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The
Cavern club in Liverpool's city centre will forever be known as the spiritual
home of The Beatles, but there is also another name that is equally inextricably
linked with The Beatles, The Cavern and the Liverpool music scene - Bob
Wooler. It was Wooler who, as DJ at The Cavern club, got The Beatles their
first residency there in 1961 and also introduced the group on stage when
they returned after their first hit single in August 1963. His voice was
captured on the only live footage of the group ever shot at the club,
performing 'Some Other Guy'. Later he was instrumental in introducing
them to their future manager Brian Epstein. Just as nobody had a clue
that some teenagers who were at art school together would turn into one
of the most impossibly famous groups in the world, so Wooler's beginnings
in a working-class Liverpool family gave no clue to a future in which
his name would incessantly pop up in references to what became tagged
"The Liverpool Sound".
As a teenager he worked as a railway clerk at the city's Garston docks and his earliest foray into music came in the mid-1950s when he combined his day job with a short-lived career managing 'The Kingstrums', a local skiffle group formed by a couple of his fellow railway workers. Although the group lasted only six months, Wooler began to write songs for them. One was recorded by the Merseyside country'n'western band Bill Brady and The Ranchers on the 'Liverpool Goes Country' album. In 1963 his 'I Know' provided the B-side for Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas' hit recording of the Lennon/McCartney composition 'I'll Keep You Satisfied'. By the start of the 1960s, Wooler was acting as compere and DJ around several Liverpool clubs and dance halls, including the Holyoake dance hall near Penny Lane - mainly, he said, because local bands were having to amble on stage without any proper introduction, which he felt was "terrible". |
"Welcome
to the best of cellars........"|
Around the same time, he met club-owner Allan Williams who ran the 'Jacaranda'
and the 'Blue Angel' and was a small-time promoter. When Williams opened
a new club, 'The Top Ten', he convinced Wooler to give up his day job and
become the resident DJ. Six days later the club was burned down! Wooler
decided against returning to the railways and took up a residency at The
Cavern, already home to Liverpool's music cognoscenti - girls like Priscilla
White (Cilla Black), who worked in the cloakroom, with their miniskirts,
bobbed hair and factory-worker boyfriends. Wooler had, it appears, accidentally
bumped into George Harrison and Paul McCartney at a bus stop opposite the
Holyoake in the mid-1950s and offered them a date at the club, which they
had declined because they had no drummer. He met up with them again after
their first Hamburg trip in 1960, getting them a date for £6 at Litherland
town hall. In February 1961, and by now working at The Cavern, Wooler got
The Beatles their first date at the club before they became the resident
band and went on to play there regularly for more than two years. By 1961
he was also regularly contributing a column to the local pop newspaper 'Mersey
Beat', writing of The Beatles that "I don't think anything like them will
happen again" Already friendly with other local groups like Gerry and The Pacemakers and The Swinging Blue Jeans, Wooler also knew most of the local entrepreneurs, including Brian Epstein, who had made his money from his family's furniture business. When The Beatles went to meet Epstein for the first time, with a view to him becoming their manager, Lennon asked Wooler to go along. Such informality was common at the time, although these casual friendships could be fractured as easily as they were made - some months later Lennon and Wooler had a fight at McCartney's 21st birthday party when the DJ joked about a holiday to Spain that Lennon had just taken with Epstein. By the end of the 'Beatles era' Wooler had retired from being a DJ and was booking bands for an agency. Later he joined up with Allan Williams again, this time to stage annual Beatles conventions in Liverpool. Wooler, who recovered from a heart attack in the mid-80s, was divorced from his wife Beryl Adams, Brian Epstein's secretary, whom he had married in the mid-1960s. Bob will be remembered for his encyclopaedic knowledge of Liverpool's Beat music scene, his charm, humour and politeness, but most of all for his love of Liverpool and the help that he gave to the countless number of Liverpool bands with whom he worked. Bob Wooler - often impersonated but never bettered - God bless you! . . . . . |
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Bob
Wooler interviewed by Glenn Mitchell at the Liverpool Beatles Convention
2001 During the 2001 Beatles week I had the pleasure of talking at great length to the one and only Mr. Bob Wooler who, sadly, died on February 8th 2002 aged 76. Bob was, as I’m sure you know, an integral part of the story of The Beatles and many other Liverpool-based Sixties bands. His encyclopaedic knowledge of the 'Merseybeat' era was often called upon by reporters and researchers all around the world. To have the chance to talk to Bob and ask some questions that have been on my mind for years was a golden opportunity for me. Bob was a man whom I have admired since I first became a fan and researcher on the Fab Four. I‘ve always been interested in the 'inner circle' of The Beatles' career - would have loved to have interviewed Brian Epstein if he was still with us today and Mal Evans would also have been great to have had a pint and a chat with. So, it was with great pleasure that I sat next to Bob at the Adelphi and had a fascinating two hours of conversation with the great man himself. I was writing down what he told me onto a note pad, and it was quite amusing when he asked me if he was talking too quickly! I wish now that I had taken a tape recorder.... but never mind. From the many things we talked about I started by asking him what records he played the most at the Cavern.... |
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BW:
Oh, well I could not get any of the rock'n'roll records at the start - I
was interested in the lyrics more so than the music, lyrically. Later I could order records from local suppliers. GM: Did you ever get any records from the sailors in dock at Liverpool? BW: No, and no again, this is another of those myths about the 'Cunard Yanks', as they said - I never received any records from sailors at all! My collection was bought. Besides, you could order any obscure records in those days - you never had to ask any sailors! GM: Did the Beatles bring you any records from Germany? BW: Mmm... I seem to remember a few times that Paul brought in records that belonged to his father. I had their Hamburg releases and, of course, played them at the Cavern, but they were only the backing band on them - the Tony Sheridan recordings as The Beat Brothers. John played me some tapes of them at the club, poor quality recordings. GM: What do you remember most about The Beatles at the Cavern? BW: Well, many memories! You must remember that, at the beginning, there was Stuart Sutcliffe as well and, of course, Peter Best. The Beatles, I knew, would be very big and, of course, they had an 'aura' around them - I mean that in a nice way. They were confident and boyish, they rocked the place with their stomping and the kids loved it and so did I. They would come down in the mornings and rehearse, at times sitting in the empty club, eating sandwiches and drinking tea. I used to play them records and they would learn them. They were always looking for new records to learn before any of the others (other groups) could get their hands on them. They liked the obscure numbers. GM: What would you describe your relationship was like with The Beatles? |
Glenn Mitchell 2012 
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