Eric’s WAS KING
More than a decade after Merseybeat, Liverpool’s rock rediscovered its teeth with a (Teardrop) explosion of post-punk bands that put the city back on the musical map. Jim Keoghan feels their impact
A dark and sweaty underground club located in the centre of Liverpool that ignited the local music scene and changed the city for good. You’d be forgiven for thinking it is The Cavern being described here, but it isn’t. Located opposite where The Cavern used to be, another club existed for a short time at the end of the 70s. It was called Eric’s and along with the generation of post-punk bands it helped produce, it was responsible for saving the city from the atrophying effects of Beatlemania.
Today, Liverpool is justly proud of the Fab Four and milks its connection with the band at every opportunity. But by the early 70s it was possible to see that the legacy of The Beatles had grown somewhat poisonous.
“Giving birth to The Beatles and Merseybeat seemed to have left Liverpool creatively exhausted,” says Paul Du Noyer, the author of Liverpool: Wondrous Place, Music From Cavern To Cream.
According to Paul, despite plenty of activity on the local music scene, what was available to punters at the time was almost uniformly derivative.
“The general picture was blues-rock and heavy rock, all a bit stale, or else cabaret. The honourable exception might be a club like the Mardi Gras, where soul and R&B could be heard – but it’s debatable whether music on records counts as ‘local’ …
by Jim Keoghan
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