In 1962 the most popular group on Merseyside with other musicians was possibly not The Beatles but The Big Three, and yet they couldn’t transform their local…
Browsing: Merseybeat
Inspired equally by show tunes, music hall and rock ‘n’ roll, the young James Paul McCartney (whose first guitar, incidentally, was a Rosetti Lucky 7…
So it goes like this . . . 15-year-old Paul McCartney hears a Skiffle group called The Quarrymen play on Saturday 6 July 1957. Along with a police dog…
Of all the Liverpool bands desperate to escape the long shadow of The Beatles in the 60s, The Clayton Squares (named after a city centre…
Although they are only remembered today for their 1964 hit Hippy Hippy Shake, The Swinging Blue Jeans were actually one of the strongest of the Liverpool…
One of the premier groups from the mid-60s Merseybeat explosion. Having previously backed Liverpool singer Johnny Sandon, they broke away and took their new name from the 1956 John…
Despite changing the name from The Texans, Rory Storm (real name Alan Caldwell) was obviously still fond of the numerous Western series on television. He decided…
The Remo Four had the connections (guitarist Colin Manley and bassist Don Andrew were classmates of Paul McCartney at Liverpool Institute) but were destined to stay bridesmaids…
Billed as “The Liverpool Yardbirds”, The Mojos had in Stu James (real name Stuart Slater) a rich stockpile of original songs into which other acts, such…
One of the very few Merseybeat bands with female members and possibly the first ‘girl group’ of all time, The Liver Birds formed in 1963. The band…
Peter Flannery became Lee Curtis by reversing the name of the American singer Curtis Lee. He was managed by his brother Joe, and there was a…
The Dennisons were named after a Liverpool street and managed by the parents of drummer (and ex-accountancy student) Clive Hornby – Their lead singer Eddie…
Born Gerard Marsden in Liverpool on 24 September 1942, Gerry formed his first group with his brother Freddie. A skiffle outfit, the band were originally called The…
The Merseybeats formed in 1961 as The Mavericks. After a short period as The Pacifics, they finally settled on The Merseybeats (at the suggestion of…
Let’s get one thing clear before we begin: The Beatles did not create Merseybeat, it created them. And although they are by far the most famous of…
Possibly the least-known of Brian Epstein’s post-Beatles charges from the Merseybeat era, The Koobas formed in 1962 and broke up in 1968. Their story read like virtually every other…
Relatively few Britons had heard of a place called Crosby, eight miles from the centre of Liverpool, before the 1981 by-election that swept Shirley Williams…
Billy Kramer (real name, William Howard Ashton) was an apprentice fitter for British Rail – He was also the lead singer for a Liverpool group…
Johnny Sandon was born William Francis Beck on 27 May 1941 ın Liverpool. He began singing at the age of 12 and in 1958 he entered…
Merchant seaman Brain Casser returned to Liverpool and formed Cass & the Cassanovas as a trio in May 1959, with singer and guitarist Adrian Barber,…