Gary Glitter brick removed from Cavern Club

• 17th Nov 2008

Gary Glitter's comemerative brick has been removed from the Cavern Club's “Wall of Fame.”

The wall was unveiled in 1997 on the 40th anniversary of The Cavern Club, graced with the names of the 1,801 bands who played at the club between 1957 -1973. Gary Glitter was among the stars who had played at the famous Liverpool club to be honoured with their own memorial brick. However, after a local media campaign, his name was taken off last week.

Club owner Bill Heckle had fought pressure to rewrite history. “I used to be a history teacher and this is like Stalinism, revisionism,” he said.

There is also now a plaque on the wall explaining that “two other performers played the Cavern Club between 1957 and 1973 and they had their bricks removed”, the other being digraced muso Jonathon King.

Heckle told the BBC: “We actually thought it had been done nine years ago when Glitter was done and we removed all the merchandise. But it's not up to us to censor the wall – it is a historical document. When the brick was made a big issue of, we thought it would attract attention and end up being vandalised. We spoke to a victim of paedophile crime and she said unequivocally 'Take it out'. I was still fighting the corner but ended up taking it out.”

“The situation has been blown out of all proportion. Yes, Glitter committed heinous crimes but this is rock'n'roll. Chuck Berry was in trouble, as were lots of the stars.”

A Gary Glitter song was also removed from a GCSE music syllabus last week.