#Mersey Beat

[nedison]

An animated retelling of John Lennon's Being A Short Diversion On The Dubious Origins Of Beatles recited by Bernard Hill, in character as John, from the 1985 TV special John Lennon: A Journey In The Life.

#Bernard Hill #John Lennon #Bill Harry #Mersey Beat #Flaming Pie #The Beatles #Paul McCartney #George Harrison #Stuart Sutcliffe #Hamburg #1985 #Yoko Ono

[get-back-homeward]

August 31, 1961: Bob Wooler predicts the Beatles’ future in Mersey Beat

A PHENOMENON CALLED THE BEATLES!

by Bob Wooler [x]

Why do you think The Beatles are so popular? Many people many times have asked me this question since that fantastic night (Tuesday, December 27th, 1960) at Litherland Town Hall, when the impact of the act was first felt on this side of the River. I consider myself privileged to have been associated with the launching of the group on that exciting occasion, and grateful for the opportunities of presenting them to fever-pitch audiences at practically all of the group’s subsequent appearances prior to their last Hamburg trip.

Perhaps my close association with the group’s activities, both earlier this year and since their recent reappearance on the Merseyside scene, persuades people to think that I can produce a blueprint of The Beatles Success Story. It figures, I suppose, and if, in attempting to explain the popularity of their act, the following analysis is at variance with other people’s views, well that’s just one of those things. The question is nevertheless thought-provoking.

Well then, how to answer it? First some obvious observations. The Beatles are the biggest thing to have hit the Liverpool rock ’n’ roll setup in years. They were, and still are, the hottest local property any Rock promoter is likely to encounter. To many of these gentlemen’s ears, Beatle-brand noises are cacophonous on stage, but who can ignore the fact that the same sounds translate into the sweetest music this side of heaven at the box office!

I think The Beatles are No. 1 because they resurrected original style rock ’n’ roll music, the origins of which are to be found in American negro singers. They hit the scene when it had been emasculated by figures like Cliff Richard and sounds like those electronic wonders The Shadows and their many imitators. Gone was the drive that inflamed the emotions. This was studio set jungle music purveyed skillfully in a chartwise direction by arrangement with the A & R men.

The Beatles, therefore, exploded on a jaded scene. And to those people on the verge of quitting teendom—those who had experienced during their most impressionable years the impact of rhythm ’n’ blues music (raw rock ’n’ roll)—this was an experience, a process of regaining and reliving a style of sounds and associated feelings identifiable with their era.

Here again, in The Beatles, was the stuff that screams are made of. Here was the excitement—both physical and aural—that symbolized the rebellion of youth in the ennuied mid-1950’s. This was the real thing. Here they were, first five and then four human dynamos generating a beat which was irresistible. Turning back the Rock clock. Pounding out items from Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, The Coasters and the other great etceteras of the era. Here they were, unmindful of uniformity of dress. Unkempt-like long hair. Rugged yet romantic, appealing to both sexes. With calculated naivete and an ingenious, throw-away approach to their music. Affecting indifference to audience response and yet always saying “Thank-you.” Reviving interest in and commanding enthusiasm for numbers which descended the Charts way back. Popularizing (more than any other group) flipside items—example, “Boys.” Compelling attention and influencing, wittingly or unwittingly, other groups in the style, choice and presentation of songs.

Essentially a vocal act, hardly ever instrumental (at least not in this country), here they were, independently minded, playing what they liked for kicks, kudos and cash. Privileged in having gained prestige and experience from a residency at the Hamburg Top Ten Club during the autumn and winter of last year. Musically authoritative and physically magnetic, example the mean, moody magnificence of drummer Pete Best—a sort of teenage Jeff Chandler. A remarkable variety of talented voices which song-wise sound distinctive, but when speaking, possess the same naivete of tone. Rhythmic revolutionaries. An act which from beginning to end is a succession of climaxes. A personality cult. Seemingly unambitious, yet fluctuating between the self-assured and the vulnerable. Truly a phenomenon—and also a predicament to promoters! Such are the fantastic Beatles. I don’t think anything like them will happen again.

———

Retrospective from Bill Harry, Editor of Mersey Beat [x]

Editor’s note: Cavern disc jockey Bob Wooler, a Mersey Beat columnist, penned this piece in the August 31 1961 issue of Mersey Beat. How prophetic his last sentence proved to be! In recent years I told Bob I intended to revive Mersey Beat and I wanted him back in the fold as a columnist. Sadly, he died early in 2002 while I was still panning the website.

