Coburg Street & Leitrim Street- The Cavalier Club & The Cavern Club

There are two noted venues near to this trail point significant in the early career of Rory Gallagher and Taste, the Cavalier Club and the Cavern Club.

The Cavalier Club was a venue at 11 Coburg Street whose first object of its formation stated in its rules and regulations was wide ranging, to ‘encourage and foster modern, old time and ballet dancing of classical modern and jazz music in all its branches’ Dancehalls that once played host to showbands were now featuring ‘groups’.

The venue played host to plenty of home-grown talent in Cork in the form of groups such as the Martells, The Sounds and The Axills who were very big on the Cork city scene at the time.

One Saturday night at the Cavalier Club, the Axills were due to perform and invited Rory to jam with them on stage.

Keen to be back on stage whenever possible again after the recent break-up of the Impact band, the guest guitarist stood in (as well as with other local groups like The Chymes in 1966) to rip it up so well for the audience that the Axills asked Rory not long after to join permanently. Norman Damery and Eric Kitteringham, the drummer and bassist with the Axills, came to him and said, “We want you to join the band.” But Rory said, “No I’m not. But do you want to join my band?”

It is well here to mention the lively Crypt Club, a place where Rory and his friends hung out. A former old Army club in the basement of 58 MacCurtain Street in 1965.

While Rory busied himself in his career with the Impact group, Donal his brother learnt to DJ records at the Crypt club that led to wider DJ and promotion ventures for Rory's sibling. Donal’s enterprise impressed Billy Field, the owner of the new Cavern Club, to approach Donal and make him a resident DJ.

The Cavern Club was located at 25 Leitrim Street, next door to a blood bank and lay as part of a building with a motorbike shop. A place called the Cabin, a daytime hangout serving teas and food opened the other side of the Cavern and helped reinforce the club and locality that many youngsters frequented.

From Donal’s introduction to the Cavern for Rory and Taste, it was a key venue in helping establish the band. They played at the Cavern over 17 times from 1966 into 1967, helping spread Taste’s reputation with the local scene that grew into more bookings in other venues around Cork city.

Taste soon began to gain notice further afield with a mention in the weekly music magazine called Spotlight, which mainly covered showband news. Only one page was devoted to new ‘group’ music, and this was written by a Dublin DJ called Pat Egan. One week he wrote: “Are Taste from Cork as good as I hear?”

That alone was enough to spread the word and Taste got booked for a club gig in Dublin not long thereafter.