldn't have visited the Cavern before. I knew that some of the jazz followers would give the Wednesday groups a try but I was equally interested in attracting the rockers who had been filling the ballrooms and club halls outside town."

Ray was using hindsight - groups were called rock 'n' roll groups, not beat groups. The term beat groups only began coming into usage once the newspaper Mersey Beat had been launched and, in fact, the local rock 'n' roll scene was bursting at the seams with almost 400 groups. This amazing situation had arisen because there were so many venues for them to play at. From 1957 the scene had continued to grow and rock 'n' roll groups were playing at village halls, youth clubs, ice rinks, swimming baths, town halls and ballrooms throughout Merseyside.

Promoters such as Wally Hill, Doug Martin, Dave Foreshaw, Vic Anton, Charlie McBain, Les Dodd, Ralph Webster, Brian Kelly and others were running 'jive hives' all over the area. There were numerous venues which had built up a following of thousands of youngsters who drifted from one venue to the other following their favourite bands. The venues included St Lukes Hall, Holyoake Hall, Aintree Institute, Litherland Town Hall, Hambleton Hall, Alexandra Hall, Plaza Ballroom, Grosvenor Ballroom, St John's Hall, Mossway Hall and a host of others.

So the Mersey scene was burgeoning and thriving while the Cavern still banned rock 'n' roll. The Cavern, in fact, was a relative latecomer.

As far as the title 'birthplace of the Beatles' is concerned, that name really belongs to the Casbah, a cellar club in West Derby Village where the Quarry Men were to re-form and appear as resident band in 1959.

Also, as far as the city centre was concerned, Allan Williams had opened a club exclusively devoted to rock 'n' roll called the Top Ten in December 1960, but it was burnt down a short time before the Beatles were to begin a residency there.

Other city centre jazz clubs which turned to rock 'n' roll before or at the same time as the Cavern were the Mardi Gras, the Downbeat and the Iron Door Club.

Early in 1961, Tuesday became the Bluegenes guest night, in which they presented some of the top rock ‘n’ roll groups in the area, and their first 'guest night' on Tuesday March 21 1961 featured Dale Roberts & the Jaywalkers, the Remo Four and the Beatles.

The Beatles were making their evening debut at the club and exactly one month prior, on Thursday February 9, they had made their first appearance at a lunchtime session for a fee of £5. In April, Modern Jazz sessions, which had been tottering on the brink for some time, stopped. 

The Beatles began a stream of appearances which included their 'Welcome home' session on Friday July 14 1961, with Johnny Sandon and the Remo Four and the White Eagles Jazz Band. The Beatles began their own series of resident nights on Wednesday, August 2 1961, and made a total of 292 appearances until their last one on August 3, 1963 for which they received a fee of £300. The support acts that night were the Mersey Beats, the Escorts, the Roadrunners, the Sapphires and Johnny Ringo & the Colts.

Commenting on their 'Welcome Home' session on Saturday June 9 1962, which immediately followed their trip to Hamburg, Bob Wooler told Tony Barrow: "You might have expected the Beatles to be tired after their strenuous Hamburg session. On the contrary they gave one of their finest-ever performances and seemed to draw extra inspiration from the feverish reaction they were getting from the one thousand fans who packed the place that evening. Although the national newspapers didn't invent the world 'Beatlemania' until a year later, I would say that the Cavern reception given to John, Paul, George and Pete Best that Saturday was just as enthusiastic, just as genuine and the nationwide acclaim which was to follow. I would qualify this statement with one further observation. Cavern members didn't use the Beatles as an excuse for hooliganism. They cheered and screamed and showed their excitement in a dozen ways - but they were still an orderly audience with a respect for the club itself and its surroundings."

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