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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Benjamin Roberts-Haslam

Cilla Black's first professional show wasn't in Liverpool

Liverpool icon Cilla Black performed her first professional show outside of Liverpool.

The Vauxhall-born performer died aged 72 in 2015, with her first show dating back to 1963.

Cilla made her first appearance on stage when she supported the Beatles for a show on August 30, 1963. The show was at the historic Odeon in Southport, which is now a Sainsbury's store.

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She was never officially on the bill, she took to the stage to fill in for Fourmost - another Merseyband big in the 60s - who had pulled out.

Just before she took to the stage, Cilla who was 20-years-old at the time, had an attack of nerves.

Apparently, to calm her down, John Lennon approached her, calling her by the wrong name and offered some advice.

Rumour has it, he said: "Go knock ’em out, Cyril!"

Joy Lilley (Rigby in 1963) was in the Odeon audience the night Cilla played in Southport.

Joy told the Southport Visiter in 2015: "I was eleven at the time and my father got my friend, Maureen Davies, and I tickets to see the Beatles and I remember sitting only a few rows from the front and loved every minute of the show.

"As my friend and I were only young we could only go to the first performance as there was a later one.

"I can remember going to school the following day with an extremely sore throat as I had screamed that hard.

"What a wonderful memory I have of that very special evening. I really thought that one day I was going to marry Paul McCartney - well the rest is history."

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