Sixties City - The Story of Mersey Beat

The Story Of
'MERSEY BEAT'

There is no doubt that the 'Cavern' became the most famous club in the world during the Sixties and the club owner Ray McFall needs to be acclaimed for everything he did. However, the major success of the 'Cavern' tends to cloud the vitality of the other Merseyside venues, just as The Beatles overshadowed every other act. The Beatles, under their original name of The Quarry Men (two words not one), actually had their first residency in a club which also had six letters in its name and beginning with the letter C – no, it’s not the 'Cavern', it’s the 'Casbah' - which was also the first venue the Beatles appeared in on their return from their first German trip.

A highlight in the Beatles chronology is their appearance at Litherland Town Hall on Tuesday 27th December 1960. Fresh from Hamburg, they astonished the audience with their new dynamism. Brian Kelly was the promoter of this event and he booked them for a further 35 dates at his various other venues, mainly Litherland and Aintree Institute. Kelly, who also promoted at Lathom Hall, Savoy Hall and Alexandra Hall booked The Beatles more times than any other local promoter with the exception of Ray McFall. His contribution as a major Merseyside promoter has never really been acknowledged as he died many years ago. Incidentally, Kelly had originally booked the Silver Beats (as they then called themselves) on Saturday 4th May 1960 at Lathom Hall.

He then advertised them to appear for the following week, but they didn’t turn up – they’d begun their first-ever tour, backing Johnny Gentle in Scotland! Wally Hill and his wife ran dances at a few venues, primarily Holyoake Hall and Blair Hall, while Mona Best, Vic Anton, Sam Leach, Dave Forshaw, Doug Martin, Charlie McBain and Les Dodd were among several other promoters.

Charlie McBain was the pioneer promoter of the 'Mersey Sound' venues, with venues such as Wilson Hall, Wavertree Town Hall and New Clubmoor Hall. He booked The Quarry Men at Wilson Hall in Garston and Paul was to appear publicly with the group for the first time when McBain booked The Quarry Men at New Clubmoor Hall on 18th October 1957.

Dodd promoted dances on the Wirral and booked The Silver Beetles at The Institute, Neston and The Grosvenor Ballroom, Birkenhead prior to their first trip to Hamburg. Also ‘over the water’ was the Tower Ballroom, the setting for major promotions by Sam Leach and Brian Epstein. It must be admitted that one of the reasons for the growth of the Mersey Sound was the proliferation of venues for groups throughout Merseyside.

Apart from the venues mentioned, they played at New Brighton Swimming Baths, the Silver Blades Ice Rink, Allerton Synagogue, The Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead, The Grafton Ballroom, The Locarno Ballroom, Knotty Ash Village Hall, St John’s Hall in Crosby, Kingsway Club in Southport, David Lewis club, Mossway Hall, The Odd Spot, The Rialto Ballroom, Floral Hall in Southport, La Scala Ballroom in Runcorn, The Plaza in St Helens and scores of others. In the centre of Liverpool, the Cavern’s main rival was the Iron Door Club, itself formerly a jazz club, 'The Storyville'. As the Cavern became known as the home of The Beatles, the Iron Door was known as the home of The Searchers. The Mardi Gras was a particularly large and exciting venue in Mount Pleasant, run by Jim Ireland, who also managed The Swinging Bluejeans, The Escorts, Earl Preston and Cy Tucker, in addition to another city centre venue, The Downbeat club.

The repertoires of the groups were based on American rock‘n’roll and R&B numbers and they used to compete to see who could be first with new songs. Among them were ‘Little Egypt’, ‘Poison Ivy’, ‘Twist & Shout’, ‘Memphis Tennessee’, ‘All Around The World’, ‘Stupidity’, ‘Dr Feelgood’, ‘Skinnie Minnie’, ‘Yakety Yak’, ‘Alley Oop’, ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’, ‘Magic Potion’, ‘Johnny B. Goode’, ‘C’mon Everybody’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Searchin’’, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’’ and ‘Boney Moronie.’ Their heroes were Elvis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry. Oriole Records issued Tamla Motown Records on their Oriole American label and found that their biggest sales took place on Merseyside. I used to include a 'Motown' page, with features on artists such as Little Stevie Wonder, The Contours, Mary Wells and The Miracles.

The Beatles and other groups used to include Motown numbers such as ‘Money,’ ‘Beechwood 45789’, ‘Do You Love Me’, ‘Shake Sherry’ and ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ in their repertoires.As the Liverpool groups reinterpreted the numbers and performed them in their own style, I referred to it as the 'Mersey-Motown Sound'.All of the numbers in the repertoire of The Beatles and other groups were readily available and could be bought in local record stores. They weren’t brought in by ‘Cunard Yanks’ as some sources claim.
Out of more than five hundred groups and artists who performed on the Mersey scene between 1958 and 1965, only the chart artists are generally widely known – The Beatles, The Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Fourmost and The Swinging Bluejeans.
There were, of course, many others who had the potential to become international names but never achieved the success they deserved. They included The Big Three, Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes, Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, The Remo Four, Beryl Marsden, Faron’s Flamingos, The Chants, Jimmy Campbell, Steve Aldo, The Strangers, The Dennisons, The Escorts, The Undertakers, Derry Wilkie, The Roadrunners and David Garrick.

The success of 'Mersey Beat' led to many other similar newspapers spreading throughout the provinces from Southend to Glasgow, one of the first being 'Midland Beat' in Birmingham. Aspiring editors contacted me for help and one of them, who was to produce 'Western Scene' in Bristol, spent a week with me in Liverpool while I showed him all the ropes. I counted over 20 publications which were based directly on 'Mersey Beat', which must have made it the most-imitated newspaper in the world at the time. As for 'Mersey Beat' itself, by 1965 London had re-established itself as the musical centre and A&R men were combing all the other cities – Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, with Liverpool (mistakenly) being regarded as having been drained of all its main talent.
Brian Epstein wanted me to finish with 'Mersey Beat' and launch a national music paper for him, so I coined the phrase 'Music Echo', merging 'Mersey Beat' into it. I had, of course, been promoting groups from the provinces for a number of years, particularly from the cities mentioned above.

Unfortunately, Brian seemed to have the wrong idea of what a music paper should be. Although promising me full editorial control, he began commissioning the type of material which I considered ‘naff.’ Without consulting me he hired a female P.R. in London to write a fashion column, a London club D.J. to write a gossip column and I was suddenly flooded with material and photographs which I considered would be disastrous for the paper and would provide no competition to the London 'majors'.

I told Brian I could no longer work on 'Music Echo' and so I left, to become a P.R. myself, and Virginia and I then moved to London where, over the next 18 years, I represented about 30 major artists including The Hollies, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, Ten Years After, David Bowie, The Beach Boys, The Pretty

Things, Led Zeppelin, Supertramp, Nazareth, Suzi Quatro, Hot Chocolate and Kim Wilde.

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