Venue: Eric's Club
Town: Liverpool, GB

Eric's Club is a music club in Liverpool, England. It opened on 1 October 1976 in the basement of The Fruit Exchange Building in Victoria Street, with performances by The Runaways and The Sex Pistols (their only Liverpool gig) before soon moving around the block to its long-term site on Mathew Street opposite The Cavern Club where The Beatles and other bands of the 1960s played, and became notable for hosting early performances by many punk and post-punk bands. The club was started by Roger Eagle, who had promoted gigs at the Liverpool Stadium between 1970 and 1976 for acts such as T. Rex, Led Zeppelin, Chuck Berry, Captain Beefheart, David Bowie, The Kinks, and Lou Reed, and Ken Testi, manager of the Liverpool band Deaf School. Pete Fulwell, owner of the small record label "Inevitable" and later manager of Liverpool bands It's Immaterial and The Christians, joined them later. The club was given the name 'Eric's' by Ken Testi as an antidote to disco clubs with names such as 'Tiffany's' and 'Samantha's' The club played host to many local, national and international bands primarily within the music sub-cultures of the time, such as Elvis Costello, Buzzcocks, The Clash, Joy Division, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cardiacs, The Slits, Talking Heads, The Stranglers, Ultravox, Wire, XTC, X-Ray Spex and early gigs by New Order and Mick Hucknall (pre Simply Red). The club acted as a catalyst for local musicians (often also from the Runcorn, Southport, Skelmersdale, Wirral areas) and saw many local artists later become successful acts, including Dead or Alive, Echo & the Bunnymen, Julian Cope, The Teardrop Explodes, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Ellery Bop and Wah! Heat. Eric's was a membership only venue whereby members had to buy a yearly membership to enter the club. One of the more beneficial ideas was to provide membership for 'under 18's', which allowed younger music fans to see both local and national bands during a 'matinee' show they wo