Lathom Hall is a former cinema and music venue in Seaforth,

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Built in 1884, the venue became synonymous with

Merseybeat Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffl ...

in the 1960s.

Music venue

On 14 May 1960, the Silver Beats auditioned at the hall during the interval of a performance by Cliff Roberts and the Rockers, Dick Dale and the Deltones, and King Size Taylor and the Dominoes. One report suggests that the venue's promoter, Bill Kelly, curtailed the group's set after just two songs they performed so badly. Conversely, the ''Bootle Times'' reported that the group were "sensational". After the performances, a fight broke out backstage after bassist

Stuart Sutcliffe Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe (23 June 1940 – 10 April 1962) was a Scottish painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist of the English rock band the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a paint ...

was told to "cut ishair" as he looked like a girl. Despite this and their group's performance, Kelly booked the group for the following weekend's dance, promoting them as "Silver Beetles" in the headline slot. The group later failed to notify Kelly that they could not play at the performance, having received an offer to tour Scotland with

Johnny Gentle John Askew (born 8 December 1936), known as Johnny Gentle, is a British pop singer best remembered for having briefly toured Scotland with the Silver Beetles (later known as the Beatles) as his backing group in 1960. Life and career John Ask ...

, leaving him to explain to the audience why the advertised act would not appear. Nevertheless, the group were booked for a number of subsequent concerts in early 1961, by which time they had changed their name to

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...

. Kelly paid the group an average of £8 0s 10d per concert, equivalent to approximately £120 in 2005. The group's final appearance at the hall was on 25 February, George Harrison's 18th birthday. Stuart Sutcliffe, who was the band's bassist at this time, would go on to die of a brain

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also be a nidus ...

16 months later in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. A definitive cause is unknown, but it has been linked to the traumatic head injury he received during a fight outside Lathom Hall following one of the Beatles' performances in January 1961. According to former manager

Allan Williams Allan Richard Williams (21 February 1930 – 30 December 2016) was a British businessman and promoter who was the original booking agent and first manager of the Beatles. He personally drove the van to take the young band to Hamburg, Germany, in ...

, Sutcliffe was either kicked in the head or thrown head first against a brick wall. Lennon and Best went to his aid fighting off his attackers before dragging him to safety. Sutcliffe had a

fractured skull A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the eight bones that form the cranial portion of the skull, usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive, the bone may fracture at or near the site o ...

, and Lennon broke his little finger. Sutcliffe refused medical attention at the time and failed to keep an

X-ray X-rays (or rarely, ''X-radiation'') are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In many languages, it is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it in 1895 and named it ' ...

appointment at Sefton General Hospital.

Legacy

After the popularity of Merseybeat subsided, the hall started to be used as a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

club before lying derelict for a number of years. In 1989, it was purchased by Brian Corrigan, who renovated the hall and reopened it as a bar and function venue decorated with Merseybeat memorabilia.

References

{{coord, 53.4651144, -3.0152482, format=dms, type:landmark, display=title Music venues in Liverpool