House used for early Beatles gigs becomes holiday rental

A Liverpool house famous for hosting some of The Beatles' first gigs in the basement has been given a new lease of life listed on Airbnb.

Mona Best, the party-loving mother of the band's original drummer Pete Best, opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the city's West Derby suburb in 1959, just before the group formed.

The band went on to perform more than 40 times in the basement of the property, on a leafy residential street, after it had also hosted 13 gigs by John Lennon's first band The Quarrymen.

The Casbah started with Saturday night gigs, but soon opened Friday to Sunday. It closed three years later but has remained a tourist attraction for Beatles fans from around the world.

Now the property has been transformed into suites named after members of the Fab Four -- though one is named for Best rather than Ringo Starr, who became The Beatles' drummer in 1962.

Stuart Sutcliffe, the band's original bass guitarist, also gets a room named in his honour.

"The Beatles played here, The Beatles partied here and The Beatles slept here," Pete Best told Britain's Press Association (PA) news agency, which first reported on the change to a holiday rental listing.

The 82-year-old added it was intended as a "lasting tribute" to the world's most famous band.

He has been working on converting the house into rental accommodation since 2020, along with younger brother Roag, 62 -- the son of The Beatles' road manager Neil Aspinall.

- 'Unique' -

The rooms have been decorated with a "sprinkling" of The Beatles, including photos of band members, posters and guitars on the wall.

The famous basement has been preserved from its 1960s heyday, with drum kits still on display and "John I'm back" scratched into the ceiling above the stage area.

The five suites above have been available to book since early August, with guests from different parts of Britain and the United States already staying over.

They are yet to post any reviews.

Under Airbnb's "what makes my home unique" section, the brothers have playfully entered: "The Beatles played and stayed here".

Prices for next month were starting at around £125 ($163) per night.

Roag revealed to PA that he was actually born in what is now the McCartney suite while most of the band were downstairs.

"So upon being born I was basically presented to The Beatles," he said.

He grew up in the property and moved out aged 24.

Roag noted McCartney has previously said he loved playing in the Casbah because "it was like playing a big house party" and "it felt like a safe place" to try new things.

Explaining the lack of a Starr suite, he added it was "about being authentic".

"The Beatles that performed and partied here were John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart."