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| Full color arrived in the UK in 1967 |
Bill Harry, the founder of the Mersey Beat magazine, went to art school in 1958 were he fell in with John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe. He had always had an interest in magazines, having started with a science fiction mag when he was 13. As a teenager he had also been penpals with a teenage Michael Moorcock. Whilst at the Art College he produced the in house magazine but always wanted to publish his own music paper, which he did when he left. His original idea was for it to be about jazz but when he realised that there were over 300 rock 'n roll, country and folk groups playing around the Liverpool area he wrote to the London newspapers to try and promote them. When he didn't receive any replies he decided to produce a local listings paper instead.
With the aid of a £50 loan from a friend, together with a photographer and the help of his girlfriend, later wife, Virginia, he rented an office and began production of the fortnightly paper with Bill doing all the writing, layout, design, artwork, selling the advertising and distribution. In search of a name for the publication, he realised that it was not just Liverpool, but the whole of Merseyside that he wanted to cover and thinking this over in the early hours of the morning a picture of a policeman walking his beat around Merseyside came into his head, and the title came from that, rather than from the music.
Mersey Beat, the paper, was a phenomenal success and it is claimed that it changed music journalism forever with the writing being about the music rather than the musician's favourite colour or food! Harry also encouraged his photographers to take pictures of the bands playing live or in their locale rather than just using the usual posed publicity shots. Other cities started to produce their own magazines, often travelling to Liverpool to seek advice from Bill, promoting local bands in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle etc. Eventually the London press took an interest, and began to cover the regional scene leading to the demise of the local music papers. As a footnote, Stuart Leathart, featured recently by our genial host as singer, guitarist and songwriter with The Kubas was also a talented cartoonist and provided Mersey Beat with many illustrations.
So to some music : Mersey Beat 1962-64
Compiled by Andrew Lauder and issued by United Artists in 1977. On the inside sleeve he credits Lenny Kaye's Nuggets for initial inspiration. To my mind the music is "of it's time", historically important but it always seems to lack a bit of oomph, nevertheless I enjoy listening to it's distinctive sound. The presentation of the double album is very impressive it includes a facsimile Mersey Beat paper specially compiled by Bill Harry with articles, photographs and write ups of the bands. The paper inner sleeves contain adverts for Beatle wigs and the like and the inside sleeve has a collage of some of the source 45s. The download includes them all, and hopefully you should be able to read the magazine, if you squint a bit.
Nobby's proud sponsor for this piece? Step forward, Shed And Outbuilding Monthly magazine!
Babs?
ReplyDeleteAnyone? Nearly our last chance before a Mass Debate before the Mosh Pit opens.
DeleteWhat is your favorite chart topping single from the 1960s?
DeleteEasy peasy. Good Vibrations. Followed by I'm A Believer.
DeleteThe Move - Blackberry Way
DeleteA whiter shade of pale, although I've heard it far too many times to ever actually play it! I went to see Procol Harum in 2017 and they were magnificent, Garry Brooker's voice was still very much intact unlike some of his peers, and inevitably they played this. I'm a big fan of all their work, except side 2 of their last album from 1977, Something Magic, just realised that that is a contender for my one sided lp challenge, except side one wasn't too hot either.
DeleteMy favourite PH track is A Salty Dog. I wish I'd written it.
DeleteApart from the aforementioned unmentionable, I don't think there is a bad PH song (well OK the second last album aint so hot either with a totally throwaway version of Eight Day's A Week on it). If push came to shove, my favourite would be "As Strong As Samson" off Exotic Birds and Fruit.
DeleteA few hit songs that take me right back, to the 60s, what I was doing, , wearing, boyfriends etc. etc.
DeleteEverybody’s Talkin’ – Harry Nilsson
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher – Jackie Wilson
Happy Together – The Turtles
For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
I don't know why it is, Babs, but those Monkees hits are super-saturated with sixtiesness. Saturday mornings, and the latest Spiderman comic.
DeleteI have a similar double album - The Beat Merchants. It's superb - it gives a real flavour of what it was like when a bunch of young guys picked up their instruments and went for it! Some lovely early stuff by bands across the whole of the UK including the Mindbenders, Jimmy Powell, the Paramounts (soon to be Procol Harum). My favourite track is by the Downliners Sect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB1QO_sqNVI Nostalgia at its best - a bit like this blog me old mucker.
ReplyDeleteYep, The Beat Merchants is superb, it's actually a follow on that Andrew Lauder did to this one. I bought it when it came out in 1977 and then eventually tracked down a copy of the Mersey Beat one years later to complete the set. I have some screed on The Beat Merchants cover illustrations, that was going to be submitted to his Farquness, so I'll put it up somehow in the (sob) after life.
DeleteThe link to the music and its multifarious illustrations, including the hopefully legible Mersey Beat facsimile is here :
ReplyDeleteMersey Beat 62-64.rar 209.36 MB : https://www.imagenetz.de/gwASi
Nobby,
ReplyDeletethanks much for the history lesson and the compilation. you mention that the music lacks oomph. that's pretty kind.
was all this stuff post beetles first fame or before?
did the beetles originate mersey beat, the thinnest music ever made, or was it a product of mal nourished musicians and poor equipment? this comp easily explains why the stones blew everything to pieces. even if you say that these are not recorded well and the groups sounded better in person, it is still a constant that most of these groups just plain don't get it.
the terrible vocal phrasing and wishy washy leads and lack of a true locked bass/drums bottom just murders some great rock and roll songs.
i'm glad to have this comp and thanks. it's a great lesson.
Mersey Beat was a struggle to leave the 'fifties behind before they were ever really dealt with. In this context - of the Old Guard of Light Entertainment (fourth-rate knock-off Rat Packers in tuxes on family TV) and skiffle bands, you can see why the emergence of actual Beat Groups was so exciting for the teen market. It was crap by most standards, but it was home-grown crap, and it was an evening out and record parties and jukeboxes in coffee bars. All good. But listening to it now misses all that, the stuff that matters, and unless the music evokes memories for you it sounds (as it does to me) unbearably amateurish. The Stones, as you say, were the exception - their grounding in Rn'B was authentic, as was the noise they made. They were the real British Invasion, with some threat behind it, some real swagger, and they were the ones who endured.
DeleteI think the whole early beat scene was a significant step in the democratisation of music - and it all started in the skiffle era.
DeletePost war - tea chest basses, washboards and plywood guitars. A few years later, as the UK became a little more affluent, drums and electric guitars.
Anyone could make music and the major cities of the UK all had their rising stars - it just happened to be the Beatles who were most successful, for all sorts of reasons - talent, hard work, good management - and their success just made it slightly easier for Liverpool bands.
I hear exactly the same poor recording quality, weedy guitars and inept rhythm sections in plenty of early US garage bands. These UK and US pioneers were essentially amateurs who learned the trade on their way to professionalism. Some made it, but many, many more didn't.
Merseybeat was not influenced by r'n'b and I think it is that element that is missing here. The Beat Merchants 1962 - 1963 illustrates this, although still a bit weedy and thin sounding, it benefits from the extra year (1964) and the geography of not just being from Liverpool.
DeleteThe first Merseybeat band to release a record was, i think, Howie Casey and The Seniors and are on this comp from Feb 1962, predating Love Me Do which was Oct 1962. But most of the tracks date from the rush of A&R men running up from London and quickly recording the bands to cash in.
I would love to hear some first hand experiences of seeing these groups in early sixties Liverpool. I know what it was like seeing the punk bands 15 years later, an unforgettable moment in time, but alot (not all) of the music sounds similarly dated nowadays.
Not influenced by R&B?
DeleteMost of the early beat groups' repertoire was R&B. It took Lennon & MCartney's success with original material to open things up and for the music get out of the R&B rut..
The Stones, on the other hand, were exposed to the more bluesy side of R&B. I'm guessing it was because of their London roots where blues had caught on with people like Alexis Korner and Cyril Davis.
