The Jacaranda has been a staple of Liverpool’s music scene since the 1950s, with many local bands playing their first gig there to this day. In 1960 John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best played one of their their first shows together at the venue. Located on Slater Street, it remains a popular spot in Liverpool’s nightlife scene. Now, 65 years after it first opened, a new Jacaranda opened.
Jacaranda Baltic, is located in the Cains Brewery Village opposite the Baltic Market,has a large curated mix of local and international vinyl records upstairs. Downstairs, there is a performance space for gigs that can entertain over 300 people. Speaking at the venue managing director Graham Stanley said What a show! What a way to launch Jacaranda Baltic! 
Shed Seven became the first act to play at Jacaranda Baltic on the very day they found out they got their first ever #1 album. History for the band and history for The Jacaranda… Thank you to everybody who came
Graham said: “There were two things that made this location unique compared to the first Jacaranda. One is that it’s in the Baltic area of Liverpool, which is very much Liverpool’s creative district. The Jacaranda’s a really great fit for here. Don’t worry if you love buying vinyl in the city centre – we’re still going to have a shop there. We’ve moved all our records back above the Jacaranda up on the first floor, it’s absolutely chock full. However, if you’re over on the other side of the city in the Baltic, now you have access to what we do. And the second thing, of course, is the size. Having the capacity that we have here, means we can pull bigger, bigger acts into the city and get more and more people in to see them, which is what we love doing.” Graham feels that smaller venues are vital for honing the craft of musicians that will go to be huge household names. He said: “I’m from Birkenhead, I grew up around here. I grew up going to venues. We’ve seen a few sadly close over the past few years. It’s brilliant to be able to open up a venue, especially one of this size. I think it’s a very interesting size and it’s going to allow us to hopefully, bring some names like Dizzy Rascal who we’ve got coming up. I think grassroots music is where it begins for any musician. The Beatles were not the Beatles when they first played at the Jacaranda. They were Long John and the Silver Beetles, they were the Silver Beetles, and they weren’t a huge world breaking band. They were just a young grassroots music band. So stages like this give people the opportunity to get on stage for the first time, build an audience, build a crowd, hone their craft. And that’s a vital part of the journey for any musician. These venues are absolutely key in that journey. Without them, there probably, you know, there are no musicians.”
Oliver Reed, 25, who works in marketing for the Jacaranda, said there will be a “bigger selection” of music here than at its original location. He told the ECHO: “At the Jacaranda [on Slater Street], we’ve sort of got all the classic albums you’d expect. We’ve got The Beatles, obviously and then we’ve got the fresh new releases. Whereas here we’ve got, you know, you can find a lot more world music, just a lot more of a wider range, really.” Oliver added that the performance space also makes the Baltic venue “more of a special occasion” to visit. He said plans for it had begun back in November last year.
He said: “We needed a bigger space because the acts that we were putting on just demanded a higher capacity and stuff really, so we decided to make the move over to the Baltic here, partnering up with the guys at Punch Tarmey’s and Arcains to use the space that they had available.” Oliver is relishing working in Liverpool’s music scene. He said: “It’s great, it’s sort of become just normal life now. If you said to me, when I first started this job, I’d be meeting, you know, acts like Dizzee Rascal, I probably wouldn’t believe you but it’s just part of the job, really, to be honest.”
