It is in Liverpool way back in the heady days of the late sixties. The Beatles are at their height.

The redistribution of wealth that has happened in Britain brings in its wake a substantial increase of disposable income in the pockets of the people of the city. To provide for this new market, leisure activities mushroom all over the city and these include nightclubs. In those days, I've a business partner called Ronnie Potter. We run an illuminated decorative sign business named Novo Art Ltd, which specialises in a process, which I've patented. We use fragments of broken glass to create colourful products.

Through one of our business associates we come across a converted ex-wartime Tank Landing Craft LCT 7074 mark lll known as The Clubship Landfall. We have recently expanded our activities to include the supply of club furniture and other clubland services. Our company specialises in illuminated murals, which lend themselves superbly to the dim interiors of clubs; consequently, we are interested in seeing inside the Landfall. Mr Coulter, our business contact happenes to be a member of The Merseyside Master Mariners Club, which owns the vessel, and he offers to take us aboard one day for lunch. The atmosphere and general décor of the place is very old fashioned. It is redolent of one of those posh London clubs, where old men in leather armchairs fall asleep behind copies of the Times. The food leaves much to be desired, but the staff are very professional and eager to please. At the time of our visit in February 1969, Ronnie and I can see that the novelty value of a floating club has a tremendous commercial potential. If the Landfall is given a face-lift and made accessable to the public, it can be a real money-spinner. The ageing membership does not encourage new blood. The patrons of the establishment are mostly connected with the shipping industry in some way or other.

The certificated masters have dwindled to a small band that only occassionally, briefly visit the club to attend the Annual Dinner. In the main, the rest are a motley band of shipping agents, painting contractors, forwarding agents and the like. For the most part, they are all decent gentlemen of the old type. The club's slipping into a gentle decline. It doesn't open at all in the evenings. The Landfall has nestled quietly against the old quayside at Canning Dock for the last 21 years. Nobody is aware of her detailed history, it isn't known that the ex-tank landing craft has seen active service in seaborne assaults during the last war.

I contact the Admiralty and get all the wartime history of the craft. At the cessation of hostilities it was presented as a gift by a grateful Admiralty, to The Master Mariners of Liverpool who had performed such heroic deeds in the Battles of the Atlantic. The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board willingly provided a berth.

On September the 20 1948, Admiral Sir Max K. Horton, in the company of Admiral Sir Percy Noble, The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, The Earl of Derby and Viscount Leverhulme, re-launched the most exclusive club in Liverpool. After her extensive remodelling, the rather plain warship had lost her unromantic number and was renamed The Clubship Landfall. The Merseyside Master Mariners Club had a membership of some 100 active or retired ship's masters at the time. The venture had the full support of The Merseyside Ship Owners Association and The Landfall was installed as a landmark in Liverpool's maritime history.

Shortly after our visit, Ronnie and I started negotiations with Mr. Michael Coventry of the Merseyside Master Mariners Club, with the intention of obtaining the catering concession aboard the Clubship Landfall. The Master Mariners are fighting desperately to keep the club going, but are finding the increasing overheads and administrative load too much.

Following a complicated chain of circumstances Ronnie and I are introduced to a city centre businessman named Colin Peers. Colin is thirty-six years old, having been born in Isleworth, Middlesex in 1936. He's attended Acton Technical College where he passed his City & Guilds examination in catering. After completing a valuable year's tuition at the famous Ritz Hotel under its renowned chef Monsieur Avignon, he serves his country in the Royal Air Force, becoming personal chef to the base chief. After completing his military service, he returns to the Ritz Hotel for a further year. Then comes a period as chef in a smart country club in Buckinghamshire, followed by a two year stint as chef on an oil rig near Das Island, Trucial Oman States. Returning to the U. K., he meets Mr Roberts of the successful north-west-catering group 'Robleys', eventually reaching the position of assistant manager at Liverpool's Airport Restaurant. I963 sees him with his own catering business and a pretty Liverpool-born wife. Colin owns an all night sandwich-bar cum coffee stall known as The Hole in the Wall. in the downtown district of Liverpool His main clientele were taxi drivers and other denizens of the night, but more importantly, Colin had the catering concession at a well-known nightclub The Cabin. He'd all the hallmarks of an excellenhird partner for the project, having the catering ability and the expertise. Would he be interested in joining as a third partner in the venture? Colin came and gave the place a look over, and said yes immediately.

Eventually agreement was reached between the two parties, and our newly formed company Compass Catering [which we registered on 15 July 1969], took over the running of the Clubship Landfall on 1 February 1968.

At that time our responsibility involved the payment of running costs, including staff remuneration, the berthage charges, electricity costs, coal, (all heating was coal-fired at that time), insurance etc. In return, we were to receive the profits from the restaurants and bars. The first major test of the catering ability of the new company took place on the occasion of the 20th Annual Dinner of The Merseyside Master Mariners Club held in March 1968. The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Dame Ethel Wormald, made a special mention of the high standard of the cuisine in her after dinner speech, and thus mainly due to the professional skill of Chef Colin Peers the reputation of Compass Catering was established.

On 20 July 1968, the Clubship Landfall was officially opened to the public as a nightclub. We threw a Champagne Party for 200 guests to launch the venture, at which many important Liverpool people were present. Among the points of agreement between the Master Mariners and Compass Catering had been, that whilst the Mariners retained exclusive access rights to the Clubship at lunch-time, we caterers could operate as a night-club in the evening. Consequently, a 'Full Justices On License' was granted by the City of Liverpool Magistrates, allowing us to remain open for the sale of alcohol till 2a. m. in the morning. Bookings for private functions began to flood in, and the novel nautical surroundings caught on with the folk of Liverpool. We were desperately short of money during the initial setting - up of the nightclub. There was a heavy investment required on restaurants, bars, and discothèques with illuminated dance floors and general refurbishment

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