Litherland Town Hall (29 April 1964)

This was the last of five early crossBeaTs bookings with "Scotts Concert Party".  Tom Cooper worked at Scotts Bakery in Netherton, and organised a group of employees into a 'club' to perform 'secular' concerts at various venues for charity.  Tom invited the crossBeaTs to play at some of these.  At the early bookings with 'Scotts' we played a mix of secular (the few we knew) and gospel songs but, as time went on, we played predominantly gospel songs.  In fact, this Litherland Town Hall booking was the first time (with Scotts) that we played only gospel songs.  By this time, we were clearly wanting to do only gospel songs in all situations - whether secular or Christian.

The Litherland Town Hall is famous in terms of "Beatles History".  It was one of several venues that made up the network of widely-scattered ballrooms which, for secular groups, were the next step up from playing in bars and cellar clubs.  It is located in the extreme northern end of Liverpool, a mile or so from Bootle where the crossBeaTs came from. Litherland Town Hall was the site of the "Birth of Beatlemania" - the 27 December 1960 concert that demonstrated the Beatles' remarkable improvement after several months in Hamburg, and sparked the first stirrings of fan hysteria in their home town of Liverpool.  It was also the venue for the Beatles/Gerry and the Pacemakers show of 19 October 1961 where, midway through, the 2 bands joined forces and played together for the rest of the night.  There are plenty of Beatles web sites that will describe the significance of this place.

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