You know the Cavern, but there’s also Eric’s

Aug 30 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL nightclub The Cavern has played a central part in the city’s 800th birthday celebrations this week.

But tonight the Tate Liverpool art gallery, at the Albert Dock, will recognise the importance of another legendary city music club on Mathew Street – Eric’s.

First opened in September, 1976, for nearly four years the dank underground venue featured some of the world’s best bands and spawned some of the city’s own “greats”, including Echo and the Bunnymen, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and OMD.

In tribute, on its second Late at Tate night (the first featured acclaimed artists Peter Blake and Tracey Emin), the gallery is reuniting key figures in the club’s short but influential history.

Inspired by the current exhibition Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde, the event will feature as its centre-piece a talk by the controversial artist and musician Bill Drummond.

Drummond’s career effectively began at Eric’s when he played with the Liverpool band Big in Japan. He subsequently became manager of the Bunnymen before forming the chart-topping pop-art act KLF.

Renowned for their artistic statements, one of the most outrageous occurred in August, 1994, when Drummond and KLF collaborator Jimmy Cauty filmed the burning of £1m in British bank notes – the last of the group’s remaining profits from their pop career.

He is now an artist in his own right and created the poster for the Tate’s current exhibition.

His talk on the fourth floor is being touted as a rallying cry to Liverpool, challenging the city to come up with a noteworthy Capital of Culture year.

Other key figures from the Eric’s years invited along for the night include Ken Testi and Pete Fulwell, who founded the club with the late Roger Eagle, who sadly died in 1999.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to bits to have been invited to this,” said Mr Testi, who still manages the cult Liverpool band Deaf School.

“It’s also wonderful that the Tate have put us in the context that they have for this exhibition and enormously flattering that they consider us so important in the post war years of Liverpool’s artistic development.

“It’s an endorsement of the cultural output that came from the club.”

Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant will be guest DJ for the evening, spinning the discs in the foyer.

Other highlights for the Late at Tate evening will include readings in the gallery café by acclaimed poet Michael Horovitz entitled One Man Poetry Band, the showing of two renowned feature films based in Liverpool – Violent Playground and Letter to Brehznev – plus the ArtPad beach themed installation designed by local young people.

Apart from the Drummond talk at 6pm – tickets for which cost £7 – the event, which is open until 9pm, is free. This includes a free pint of bitter to every adult visitor from award-winning local brewers Cains who are backing the celebration. Further details at the Tate on 0151 702 7400.

mikechapple@dailypost.co.uk