When Geo. Martin heard the Beatles

The Beatles never would have succeeded without him. Music mattered and the world changed in a way that nobody could have imagined.

Thanks George! RIP.

 

I too am saddened by his passing. Watching the CTV news they showed a clip of the Cavern Club in Liverpool where folks were leaving flowers and tributes. I found it somewhat ironic that the Beatles never played that place. The actual Cavern was torn down many years ago. When the Liverpool Council wanted to make the Cavern a tourist attraction, the people who owned the building wanted too much money to sell it. In a decision only a politician could make, they bought the identical building next door and rebuilt the club inside.

On a trip back home, one of my brothers took us down to see how the downtown had changed. Matthew Street was on the agenda. Having played the Cavern in the past I was really confused at where it is now located. Then he told me the story. At one time I knew the city like the back of my hand. Now I’d need a GPS.

 

Imagine the Beatles' stage volume in the Cavern..! And the lively acoustics in that arched brick room -- horrible. Yet apparently not so bad, because the hundreds of hot bodies stuffed into that chamber would've helped deaden it.

 

I've been told that with McCartney's coffin bass cabinet, it was chest thumping loud.

 

A lot of bassists tried weird and wonderful things to get loud. I was part of the “generation” that followed buying my first bass in 1962. In our time a 50W tube amp was all that was typically available. Sure 100W amps were coming on line but were way above our pay grade. In one band we all went through a home built cabinet with an 18” Goodmans driver. Power was something from Heathkit that an older friend put together. (Same guy I bought my 63 Precision from in January 68) It was a time I was working, going to EE school, playing and dreaming of making it. I met my wife playing that bass a couple of months later.

to play the original Cavern was an experience to say the least. Ventilation was basically non existent. The place was so hot with so many people inside, the condensation would run down the walls in rivulets. On stage or off you were never really dry. Today such conditions would not be allowed.

Seeing the guys on stage on the TV they were using Rezlo ribbon microphones. I had on of those. If you broke the ribbon you could make a workable repair using foil from a cigarette package. I got quite good at repairing them. LOL

Amps we had were mainly VOX or Selmer. Some Watkins stuff. Paul had transistor VOX T60 for a while. Terrible amp for reliability and the 12 and 15 in the same airspace didn’t work too well.

The Beatles did open up the possibilities for other Merseyside acts and gave my city worldwide attention. Most of my family still lives there and we have three, just turned one, little great nieces and a soon to be nephew to meet.

Sorry, I rambled on a bit there. Put it down to an old man reminiscing about his youth and missing his family.

 

Those were exciting times to say the least.

A friend used to see the Beatles at the cavern. He was older and into jazz and they hated it when the club started booking rock and roll bands to bring in more money. It ruined it for them.

 

They got turned down by Decca for singing cheesy cabaret songs at the audition. They did the same at EMI but thankfully Martin didn't throw them out, he went to lunch instead. He left his engineer running the studio but was called back when they started playing Love Me Do.

The Beatles would have made it without George Martin. It would have taken longer and they would have made very different records but the songs, the voices and the personalities were all there.

 

Many years ago, my wife and I were shopping and we decided to take a break and sit down in a courtyard. It was a lovely relaxing place with trees and flowers. It was empty except for another couple diagonally across from us. I recognized them as George and Judy Martin. They were enjoying the peaceful place just like we were.

I sat there talking to my wife, enthusiastically going on about who he was and recording. When we decided to leave, we had to pass by near them. George tensed up a little and turned to his wife. It looked like he was saying, here they come.

I would have loved to stop and chat but decided that, for all he had done to inspire me, the biggest gift that I could have given him was to let them enjoy their time together. As I walked by, we said good afternoon to each other, and my wife and I went on our way. George gave me a big smile and nodded as if he were saying, thanks.