DeleteYes its the bluesier side of rnb that I mean, The Big Three were the closest they got, especially their live e.p. version of What'd I Say, but there was never a Stones, Animals or Them in the pool of life. That said - these tracks probably all predate those three bands recorded output. The extra year seems to make all the difference, which is why I play The Beat Merchants album quite regularly, this one hardly ever, and me skiffle stuff even less, like I said, historically important, but lacks oomph.
Deleteit wasn't just a case of casual exposure that made the London sound harsher, The Stones, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, John Mayall, Jimmy Page, the Downliners Sect, Graham Bond Organisation, Rod Stewart, Manfred Mann, Brian Auger, The ArtWoods and the Pretty Things are all linked to each other and in many cases link directly back to Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner often through the fluid musical collective set up by Korner & Davies in 1961 called 'Blues Incorporated'. They all moved in the same circles.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Korner%27s_Blues_Incorporated
Which links nicely back to some rambling of mine a while back on another thread. Everything just seems to have come together nicely in the UK in the early sixties. Communications where just right for different cities to be so seperated that they could develop their own independent scenes with their own influences. But then they all came together through the national radio and tv channels.
DeleteJohnny Kidd and the Pirates had serious oomph.The Hollies were far better than most Liverpool bands,and the Animals had the hard edge on most of their stuff.As with the "UK Blues Boom" far too many were marketed as Beat/Blues but were just Rock /Pop learning the ropes. On a tangent from Liverpool etc,there were some very good sounds coming from Australia at that time..PS I saw the Beatles in Adelaide with Jimmy Nicol on drums Sounds Incorporated opened the show.200,000 people lined the streets the day before as the Beatles appeared on Hotel balcony. All hell broke loose as thousands of girls went feral.Those were the days.
DeleteThe Artwoods...never made it big, but always dependable. They got quite heavy in the end.
DeleteNobby mentioned Howie Casey and The Seniors (above). In the 80's after finishing with Wings, Howie Casey formed a local band called The Slobs in the Dorset area. He would also regularly sit in with a great local band called The Agency who were incredibly popular for years. I believe he still lives locally.
DeleteMy first visit to the UK was in 1962-63 when everything started to happen. I was delighted to see papers & magazines devoted to the music scene. Rolling Stone magazine in North America didn't kick in until 1967.
ReplyDeleteAs to Babs' question: probably Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto.
(Damn --couldn't get that Japanese spelling right.)
So, Clarence, what music where you listening to then (where you in Canada) and what did you come across in the happening UK in 62- 63? Was there any oomph around?
DeleteFew hits came out of Canada in the early 60's (although that would change.)
ReplyDeleteI listened to a legendary Seattle radio station: KJR
Elvis, Buddy Holly, Drifters, Ray Charles etc.
Lots of oomph.
But the Beatles & Mersey types were a breath of fresh air.
I airmailed a 45 of "From Me To You" to a disk jockey friend in Vancouver just a couple of weeks before Beatlemania jumped across the pond.
But was there any oomph in the UK?
DeleteDid you see any bands while you were here?
And, finally, did you start Beatlemania in Canada, by airmailing the 45 across?
The Stones sure had oomph.
DeleteI remember seeing the Beatles as an opening act for Roy Orbison. (There's another story there when my typing fingers improve.)
No, I can't claim any credit for the Beatlemania. My 45 only preceded the full onslaught by a week or two.
Nobby, this might interest you
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music_of_Canada
Hi, Clarence....my wife's from SeaTac, (Glacier High School class of '76). I've got a few of the KJR station breaks that I drop into my flash drive "mix tapes" so every so often I hear a "KJR Seattle...channel 95...go go go go!" jingle.
DeleteGreat stuff. My wife was from Bremerton.
DeleteThanks for another interesting read, Nobby!
ReplyDelete"Mersey Boots" with Cuban heels are très chic, among men and women in Manhattan.
I went through several pairs when I wuz a yout' in the pre-hippy days.
DeleteTight trousers and pointy toe boots. We thought we were the absolute dogs!
Back in '77 I tracked down a pair of Italian shoes that were pretty much duplicates of Beatle boots...except they were white, not black. I took them to a shoe store and paid to have them dyed black.
DeleteThis brought back some memories. Suddently into my head came "Denson Shoes" Specifically chisel toe shoes. It's weird the way obscure stuff makes it's way to the front of the brain, pushing out all those useful things like birthdays and PINs. Anyway, I give you - Denson Shoes from 1964.
Deletehttps://sweetjanespopboutique.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-new-denson-fashion-shoes-for-men.html
What a shame it was all charity shop chic in my day, the best item of clothing I had was a cast off dinner jacket. Still it was bloody good quality, lasted me three years, all through college and only cost me £1.
DeleteI imported several pair of Cuban heeled boots from Carnaby st.Black/Blue/Blue suede.Had to sell them to guys in local bands.
DeleteSounds like Mairzy Doats.
DeleteHey, Nobby...for us it was Thrift Town in 1977. I'd moved into a place in Berkeley for my short-lived try at the University of California (completed one semester). My roommate had been a drug dealer up on Telegraph Avenue but I had got him into all this new music...so we had short hair, were straight legged black jeans, skinny ties...and I had a black tuxedo jacket.
DeleteWe're out on the street and bump into one of his semi-street people drug buddy n' hippie girl friend, and they're catching up on things...and the girl is slowly becoming more and more agitated. She finally can't keep it in goes, "What are you guys....like....uh...the FBI?"
Mine lasted about three years, too...the "slam dancing" at the Mabuhay took its toll on it, but wow...it was a great look.
I remember nicking my mother's head scarf when I was trying to dress like a hippy. I managed to get hold of a couple of waistcoats and bought some old man button vests and started tie-dyeing.
DeleteYou just had to improvise away from the big cities.
I have a punk friend who always wears tight trousers and pointy shoes, but because of this he can't walk very far so spends a fortune on taxis.
DeleteMy favorite chart topper of all time, though it may not have topped the charts, was and remains "Baby Don't Go" by Sonny and Cher. And in (very) belated response to the question about double albums-- the first double album I ever bought was "Freak Out!" by the Mothers of Invention, which I bought very soon after it was released. I'd never heard of the Mothers, or of Frank Zappa, but I did the math ... 2 lps for $4 when 1 lp typically cost $3 (prices rounded) ... that's a deal! And the cover was intriguing. I played it quite a bit (in those days, if you sprung for an album, you played it whether you liked it or not, and sometimes you grew to like it). Looking back on "Freak Out" some 55 years later, it was ... uneven ... but I still remember some tracks with fondness.
ReplyDeleteReading this over before posting, I realize that Sonny & Cher and the Mothers make for odd bedfellows (so to speak). But that's what I loved about '60s music and '60s radio ... it wasn't divided into endless genres and categories.
Alan
Some great points here, Alan. Especially about playing an album because you'd bought it! You really wanted the return for your investment, and sometimes it never came. The Beatles were really unmatched in that respect - I bought the Yellow Submarine soundtrack - full price for half an album. The White Album - double the price for really no album at all. Abbey Road - full price for half an album. Let It Be - maybe there's half an album there, I haven't looked recently. No other band has been so indulged and trusted. But Freak Out - no matter how you cut it, that's a hell of an album.
DeleteToday I can just ask the internet and there's the music. The effort...the struggle...the search...that's sort of gone. it was a 40 mile round trip to get to the Berkeley record stores where we could find imports or out-of-print records unavailable in our town. Sometimes we did that trip on bicycles. When you've had to work that much to buy a record, you cared about it in way that's different than just downloading a track fifteen seconds after you heard about for the first time.
DeleteBaby Don't Go had an interesting US chart history... starting on the charts in October 1964 and lasting until the end of October 1965. Reprise put it out twice, once for a short chart run mainly in California, and then a second time when their releases on Atco began to chart.
