On Sunday 3rd August 2014  I went to the Cavern Club in Liverpool to see The Mersey Beatles perform the hits of The Beatles.

After a great afternoon in Liverpool watching Everton v Porto, I could think of no better way to spend the evening than at the Cavern Club watching the Beatles tribute band ‘The Mersey Beatles’. The group were formed in 1999, the same year that Paul McCartney performed a concert at the Cavern, a replica of the original club at which The Beatles performed 292 times between 1961 and 1963. Remarkably, this tribute band have now played more shows at the Cavern than the real thing having been the resident band for over a decade.

The band is made up of four talented musicians who are themselves scousers – Mark Bloor (John), Steven Howard (Paul), David Howard (George) and Brian  Ambrose (Ringo). Together, the four-piece recreate the  atmosphere of those early Beatles shows superbly and it really offers a sense of what it was like to be there in the early days before The Beatles rose to such astronomical fame.

Beatles fans from across the globe were in attendance for this Sunday evening performance by the Mersey Beatles, who appeared on stage for three separate half hour sets. Across these sets they performed hits from every era of the band, starting with the early hits such as “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me” that would have actually graced the original Cavern shows while also performing later hits such as “Sgt Pepper”, “All  You Need Is Love”,  “Back In The USSR”, “The Long And Winding Road” and many more all of which received a rapturous reception from the excited crowd. Finally, the show was brought to a conclusion around 11pm with an encore of “Twist and Shout” for which Bloor (“John”) sang the powerful vocals to perfection before the final song “Hey Jude” of course had every single person inside the club singing along.

It was an outstanding performance from the tribute group and it was made even better to watch the show in such an authentic venue. A trip to see the Mersey Beatles perform at the Cavern is highly recommend to any fan of the real thing as it truly offers the feeling of what it must have been like to see John, Paul, George and Ringo rock the Cavern Club in the early 60’s. A great experience.