The Beatles and The Cavern Club
The Beatles had been playing at clubs on the Reeperbahn, in the German city of Hamburg, and had recorded the single "My Bonnie", with Tony Sheridan. On Tuesday, 21 February 1961, they made their first lunchtime appearance at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. From 1961 to 1962 The Beatles made 292 appearances at the club, culminating in a final appearance there on 3 August 1963, a month after the band recorded "She Loves You" and just six months before the Beatles' first trip to the United States.

Whilst playing at The Cavern Club they met Brian Epstein who would eventually manage the group and secure them a record contract.

The Cavern Club
Whilst playing golf with Dr. Joseph Sytner, Nigel Whalley - a friend of Lennon’s who was an apprentice golf professional at the Lee Park Golf Club - asked Dr. Sytner if his son, Alan, could book The Quarrymen at The Cavern Club in Mathew Street, which was one of three jazz clubs he managed. Sytner suggested that the band should play at the golf club first, so as to assess their talent. The band set up in the downstairs lounge of the golf club, and were surprised when nearly one hundred people filed in to listen. The performance was a success, and a hat was later passed around that held almost 15 pounds, which was much more than any other bands were paid. Alan Sytner phoned Whalley a week later and offered the band an interlude spot playing skiffle between the performances of two jazz bands at The Cavern.

Before The Cavern Club performance, the band argued amongst themselves about the set list, as rock 'n roll songs were definitely not allowed at the club, but skiffle was tolerated. After starting with a skiffle song, Lennon called for the others to start playing "Don't Be Cruel", but banjo-player Rod Davis warned Lennon that the audience would "eat you alive", which Lennon ignored and started playing it himself, forcing the others to join in. Halfway through, Sytner pushed his way through the audience and handed Lennon a note which read, "Cut out the bloody rock 'n roll".

Brian Epstein
The Beatles' name was first noticed by Brian Epstein in issues of Mersey Beat (which he sold in his NEMS music store) and on numerous posters around Liverpool, before he asked Bill Harry who they were. The Beatles were featured on the front page of its second issue.

On 9 November 1961, Epstein saw The Beatles for the first time in The Cavern Club. Epstein's version of the story was that a customer, Raymond Jones, walked into the NEMS shop on Saturday 28 October 1961 and asked Epstein for the "My Bonnie" single the group had recorded with Sheridan. Alistair Taylor later claimed that he used the name of Jones (a regular customer) to order the single and paid the deposit himself, knowing that Epstein would notice it, and order further copies. Harry and McCartney later repudiated this story, as Harry had been talking to Epstein about The Beatles for a long time (being the group he promoted the most in the magazine) and by McCartney saying, “Brian knew perfectly well who The Beatles were - they were on the front page of the second issue of 'Mersey Beat'." Two girls requested the record the following Monday, and this sparked Epstein's interest. It was the policy of the NEMS shop to look into every request that was made, so Epstein talked to contacts of his. He was told that they were playing The Cavern, having just returned from Hamburg, so he went to see them perform.

The Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best - were due to perform a lunchtime concert in The Cavern Club on 9 November 1961. Epstein asked Harry to arrange for Epstein and his assistant Taylor to watch The Beatles perform, so Epstein and Taylor were allowed into the club without queuing, with a welcome message being announced over the club's public-address system by Bob Wooler, who was the resident DJ. Epstein later talked about the performance: “ I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humour on stage - and, even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started."

After the performance, Epstein and Taylor went into the dressing room, which he later called "as big as a broom cupboard", to talk to them. The Beatles, all regular NEMS customers, immediately recognised Epstein, but before Epstein could congratulate them on their performance, George Harrison said, "And what brings Mr. Epstein here?"

The Beatles played at The Cavern over the next three weeks, and Epstein was always there to watch them. Epstein contacted their previous manager, Allan Williams, to confirm that Williams no longer had any ties to them, but Williams advised Epstein "not to touch them with a barge pole". In a meeting with the group at NEMS on 10 December 1961, he proposed the idea of managing them.

At first, he failed to connect with them, so the band refused to let him manage them; however, they relented after a short while. The Beatles signed a five-year contract with Epstein on 24 January 1962, which gave Epstein 25%. He then formed the management company NEMS Enterprises. McCartney's father had encouraged his son to find a Jewish manager, so Epstein fitted perfectly. Epstein had told his mother and father that managing The Beatles was only a part-time occupation and would never interfere with the family business.

Although Epstein had had no prior experience of artist management, he had a strong influence on their early dress-code and attitude on stage. When Epstein discovered the band, they wore blue jeans and leather jackets, performing at rowdy rock 'n' roll shows where they would stop and start songs when they felt like it, or when an audience member requested a certain song. Epstein encouraged them to wear suits and ties, insisted that they stop swearing, smoking, drinking or eating onstage, and also suggested the famous synchronised bow at the end of their performances. McCartney was the first to agree with Epstein's ideas, believing it was - in part - due to Epstein's RADA training. Lennon was against the idea of suits and ties, but later said, "Yeah, man, all right, I'll wear a suit. I'll wear a bloody balloon if somebody's going to pay me". Epstein also began seeking publicity by "charming and smarming... the newspaper people" (as John Lennon would put it in 1972). According to McCartney, "The gigs went up in stature and though the pay went up only a little bit, it did go up", and that the band was "now playing better places." Another improvement Epstein made was that the group was now far more organised - having a single diary in which to record bookings, rather than using whoever's diary was to hand.

The Beatles Recording Contract
The Beatles were still under contract to Polydor following their Hamburg work with Tony Sheridan for Bert Kaempfert. As Kaempfert was only interested in The Beatles as a back up group for Sheridan, he agreed to release The Beatles from their Polydor contract. This left the band with no recording contract so Epstein made numerous trips to London to visit record companies, but was rejected by many, including Columbia, Pye, Philips, Oriole, and most famously, Decca . The Beatles later found out that Epstein had paid Decca producer Tony Meehan (ex-drummer of the Shadows) to produce the studio recordings. While Epstein was negotiating with Decca, he also approached EMI marketing executive Ron White, who later contacted EMI producers Norrie Paramor, Walter Ridley, and Norman Newell, but they all declined to record the group. White could not contact EMI's fourth staff producer (George Martin) as he was on holiday.

On 8 February 1962, Epstein visited an HMV store in Oxford Street, London, to have the Decca audition tape transferred to disc. An HMV technician named Jim Foy liked the recordings, and suggested that Epstein should contact Parlophone's George Martin. The Beatles were signed by EMI's small Parlophone label after the group had been rejected by almost every other British record company, and without Martin ever having seen them play live. Martin later explained that Epstein's enthusiasm, and his conviction that The Beatles would one day become internationally famous, convinced him to sign them.

Martin scheduled an audition at Abbey Road Studios which convinced Martin that they were good enough, but with one exception: He felt the recording would be better served by an experienced session drummer in place of Pete Best. When the news came that Martin wanted to replace Best on their recordings with a session drummer, John Lennon, McCartney and Harrison asked Epstein to fire Best from the band. Epstein agonised about the decision, and asked Bob Wooler if it was a good idea, to which Wooler replied that Best was very popular with the fans and they would not like it at all. Ringo Starr took his place, as Starr had previously played with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and had previously stepped in to drum with them when Best was ill or unable to play.