Quarrymen concert, The World Famous Embassy Club

Here I am outside Bernard Manning's former social club where The Quarrymen played. There's no official record to say they played here but Bernard claimed they did for £5 and were memorably awful. There're no official record of their appearance but there aren't for those of Tom Jones, Cilla Black and Englebert Humperdink who appeared here before they were famous.

Bernard died in 2007 and passed on the place to his only son Bernard Junior who's tried to sell it. I keep reading about it in the Manchester Evening News and in 2017 London-based Mount Zion Christian Ministry International wanted to buy it and turn into a church. This is ironic stuff as Bernard's gags and stories were heavily laden with x-rated sexism, racism and anti-Semitism that banished him from television (he only appeared on it as a figure of controversy.)

Presently the place is still a social club "under new management" so it doesn't sound like the God-Squad got it. I've read that Peter Kay based the club in Phoenix Nights on it. Bernard Junior added the unusual mosaic to the front in honour of his dad but had otherwise kept the interior the same as it was including pictures of his dad with Margaret Thatcher, the Queen, Harold Wilson and Tom Jones.

It's probable The Quarrymen played here in 1959 or 1960 as small section of a cabaret rather than an gig. According to Bernard Junior, "Dad didn’t like ’em. Said they were no good and too loud [and] they won’t be coming back." They probably played a few covers songs, got drunk on free beer and were a "fill in" act should other acts not turn up. Liverpool is about a 50 minute drive away. Inside the club was a photograph of The Quarrymen who would soon be off to be the resident band at venues in Hamburg. Bernard says he booked "The Beatles" probably because it sounds more punchy but they were probably still The Quarrymen or The Silver Beatles then.

I visited the club it on a Saturday morning and was glad it hadn't been turned into a MacDonald's or something equally dreadful. People waiting at a bus stop watched me as I put the camera on a bin, set the timer and ran across the road to do a salute. A teenage girl was walking passed and said, "Someone's left a camera!" and I was forced to shout across that it was mine. If The Quarrymen played here it's a shame nobody took a photograph but for the price of a camera film you could have probably bought three pints of milk stout. I did a salute and left.

Pointing to Bernard’s son who inherited the club…

Some of the Bernard’s ashes were mixed into the grout of the tile picture of him…

Funerals….FREE!