Liverpool’s Cavern Club, best known as the launch pad for The Beatles, is in a battle to survive.
The club hosts about 800,000 visitors a year, but it has been empty since the coronavirus lockon in March.
Bill Heckle, one of the club’s directors, said it had lost £ 30,000 ($ 39,300) a week.
“We left five months before we unfortunately had to fire about 20 people. “We think we have to make another 20 dismissals in the next few weeks,” Heckle told the BBC.
“We made a decision a few years ago to keep as much money in the bank as possible for a clean day, not realizing that it would be a thunderstorm. That, we sat at £ 1.4 million ($ 1.83 million) in the bank that is now halved. “
The club is pinning its hopes on a bid for the UK government’s culture recovery fund, a Liverpool City Council spokesman said.
It will stage virtual sets by bands from around the world later this month.
“We know we are not going to make any money,” Heckle said. “It’s really about reminding people that we’re here and the only goal is to get out the other way, I’m sure we will. But it’s about survival. ”
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said the “prospect of losing a national jewel such as the Cavern is a terrible scenario.”
The Beatles first performed at the Cavern in 1961, with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, with Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and Pete Best on drums. The band went on to join the club 292 times. Other major acts played at the club include The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and Adele.
The Cavern Club opened as a jazz venue in 1957. In 1973, the buildings above the venue were demolished, and the club was closed and filled with rubble. It was later rebuilt with the original plans and many original bricks, and was reopened in 1984.
