Liverpool is getting its first new vinyl record pressing plant in 30 years and it comes as a significant nod of the head to the city’s cultural history.

The factory will be located inside The Jacaranda, a popular Liverpool institution which has provided a significant platform for local musicians and artists since 1958.

In the 50s Allan Williams, a promoter and local business man, founded The Jacaranda as a coffee bar and famously offered a rehearsal and performing space for The Beatles when they were in the infancy. It was the relationship with Williams which led to John Lennon and Co. asking him to become their manager, a move that eventually led to their first tour of Hamburg in August 1960.

In 2014, following an extensive renovation, The Jacaranda reopened as a record label, rehearsal space, live venue, vinyl shop and, in a nod of the head to Allan Williams, offered free rehearsal spaces just like he did with The Beatles.

Now, The Jacaranda is moving in another direction which will undoubtedly add to its cultural legacy in Liverpool as it expands into a new vinyl record pressing plant.

“When we closed there was a lot of pressure on us to do a Beatles museum and presumably play Eight Days A Week on repeat, but I had no interest in that at all,” managing director Graham Stanley told the Big Issue North.

“Far more exciting was doing a similar thing to what Williams was doing in 1958 and providing a platform for grassroots bands to get heard,” he added.

“This is not a pipe dream. This is really happening,” he said in regards to the pressing plant which is being scheduled to open in 2020. “The talent has always been in Liverpool and if you look at the acts that have come out of the city at different points it’s certainly been one of the key musical cities in the world, but it’s never really received the investment or support that it needs to take its place at the head of the table,” said Stanley.

“We hope to change all that.”

