IT’S BEEN 45 YEARS SINCE THE ICONIC CLUB ERIC’S SHUT ITS DOORS, LEAVING A LASTING LEGACY THAT STILL ECHOES THROUGH THE MUSIC SCENE!
It sounds corny but I can definitely say that there’s a little bit of Erics that will always be with me.
Part of it is something as basic as the smell! I know that doesn’t sound like a great thing to remember but it was just part of what my memory has stored from what was a special time and a very special place. It didn’t matter in the slightest that it was a bit dingy and scuzzy. In fact, that probably added to the magic. (And to be honest all my favourite venues in whatever cities I’ve watched music in have always been small, sweaty, and not somewhere you would want to look at too closely when the lights come up).
Erics was the first place that I ever felt I belonged. It was a place where you hung out with like- minded waifs and strays. It is probably the only time I’ve felt part of gang and it felt safe. But more importantly it was the place where I saw legends like The Clash, Joy Division, Buzzcocks, The Slits, The Specials, (and even a very young Madness) and witnessed first-hand the birth of local legends the Bunnymen and The Teardrops, and the hugely enjoyable chaos of Big In Japan.
In that beautiful cave I was lucky enough to see the likes of Wire, the Undertones (with my mate’s band Psychamesh as support), the Banshees, Gang of Four, The Human League (around the time of their debut single ‘Being Boiled’) , future stadium fillers The Cure ( when there weren’t more than 50 of us in the audience,), stunning early gigs by Magazine as well as the punk/new wave staples like The Damned, Penetration, Adverts and the Skids.
From the first gig I saw there, the debut Saturday matinee gig featuring XTC, I was hooked. I was going every week – sometimes to matinees but often to the main shows in the evenings and legging it for the last bus home. I was 15/16 and going to Erics was a major part of my growing up. On my first date with my first real girlfriend – a girl I was in sixth form at school with – I took her to Erics to see The Cramps. Only years later did I realise that it was probably a pretty weird thing to ask a new girlfriend to go and see this bizarre band with me and a couple of my oddball mates. But then again I wasn’t going to miss it for anything. The Cramps were amazing. The new girlfriend had a few halves of cider and black (it was what sophisticated 16-year-old girls drank then) and was thankfully impressed by the antics and the music of The Cramps. That was on the Saturday night and wasto be last ever time there. On the Friday following The Cramps gig the club was raided by the police and that was it. Erics was gone!
What made Erics so special? Well obviously, some of it is down to the fact that within the confines of the small cellar I saw some of the best bands ever at incredibly close quarters. We rubbed shoulders with the likes of Ian Curtis and Joe Strummer because it was impossible not to. The tiny dressing room was off to the side of the stage and bands had to walk past you to get on and off stage. When they performed the audience was pressed right up to the front of the tiny stage. There was no ‘them’ and ‘us’ and the low ceiling just added to the intimacy. At packed gigs the sweat just dripped off the ceiling. We pogoed like the young idiots we were and used to leave the club completely drenched in sweat.
There was a lot of love in that club and much of this was down to co-owner/promoter Roger Eagle who more than anything else just loved music. He was a music fanatic who put on music because he felt like he had to. All the famous musicians who came out of Erics talk about the music education that Roger gave them. Indeed, he educated us all through the artists he booked and through the records he put on the legendary Erics jukebox. Roger’s love of music even impressed the local gangsters who in those days controlled most of the Liverpool club scene. Usually, they demanded protection money from anyone who dared to operate a club in the city. But they tolerated Roger and the oddball crowd his venue attracted because they could see it was a labour of love rather a business. Allegedly the police of the time were less understanding when their requests for ‘ a drink’ were met with an offer of the a glass of coke rather than the expected brown envelope full of bank notes. Roger and his business partner Pete didn’t really get the way business was done in 1970s Liverpool clubland. That’s why Erics stood out.
Some of it is probably down to timing. It was a special time in music and culture in the UK and Liverpool put its own unique stamp on it. Where else could a band like Big In Japan have just happened? Don’t forget this was a group that had no real success but contained individuals who went to be hugely influential. Fronted by Jayne Casey, who has a strong claim to being woman who has had the most influence on Liverpool cultural life over the last 30 years. Then there was Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes To Hollywood main man), and Ian Broudie who went on to produce the Bunnymen and many others as well as having huge success with the Lightning Seeds. Big Bill Drummond went on to shape the careers of both the Bunnymen and Teardrops, before having major success with the KLF, and then disrupting the art world in his own uniquely subversive way. That leaves Budgie who had no bad career himself as drummer with the Banshees and then The Creatures. Big In Japan were adored by us matinee goers and some of my favourite memories are their brilliant shambolic gigs at Erics.
Liverpool needed somewhere to bring all the mavericks together and Erics was that place. It gave birth to McCulloch, Will and Les from the Bunnymen, Julian from the Teardrops, Pete Wylie, OMD, and numerous others who went on to form the backbone of Liverpool music for the next thirty years.
We marched when it got closed down by the police, but the reality was that in was in financial trouble anyway and may not have lasted much longer. And maybe it was for the best. It was a club and a scene that burned brightly that its impact could never have been sustained. It went leaving a short but magnificent history and a whole load of great memories.
Everyone who was around Erics has a great tale to tell. Grab Bernie Connors or Yorkie next time you see them, buy them a pint, press ‘start’ and then just let them entertain you with stories of a really special place full of unbelievable characters. It’s a bit like Narnia but real.
