came up with the idea of the club after watching a television report about The 2i's Coffee Bar in London's Soho, where several singers had been discovered. She decided to open The Casbah Coffee Club — which was located in her cellar — on 29 August 1959, for young people to meet and listen to the popular music of the day. Mona charged half a crown annually for membership—to "keep out the rough elements"—and served soft drinks, snacks, cakes, and coffee from an espresso machine, which no other club had at that time. The current pop records were played on a small Dansette record player, which amplified them through a speaker of . Mona had booked the Les Stewart Quartet to play the opening night with George Harrison on guitar, but they cancelled the booking after Stewart and Ken Brown had a quarrel. Stewart was angry that Brown had missed a rehearsal, because Brown was helping Mona to decorate the club. As 300 membership cards had already been sold, Harrison said that he had two friends in a band called The Quarrymen, who would play instead. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe and Harrison went to the club to arrange the booking, to which Mona agreed, but she said she needed to finish painting the club first. All four took up brushes and helped Mona to finish painting the walls with spiders, dragons, rainbows, stars, and a beetle, which still survive. Lennon was short-sighted, mistaking gloss for emulsion paint, which took a long time to dry in the dark, damp cellar. Cynthia Powell, later Lennon’s wife, painted a silhouette of Lennon on the wall, which is also still intact. The Quarrymen played a series of seven Saturday night concerts in The Casbah for 15 shillings each, from 29 August to October 1959, featuring Brown, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, but without a drummer, or a PA system. The opening night concert was attended by about 300 local teenagers, but as the cellar had no air-conditioning, and people were dancing, the temperature rose until it became hard to breathe. As there was no amplification, Lennon later persuaded Mona to hire a young amateur guitar player called Harry to play a short set before The Quarrymen, but this was only so they could use his 40-Watt amplifier. After the success of the first night, Mona gave The Quarrymen a residency, and paid the