Eric's Club

The club played host to many local, national and international bands primarily within the music sub-cultures of the time, such as Elvis Costello, Buzzcocks, The Clash, Joy Division, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cardiacs, The Slits, Talking Heads, The Stranglers, Ultravox, Wire, XTC, X-Ray Spex and early gigs by New Order and Mick Hucknall (pre Simply Red).

The club acted as a catalyst for local musicians (often also from the Runcorn, Southport, Skelmersdale, Wirral areas) and saw many local artists later become successful acts, including Dead or Alive, Echo & the Bunnymen, Julian Cope, The Teardrop Explodes, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Ellery Bop and Wah! Heat.[2]

A copy of a membership card.

Eric's was a membership only venue[3] whereby members had to buy a yearly membership to enter the club. One of the more beneficial ideas was to provide membership for 'under 18's', which allowed younger music fans to see both local and national bands during a 'matinee' show they would more often than not have had a chance to see. It could be argued that this was merely a marketing ploy or revenue generating exercise, but this encouraged more prominent national bands and artists to visit Liverpool and helped provide a social networking venue for some of the city's future musical artists.

The club lasted until March 1980 when it was raided by police for alleged drug offences. The final acts that night where The Psychedelic Furs supported by Wah! Heat. Wah! Heat's performance was recorded for a John Peel session, and the poem "The Last Night of Erics (A small opera in the making)" was penned by Rob Jones. Later the club reopened as Bradys, to last some 12 months before closing.[4]

The original venue building was until mid-2011 (see below) part of the local 'trendy' orientated bar/club culture playing contemporary pop/dance music and is still on Mathew Street, which has an annual festival to promote Liverpool music. The club's main members entrance was situated below (though slightly to the right) of the Beatles Mural sculpture on Mathew Street, which is featured on the wall, opposite the current Cavern club.

In October 2011, a new venue called ‘Erics Live’ was opened by a local Liverpool business person and entertainment consultant Ethan Allen. Although occupying a close location, a little further down Mathew Street, the new owner and venue have no connection with the original club. The venture, and use of the name and logo, was condemned by a founding owner and many members of the original club, and has since closed. The original venue reopened once again shortly after, with OMD returning to play a one off gig for the opening night, this time under different ownership, but taking a direction back to the building's original roots of showcasing local live music every night, Eric's can be visited seven nights a week on Mathew Street.[5][6][7]

A musical written by Mark Davies Markham (Liverpool born author of West End hit Taboo) and directed by Jamie Lloyd, ran at The Liverpool Everyman Theatre in September 2008.[8]

In April 2009, a book entitled Liverpool Eric's: All the Best Clubs are Downstairs, Everyone Knows That, consisting of extensive interviews and research of the club and its history, was published. The book was researched and written by Paul Whelan and Jaki Florek, and contains many interviews with the people involved in the club and a large amount of previously unpublished material from the time. It is published by Feeedback.[9]

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