Merseybeat
Back in 1962 it was dire in the Pop charts. Rock Music had been effectively shut down by the payola scandal. The US government considered it a bad effect on youth and had pulled the plug. Radio and TV were unable to play Rock ‘n’ Roll. All we had was insipid Poprock – a very pale shadow of the real thing. Gone was the long hair greased back into ducktails, the sideburns and cat clothes. It was all suits and big smiles. It was all Bobby’s and Italian cut suits.
I liked it well enough. But I was only thirteen. I didn’t know there were more exciting things going on. I was not out and about round the clubs. I lived in the suburbs of London. There was nothing happening that I knew of.
As far as the record companies were concerned guitar music and the Rock sound had had its day. They’d seen it as a passing trend. They were focussing on a more ‘family orientated’ sound. The stars of the day – Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and Tommy Steele – were encouraged to be all round entertainers. The charts were full of songs for your parents.
It was all going to change.
In the port of Liverpool in the late fifties and early sixties the merchant seamen coming back from the USA were bringing obscure Rock ‘n’ Roll records and Black R&B that had not been played on the staid old BBC. In fact they weren’t being played in America either. The R&B was put out for a black audience and the radio stations were not playing R&B or Rock ‘n’ Roll. They were playing the Philadelphia sound with its clean-cut image. This meant that there was a treasure trove of great material for the Mersey bands to delve into.
The Liverpool club scene was really vibrant. There were hundreds of bands and lots of clubs with enthusiastic audiences of young kids. This was after the war and they wanted fun. They even had their own Music paper entitled Merseybeat.
The bands had started out as Skiffle bands but had progressed. They’d learnt to play an extra chord or two and got themselves better instruments and sound systems. The girls screamed for their favourites and every boy wanted to be in a band. It was rockin’.
Similar things were happening elsewhere around the country, almost unnoticed. London, Hull, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle all had thriving Rock scenes. But it was happening below the radar. The Mersey bands had set up a connection to clubs in Hamburg Germany where there was a thirst for exciting Rock Music. It gave the Mersey bands an added boost and great experience. Many of them, including the Beatles, developed their acts with lengthy sets in the clubs in the Red Light district of Hamburg. It put them in good stead.
Brian Epstein managed a record shop in Liverpool and he had been alerted to this group – The Silver Beatles – via a single they’d released in Germany – ‘Ain’t She Sweet’. It was causing a local commotion in his shop. He went along to see them. What he saw was a wild, leather clad, greasy long-haired band of rockers who were creating a riot at the main club in Liverpool – the Cavern. He was intrigued and saw the potential.
Brian took them on, cleaned them up, sorted out distinctive collarless suits, Sorted the mop-tops and created a distinctive new look. He made them adopt a more professional stage act and proceeded to sell – ‘The Beatles’ – as they now were to the record companies. It was hard work. Decca turned them down. But Columbia eventually bit.
I was fourteen in 1963. I remember sitting in my friend Tony Hum’s room and he played me ‘I Saw her Standing There’. He’d bought the Please Please Me album on the day of release. It was the first Beatle track I can remember hearing. My jaw dropped open. A new life opened up for me. Rock Music had just hit a new level.
That year of 1963 was the Year of Merseybeat. Not only did the Beatles storm the charts but they were joined by a host of other Mersey bands, mainly in the Epstein camp. There was Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer, The Searchers, The Merseybeats, Big Three, Cilla Black and the Mojos. They were also joined by a few that sneaked in from outside Liverpool like Freddy & the Dreamers, the Hollies, Herman’s Hermits and the Dave Clark Five. The Beatles were the pathfinders and had opened the floodgates.
Beatlemania had been born.
Every record company in the land was hunting out bands. It was madness. We kids were in our element. We suddenly had our own music. It was loud and it was ours.
Strangely the most popular bands in Liverpool like Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Faron’s Flamingos and even the Big Three, failed to make much of an impression. It was Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer and Freddy & the Dreamers who scored with the biggest hits.
Unfortunately the record companies did not know how to handle it. The Merseybeat sound the British Studios created was processed and sanitised. They did not manage to capture the raw sound of the club scene. We are fortunate to have two albums recorded virtually live and released on the Oriole label entitled This is Merseybeat vol 1 and vol 2 featuring Rory Storm, Faron’s Flamingos and a number of others, plus the EP by the Big Three recorded at the cavern (the whole set was recorded but the tape was wiped!) and a few other tracks that captured the excitement (A Merseybeats EP, Mojos and Undertakers singles) and that was it.
The quality of the Beatles and Searchers shone through and carried them. The Beatles had insisted on doing their own thing and were fortunate to get a great innovative producer in George Martin who was open to new ideas and gave them their head. That first album was virtually recorded live in the studio.
The Beatles had another major attribute; they wrote their own material. Not only that but it was as good as the best of the Rock and R&B they were covering.
On top of all that they had bubbly personalities, quick wit and a line in humour that broke through all the barriers.
In 1963 Merseybeat was a phenomenon. It was a game-changer. Over night the old guard had been swept aside. Adam Faith and Cliff tried a rearguard action by adopting a Mersey type style that was quite successful. Adam Faith’s new Backing band – the Roulettes – were particularly good. But in general the new Mersey sound had created an overnight transformation of the music scene. The fashion, guitar based sound, more informal performance and exuberant interaction had changed everything and paved the way for what was to come.
Britain had been turned upside down.
By 1964 it was over. Merseybeat was dead in the water. Only the Beatles and Searchers really survived. They were supplanted by a more exciting wave of bands playing blues, R&B and their own material. 1964 was the year of the British Beat groups.
The United States caught on a little later. It wasn’t until 1964 that the Beatles broke big. Then it went even more mental. They had 24 hour Beatles music on the radio, broke the record on the Ed Sullivan show and had seven out of the top ten singles, including the whole top five. It was unprecedented. This was Beatlemania USA style. They had albums and EPs in the singles charts and took America by storm. They could not get enough of the four lads from Liverpool. They were bigger than Elvis. The girls screamed and fainted and the crew-cutted American boys were desperately trying to grow their hair.
In the States the Mersey bands got a second bite of the cherry. They might have been finished in Britain but they were the bee’s knees in the States. All the bands swept in to New York along with the new wave of Beat bands. It was the British invasion. Gerry, Billy J, Freddy and Herman’s Hermits rode on the Beatle’s Beatle-jacket tails and took the continent by storm.
In the summer of 1964, at the age of fifteen, clutching my copy of the Rolling Stones new album, I hitch-hiked round France with my mate Foss. Everywhere we went the French youth shouted ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ at us. The Beatles were universal and with our long-hair we were kings. We were cool.
For a year or two Britain ruled the world!