Mike Grant Reporting on the Mersey Scene
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II i 1 MIKE GRANT REPORTING ON THE MERSEY SCENE fi blonde hairdresser is affair and they dug the music There are 342 groups on Billy made sure they would 11.1 said to be very much the they love until the small Merseyside. Some of them not have to disband, apple of Ringo Starr's eye hours. make a decent living-say £20 Now Arthur-who looks at the moment. She lives They crossed the road to a week each. Others starve. very much like Billy-and .and works In Liverpool their hotel, dripping with But they nearly all have one the Coasters are backing and is his constant com- perspiration, jackets over their thing in common-in addition Chick Graham, whose first panion whenever he returns shoulders and their instru- to ambition.. Decca record has just been home. ments in their hands. 'The They arc all prolific makers released. "Billy was right A close friend who works night porter didn't recognise of demonstration discs. to leave," ho told me. "He with her, told me: "Ringo them and refused to let them These records are often has gone a long way with brought her a lovely pair in. compositions by group mem- the Dakotas." of hand -made crocodile - After ten minutes, they still bers themselves They arc skin shoes back from Paris. hadn't convinced him. Just despatched with care and hope The Searchers were in And when he was in then I left the party and to recording managers in reminiscent mood when I America, he spoke to her walked over to the hotel. I London. Only about one per met them in the coffee bar on the telephone for 45 found myself acting as the cent are any good. of the Iron Door Club. "just minutest" boys' identifier. "We'd have Many of these demo discs a year ago our fortunes began In the focal clubs and had to sleep on the pavement can be valuable if the makers to take a turn for the better," coffee bars, where Ringo if it hadn't been for you," find subsequent fame. I heard Chris Curtis told mc. is so well known that ho said drummer Charlie Watts a record of "There's A Shanty "We had been doing shows gets no "world star" treat- at breakfast four hours later. In Old Shanty Town" made for £7 los. a night. Then mont, there is a conspiracy by Gerry Marsden in 1961- suddenly this doubled to £15. of silence with the Beatles backing him! A fortune, we thought! Since over her identity. IN Congratulations to No-one will talk about her. Searchers' lead guitarist Then there's a set of tunes then, we've never looked "She doesn't want to and vocalist Mike Ponder. the Searchers made, including back." talk about "All My Sorrows", "Saints", It was just a year ago, too, their romance," H e married recently - said her friend. "She does becoming the second and "Hey Joe". that the Searchers went to not want to be pestered by member of the group to On the latter tune, the intro- Philips Records and asked for' people. duction is identical Saw a test. They were And Ringo would wear a wedding ring. His to "I told they be very angry if she was wife, May, comes from Her Standing There" which were not up to recording mis -quoted." Mike's home town - the Searchers had not even standard! Liverpool. heard. -Paul It's strictly against the Many John Lennon The local telephone rules McCartney songs were ignored operators know the ex- for any Mersey artist Girls '...ho used to date finding fame to show it in until the Beatles became popu- directory phone any the Beatles in pre -hysteria, lar. Numbers like "Please numbers of the famous, way. Cilla Black, who hails days, had a pretty thin time from Please Mc", "Ask Mc Why", but are pledged not to let the squalid Scotland of it, by all accounts. An Want Know A them Road area, is no exception. "Do You To out. Instead, they evening with them usually Secret" and "P.S. I Love take an almost sadistic With "Anyone Who Had A meant hard work. Heart" putting her at the You" gathered dust. delight in blinding the In- One of Paul McCartney's But by no means have all quirer with statistics. top of the hit parade and former girl -friends, twenty- saturation coverage in news - their hits been inspired and "In the telephone book year-old Moira Hardacre told 16 McCartneys, Papers and magazines, I written in Liverpool. "I Want there's five me: "They played for some To Hold Your Hand " was Starrs, 32 Starkeys, four thought she might be taking it timo at the Jacaranda Club, easy at home. written by John and Paul in George Harrisons and 29 where stage facilities weren't the music room of Jane Lennons", they told me. But no. She was helping very good. her Asher's London home. And their incidental intel- mother scrub the back "1 had to sit in front of ligence has also dis- steps when I called to take the group holding their her to dinner. thought covered: Marsden (94), "I microphones In both hands" When Billy J. Kramer Black (95), no Kramer, no You'd have had servants in to as there were no stands. started on the road to the Quickly, and one Presley! do that," I said. And a Later I' hit on the idea of top, ho had to drop his coarse raspberry floated over tying mikes to broomsticks. original backing group, the from the back door . At least it meant I could relax Coasters. And that created my arms." a slight family problem. NOW FOR A iU The Rolling Stones went Happily for all, facilities The reason: his cousin LOOK AT straight from a Liverpool at the Jacaranda are now Arthur Ashton was backing theatre, where they had been very modern. But unhappily him on guitar. Reluctant THE REST OF appearing, to a rhythm-and- the Beatles no longer play to throw his friends and THE SCENE . blues party. It was a frantic there. his cousin out of work, .