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Up to the start of the 18th century Liverpool was still a small town. Then the first wet dock in Britain was built here and it began to prosper, largely due to the slave trade. Less than 100 years later an incredible 40% of the worlds trade was passing through here. Liverpool had been transformed into a bustling cosmopolitan city with immigrants arriving from the four corners of the earth, especially Ireland. The heavy Irish presence was because of the need to escape the great famine. By 1850 one in four of the citys residents was Irish. The new found wealth enabled the city to undertake ambitious construction programmes so changing it forever. Liverpool was the first city to have an Inter-City railway, connecting it to Manchester, so bringing wealth to that famous city too. It continued to thrive as a port through to the mid twentieth century but as in many other cases the port declined and the area was left with huge unemployment and all the social problems that brings. The 1960s saw Liverpool become Britains unofficial capital of pop music, and the Cavern Club was where it was all happening. The Merseybeat, the Mersey being Liverpools major river, was ringing in the ears of people up and down the land. This explosion took place following Brian Epsteins meeting with a group of four young Liverpudlians in November 1961. This group had been playing in Hamburg, Germany and returned to their native city to play at the Cavern Club. Few of the audience there that night could have predicted the future success of this young group called The Beatles. Over the next two years they played almost 300 gigs just at this club and started the wave of success that would sweep the city. Other groups followed, such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, Billy Fury to name just a few. However, the Cavern was and still is not exclusively for Liverpudlian groups. Artists from The Rolling Stones to Michael Jackson have played this one-time air raid shelter! | 