And yes, it topped the charts. The first release hit #2 in Los Angeles; the second was #8 nationally...but in several markets it was #1.
It may be great to d/l albums and make no effort (or payment in some cases), but compared to the huge excitement from buying LPs back in the last century it does mean I don't value digital music as much. There was one album I bought new in the 70's that I really couldn't get into though, that was Songwriter by Justin Hayward. Most every album I bought in the 1970's were devoured, and played and played till I knew every word, and that includes Frampton Comes Alive an album that I probably would still enjoy today, despite it being very uncool, so I've been told. Anyway I'm not cool so it doesn't matter.
DeleteI would buy albums, very sparsely beause of the cost, but usually on someone's recommendation or from hearing them on Peel. I veered from this tried and trusted method only once. Desperate to hear something new in 1981, and feeling a bit flush having just started work recently, I relied on a glowing review from the NME and bought Author Author by The Scars. Still got it, played it twice on day of purchase, didn't like it, never played it again.
DeleteFarq- You're a bit harsher on the Beatles than I am, but it's true that their later albums were a mix of great and not-so-great tracks.
DeleteI agree that we valued music more when the cost was significant ... and it was a drag when we bought an album that we just didn't care for, even after repeated listenings. The Moody Blues' "On the Threshold of a Dream" was one of those for me. It probably didn't help that I came down with the flu the day after I bought it. But I never liked the album AT ALL and got rid of it. There are only a few other purchases that really fell flat ... and many that were well worth the money.
Alan
PS thanks, draftervoi, for the info on Baby Don't Go ...I bought the single at a place that sold records after they'd been in the juke box for a while ... and I saw Sonny and Cher when they toured in April of 1965 ... still remember the show vividly!
Alan "a place that sold records after they'd been in the juke box for a while" oh that brings back memories. Not sure where you are in the world, but here in the UK we had to get little adapters that snapped into place in the middle of the 45 to be able to fit them on the spindle on our record players. I felt really sophisticated when I was flush enough to buy a proper hifi with a proper adaptor that fitted on the spindle of the turntable rather than on the record. It sat in a cutout on the turntable so you couldnt lose it either, wow - luxury.
DeleteFor any US visitors - how did your cheap dansettes cope with that, did all record players come with an adaptor, not just posh hifis, or did you have to get adaptors for the records like us backward Brits?
In the States, we had to get adapters (Google seems to prefer that spelling). Nobby, I have that Scars album you mentioned (Author Author), and I still enjoy it. I even bought the CD box set when it was reissued. One man's Uncle Meat is another man's Poison, I guess.
DeleteScars - well, jonder, maybe its time to give it its third play after 41 years, it does seem to get good reviews.
DeleteAdaptors is good - adapters is very US hence Google being in favour (not favor) of the spelling.
DeleteHow about favourite colour ? (Google will be 'favorite color').
Aluminium is always my favourite - a spelling mistake in US years ago and you guys all call it aluminum !!!
Forgot to add - love this site and all the discussions and opinions and rantings and ravings.
DeleteKeep it up.
Closing down sale - early offer.
ReplyDeleteBig Three - complete. All the live Cavern recordings, early singles and their 1973 comeback album. Beware, a banjo and four cellos are involved in their later recordings.
https://workupload.com/file/5LT35ZxGkRk
Hey thanks Steve , didn't know there was a comeback album and with banjos and cellos - see I said they were the most r n b !
DeleteTa Steve, thanks for this. If only I had the right shoes to wear while listening to it.
DeleteListen to the comeback album before you thank me!
DeleteIt'd be NICE if I could hear, "Mersey Beat 1962-64!
ReplyDeleteThe link is up there at August 11th 4.48pm
DeleteBut here it is again :
Mersey Beat 62-64.rar 209.36 MB : https://www.imagenetz.de/gwASi
Excellent. Really enjoyed this and Beat Merchants. Thank you.
DeleteSteveShark
Thanks for the schoolin' Nobby -- a nice read!
ReplyDelete