These January 1963 photos, taken by Les Chadwick, help illustrate just how cramped conditions were when The Beatles performed in The Cavern.
Sitting with arms folded next to George in the top image was his girlfriend Bernadette Farrell.
“It was no big, raging love affair, but George was my boyfriend,” she’d tell the Liverpool Echo following his death. “He was a lovely, lovely man, a caring, private person. A lot of people said he was quiet but that’s because they didn’t get to know him. He was actually quite lively and humourous. He was always making dry quips. He was not shy, but he was happy to stand back and only speak when he thought it was relevant. He was a deep thinker who didn’t say any more than was necessary.
“He was part of such a happy period of my life and he was a special person. It was just a short relationship that ended when he went to London. Some of the girls from the Cavern went off to follow the band, but that was not for me. We drifted apart with the pressure of his work. It was just one of those things. People get stick for leaving Liverpool but in those days it was just something you had to do to succeed. They left Liverpool almost overnight and he just didn’t have time to see me. I saw him again at a party in the 1970s and he was still the same handsome, charismatic George.”
