In the spring of 2016, I was on a driving tour of the States with my partner Kay. We diverted from route 66 and headed north to Las Vegas. We stopped for a coffee on a backstreet off downtown which turned out to be a bar, café and record store with a fanzine library at the back.It seemed such a great idea, I did actually say “I’m going to set something like this up when we get back home”. 81 Renshaw Street was the ideal fit and we opened in the December that year.I feel privileged to be based in such a historic address. Music is in the fabric of 81 Renshaw Street, there was a record store here in the 70s but before that it was the home to Bill Harry’s Merseybeat magazine in the 1960s.Every day (when there is not a pandemic on) we have a walking tour stop at the building and people from all around the world turn up and ask about the place. There is even a replica of the original Merseybeat office, which is now our office, within the Beatles museum here in Liverpool. John Lennon was a good friend of Bill Harry and spent a lot of time here. I got to know Bill in the 80s when he worked for RAK records and I worked with a couple of bands he looked after. He was such an important part of the history of Liverpool music.
