Grosvenor Ballroom, Wallasey, and the Beatles

The Grosvenor Ballroom is on Grosvenor Street in Liscard, Wallasey, on the Wirral. The Silver Beetles, soon to become the Beatles, first played there on 4 June 1960, and the group played the hall 14 times up to September 1961. The building still stands and still holds dances and events. A plaque there records the Beatles' appearances.

Saturday big-beat nights in 1960

Wallasey Corporation owned the Grosvenor. Its Saturday nights were big-beat dances run by the promoter Les Dodd. The Silver Beetles played the first of them on 4 June 1960, which started a Saturday residency lasting through June and July. Paul McCartney wrote out a set list for the Grosvenor that year. It mixed covers of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard with one song of their own, One After 909, which the Beatles did not release until 1970. The list later went up for auction at Bonhams.

The night Ronnie took the drums

The crowds were rough, and fights between rival gangs were common. On 11 June 1960 the group's drummer, Tommy Moore, did not show up and his kit sat empty on the stage. A Teddy boy gang leader known as Ronnie climbed up and sat behind it, though he had never played drums, and nobody dared ask him to get down. Allan Williams, who was managing the group, drove over and took them and their equipment away.

Why the residency stopped

Residents complained to the Corporation about the violence. The rock 'n' roll Saturdays ended after July 1960, and Dodd was told to put on strict-tempo dances instead. The Corporation made an exception on 24 December 1960, when the Beatles came back for a Christmas Eve show. They played the hall a few more times in 1961, the last in September, for 14 appearances altogether.

The Grosvenor today

The hall opened in March 1906 and is still in use. It hosts ballroom, sequence and tea dances, classes and private functions. A black plaque at the hall reads that it commemorates the Beatles playing there regularly between June 1960 and September 1961. The plaque's installation date is not recorded. Because the Grosvenor is a working community venue and not a museum, the usual way to see the inside is to go to one of its dances or events.

The Beatles later played New Brighton's Tower Ballroom 27 times. Its site is now marked by a plaque on the seafront.