As Ian Prowse’s Monday Club celebrates 10 years at Mathew Street’s Cavern Pub Liverpool Acoustic’s Alan O’Hare caught up with the man behind it to find out what it means to him.
The Ian Prowse Monday Club at The Cavern Pub has cemented itself into the bricks and mortar of Mathew Street over the last decade. Alongside the legends of The Cavern, Eric’s, The Armadillo Tea Rooms, The Grapes, Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun and those four lads who shook the world, Monday Club now takes its place in the story of a street that has always punched above its weight.
It was made official over the summer when the popular singer/songwriter was given a brick on the The Cavern Wall of Fame and a presentation was held to reveal the artefact and reopen Monday Club, post pandemic, to celebrate a decade of the city’s only rite of passage open-mic night. “It was everybody else’s reaction which made me realise what an important thing it was,” reveals Prowse. “Everyone was like ‘wow, that’s a big deal, well done!’.”
The ethos of The Monday Club, and its unique selling point, is that no covers are allowed and its all-inclusive house policy means boys, girls, bands, women, men, poets, playwrights, learners and lunatics are all encouraged to step up to the stage and express themselves. “There’s been around 5000 seperate performances at Monday Club,” laughs Prowse. “In old money, I’ve heard countless potential hit singles… I’ve heard some dross as well, but not as much as you might think!”
We asked the Amsterdam frontman, currently selling out rooms across the UK on his The Continuing Story Tour, to tell us a bit more about his relationship with Monday Club and what it’s all meant across the years…
Where were you when The Cavern told you about the brick and how did it feel?
They told me at The Cavern’s Christmas knees-up back in 2019, then the pandemic hit and I assumed it’d all been kiboshed. So, really, I got two goes at being elated!
How has your relationship with The Cavern developed over the years?
It’s a marriage made in heaven, really. I get the power of The Cavern brand, the steady flow of curious tourists, the lure of the most famous club in the world. They get someone who is committed to creativity and Liverpool’s music of the future. I’ve also got fellow songwriting mates who are famous at it, so when they come down and play it elevates it all way above the usual open-mic.
How quickly did the ethos of Monday Club reveal itself to you?
When they first asked me I wasn’t that interested. But then I went down to visit my friend Miles Hunt, from The Wonder Stuff, at his home in the Shropshire countryside and they had a night in his local where people got up and did 15 minutes of their own music. They were all really talented… so I went back to The Cavern and said I’ll do it, but there’s strict rules! They gave me six weeks to see if it would stick.
Tell us some of your favourite artists who have played…
… I really couldn’t narrow it down. I particularly love it when full bands turn up, that’s one of the things that makes us special.
What, if anything, has Monday Club brought to your own music and career?
A lot of Amsterdam fans come into Monday Club to say hello, so it’s always nice to talk to them.
Where do you see Monday Club in another ten years?
Absolutely still rockin’! As long as there’s music in the veins of this city, Monday Club will keep going. It ebbs and flows anyway, has purple patches then goes quiet for a bit, new regulars show up, old ones rediscover it, locals make Monday night their new Friday night.
Who isn’t on that wall of fame who should be next?
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen. Obviously.
What’s coming up for you, Ian?
2021 sees us play in Manchester, Runcorn, Wigan, Thornton Hough, Sheffield, Norwich, Southport, Weston, London, Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and then we’ll finish the year with our annual 14-piece band knees up here in Liverpool in the main room at the O2 Academy.
Next year is my biggest full band tour since the Pele days with a brand new LP, One Hand on the Starry Plough, out in the new year.
The Monday Club, The Cavern Pub, Mathew Street, Liverpool, Mondays from 8pm
Interview by Alan O’Hare © 2021 Liverpool Acoustic
Ian Prowse & Amsterdam play O2 Academy, Liverpool on Saturday December 11th. Tickets are on-sale now: Ian Prowse & Amsterdam Tickets | O2 Academy Liverpool (academymusicgroup.com)