The Beatles' first performance on stage took place on March 21, 1961.

Actually, to be precise, this first performance took place on March 21st or a month earlier, on February 21st, even Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr can’t remember now. The Beatles were opening for the now forgotten group The Bluegenes, and the youngest of the Beatles, George Harrison, was only 18 (or even 17, if the debut took place in February).

But it is known for sure when The Cavern Club opened - January 16th, 1957. Initially positioned as a jazz club, it played an important role in the life of The Beatles, who gave about 300 concerts there. It was here that the very young musicians honed their manner of behavior on stage and communicating with the public.

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Although there are "variances" here too - the most old-time music lovers are sure that the real baptism of the group took place later, in Hamburg, where they had to play in the Kaiserkeller club, alternating every hour with another group, 12 hours a day. Although in the port city of Liverpool the audience in The Cavern Club was not the most intelligent in terms of behavior, in Hamburg after the performance you could simply run into a fight between drunken listeners with stabbing.

Ironically, the debut in The Cavern Club was arranged for the "Beatles" by the mother of Peter Best - the first drummer of The Beatles, with whom they had to part at the insistence of the man who is now called the "fifth Beatle", although it would be more correct to call him their "musical father" - George Martin. This happened because of the signing of the first contract with the EMI recording company, since, in Martin's opinion, Best "didn't measure up" to the level of the other musicians and was replaced by Ringo Starr.

This is also related to the debut of The Beatles because Best was, along with Paul McCartney, one of those "Beatles" whose appearance attracted young fans to The Cavern Club. The "Beatles" then had to decide who they would be in the future - a concert group at the level of the Liverpool club (and then Best had to stay) or someone more.

It should also be noted that Stuart Sutcliffe, an artist and a sort of guitarist, who played the guitar much worse than he painted, was also called the "fifth Beatle". But he was close friends with John Lennon, who considered himself his alter ego. Or vice versa, given Lennon's self-importance. Or maybe not the other way around, considering that Lennon suffered from an inferiority complex, albeit deeply hidden.

Here Sutcliffe was the main handsome man of The Beatles and also the only intellectual. It is not surprising that it was he who fell in love during the group's performances in Hamburg, photographer Astrid Kirchherr, who is credited with creating the familiar visual image of the young "Beatles". They were even engaged, but Stewart died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 21.

Photo: The Beatles through the lens of Astrid Kirchherr (Sutcliffe - in dark glasses)