Sixties City - The Story of Mersey Beat

The Story Of
'MERSEY BEAT'

Soon Virginia and I were able to move from the attic down to the next floor with two offices. We had a friend, Tim McCoy, build us a counter and Steve Day (leader of The Drifters) recalls seeing John Lennon come up the stairs, leap over the counter and begin to throw papers all over the place! John and Paul used to visit the office regularly to help out and Ringo Starr of the Hurricanes used to drop in when he was on his way to the dole office in Renshaw Street.

Among the numerous other visitors was Geoff Hughes, a member of 'The Travellers', who worked in the car showroom next door to us (Geoff went on to star in TV series such as ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Keeping up Appearances’, ‘The Royle Family’ and ‘Heartbeat’). Another regular was the late Norman Beaton, who also found fame on television. In fact, the office became something of an unofficial office for the entire Mersey scene and Brian Epstein, Jimmy Tarbuck and many others used to gather for a chat and then pop next door to the Renshaw Arms pub.

Following the move I looked in the desk drawer where I’d kept all of John’s writings – but it was empty! - all his work had been lost during the move! Virginia and I told John that evening in the 'Blue Angel' club and he cried on her shoulder. John wasn’t the only columnist. Another friend, Bernie Falk, wrote ‘The Moving Finger.’ Bernie became a prominent TV personality but died of a heart attack some years ago. Of particular note was 'Cavern' compere Bob Wooler who penned the ‘Roving I’ columns. Bob Azurdia and Geoff Leack were other columnists and, sadly, the two Bobs, Bernie, and Geoff have all passed away.

Virginia and I were now in a position to introduce more photographs into the publication and, apart from the range of Dick Mathews' photos he’d taken for us at the Cavern, we did a deal with a number of other photographers. These included Les Chadwick (under the name Peter Kaye), Harry Watmough, Barry Farrell and Graham Spencer, commissioning them to take photo sessions exclusively for me in exchange for display and classified advertisements, publicity in the paper, the chance to sell the photographs – and with me sending groups to them for photo sessions.

As a result, before they became famous, there was a unique and extensive range of photographs of The Beatles which Mersey Beat had commissioned for posterity, together with photos of other acts such as The Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, Billy J. Kramer, Cilla Black and Beryl Marsden.

I was to realise, years later, that due to the popularity of The Beatles and a hard core of groups with the format that became known as ‘The Mersey Sound’ or ‘The Liverpool Sound’ – a quarter with lead, rhythm and bass guitars and drums, singing in vocal harmony – that the true vitality and diversity of the Mersey music scene became virtually forgotten and ignored.

It was a tremendous and exciting musical scene that wasn’t restricted to the rock‘n’roll bands (I have compiled a list of over 950 of them and it isn’t finished yet!). There was a huge C&W scene with around 40 country music groups who had their own 'Grand Ole Opry' at the Philharmonic Hall and formed a Country Music Association. They had their own clubs such as 'Wells Fargo' and 'The Black Cat'. Liverpool had become known as the 'Nashville of the North' because it had the largest C&W scene in Europe and Liverpool groups such as The Hillsiders were eventually to appear at Nashville’s actual 'Grand Ole Opry' itself. There was also a lively Folk music scene and The Spinners became Britain’s premier Folk artists for decades. In addition there was an active poetry scene and Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri became the prominent new poets of the Sixties with their ‘The Mersey Sound’ collection selling more than 250,000 copies. The black music vocal groups were led by The Chants and there was an amazing clubland scene at the 350 clubs affiliated to the Merseyside Clubs Association which were the breeding ground for great comedians such as Ken Dodd, Jimmy Tarbuck, Freddie Starr, Russ Abbott and many others. I encouraged the photographers to take photos of the groups actually performing on stage and on different locations around the city – innovative as far as music papers went in those days as the traditional London papers basically used static studio shots. I also encouraged the musicians to write for the paper to express their experiences to the readers.

Mike Hart, Mal Jefferson, The Bluejeans, The Merseybeats and other musicians became regular correspondents. I was also staggered when Brian Epstein ordered twelve dozen copies of issue number two. This was an incredible amount of copies for a single outlet to order and we sat down in his office while he went through the newspaper, amazed that this active musical scene was occurring literally on his own doorstep. He asked if he could become my record reviewer and his reviews, under the title ‘Stop The World And Listen To Everything In It - Brian Epstein of Nems’ began in issue number three on 3rd August 1961.

He also took out advertisements - it’s interesting to note that it is a 'Nems' advert that appears on the full page feature by Bob Wooler about The Beatles that appeared in the August 31st 1961 issue of Mersey Beat. It began:

“ Why do you think The Beatles are so popular? Many people, many times, have asked me this question since that fantastic night
(Tuesday 27th December 1960) at Litherland Town Hall when the impact of the act was first felt on this side of the river. ”

He went on to describe them as “the stuff that screams are made of” and ended “Truly a phenomenon…such are the fantastic Beatles. I don’t think anything like them will happen again.” This is an absolute classic article because, considering the time it was written, it was most prophetic.

Talking of Bob, he came into the office one day to complain that I was publicising The Beatles too much. He said that other groups were complaining and saying that I should change the name of the paper to 'Mersey Beatle'. I kept that in mind and some time later included a regular page actually called 'Mersey Beatle'. Bob also brought along Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley who had been leading a group called The Mavericks. He suggested that I give them permission to name themselves after the paper, pointing out that a group called The Melody Makers already provided free publicity for that publication. At the time, having registered 'Mersey Beat' as a limited company, the law protected the name from being used by anyone else. I agreed to them calling themselves The Mersey Beats (later they truncated it to 'Merseybeats').

Brian Epstein also asked me if he could name some concerts he was promoting as 'Mersey Beat Showcase', which I also agreed to. When The Beatles, Searchers, Gerry, Billy J., Cilla and other artists began to hit the charts (in 1963 Liverpool acts dominated the No.1 position in the British charts throughout the year) the media described the music as ‘The Mersey Sound’ or ‘The Liverpool Sound.’

The music was never called 'Mersey Beat' at the time the publication actually existed, so it was something of a surprise when people began to refer to it as 'Mersey Beat' from the late Sixties, which makes it somewhat of an anachronism when referring to the sound.