There are one or two things I would like to point out. The main advertisement on this page was for NEMS record store. Apart from the fact that I regularly discussed the Beatles and the Mersey scene with Brian Epstein each time I dropped copies to him, in addition to the fact that he began to review records for me from Issue No. 3, it is obvious from the sort of coverage, such as this article, which the Beatles were receiving every issue, that Epstein was aware of the Beatles from Mersey Beat and not some youngsters asking for a record in his store some months later. Bob also mentions the impact the group made at Litherland Town Hall. It was Bob who persuaded promoter Brian Kelly to book them for their debut appearance there on that date. It's also interesting to note that the only member of the Beatles mentioned by name is drummer Pete Best. Bob nicked the 'mean, moody, magnificent' tag from Howard Hughes' description of Jane Russell in the movie 'The Outlaw.' As this article was published in 1961, Bob did get something wrong: he mentions a residency at the "Hamburg Top Ten Club during the autumn and winter of last year." They only had residencies at the Indra and Kaiserkeller in 1960, although they made a few appearances at the Top Ten (Their Top Ten residency didn't actually commence until 1961).

#the beatles #bob wooler #1961 #mersey beat #august 1961 #newspaper clippings #beatles and the press #the humble beginnings #as transcribed in tune in #havent seen this one anywhere on here #been looking for the clipping but havent found it #if youve seen it give a shout #oh found the copy on the mersey beat archives #have to get bill harrys note bc its a great example of how a good story works #not a clipping tho so an august beatles cover is the closest i can get #litherland #december 1961 #hamburg era #brian epstein #bill harry #ran into crit bill harry got from other liverpool bands during the early merseybeat days bc he would write so much about the beatles #so its impossible the beatles had missed brians radar before the my bonnie record request #‘beatles sign recording contract’ aww they mean the german label printed my bonnie how cute

[plus-low-overthrow]

The Swinging Blue Jeans - You're No Good (Imperial)

Also Check, Betty Everett's version!

Mersey Beat Band.

#The Swinging Blue Jeans #You're No Good #betty everett #soul #rock #blues #mersey beat #1965 #version

[lisamarie-vee]

#mersey beat #rock and roll hall of fame

[hide-your-bugs-away]

Having a bit of a Magazine Renaissance in my search for Animal-Magazines, and I couldn't be happier....... 👀

#trying not to think about missing the chance to get an issue of 'jackie' with an article about the alan price set in it too much aGGghgh #iT WILL BE BACK I'M SURE OF IT #anyway..... eeeee animal #literally right after i receive that issue of 'mersey beat' the same seller lists THIS. AND I EXPLODE. #BOUGHT IT RIGHT AWAY. I LOVE HAVING A JOB THAT WAY I CAN ARCHIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ANIMALS #not only on the front cover with a photo i've never seen before bUT WITH AN ENTIRE CENTERFOLD ARTICLE EEEEEE #alan in a chair....... practically leaning against eric...... help help help i will cry #i can't tell what's happening with john in the crease he looks like an analog horror character #very very VERY excited for this..... #there are some other mags i'm eyeing too... some issues of 'NME' and another 'Melody Maker' with alan on the front #and there is an issue of 'jackie' with an alan article that's soooo good... talking about things he does to improve his mental health 🥹🥹🥹 #GOSHHHH I LOVE!! COLLECTING MAGAZINES ABOUT THEM!! #there's so little information shared about the animals and especially alan from the actual 60s... just lots of recent and bitter interviews #THERE'S SO MUCH UNDERSTANDING AND POSITIVITY IN THESE. especially the more music-oriented ones that aren't teen-gossip-heavy #crazy how this particular issue is from just a month before alan left the band.... gOSH WHAT WILL HE SAY?? 😭🙏 #the animals #british invasion #60s rock #not a second mag #that picture is going to be my new banner icon once i scan a higher quality version of it #ALAN. IN THE CHAIR.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

“One time, we were worried that Gerry and the Pacemakers were going to be “the ones” to do it. In fact, John and I bought a lot of Mersey Beats when there. Figured, well, we’re allowed to. Because we wanted badly to win that poll. We felt it was, like, that would make the difference, whichever group “made it.”” – Paul McCartney, fall 1980

from All You Need Is Love (2024) by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines

#finally started this book #and yeah.. the john/paul stuff in this is kinda devastating if not entirely surprising #but this little memory was soooooo sweet and funny to me #1962 Lennon-McCartney Voter Fraud Scandal #celebrities they're just like us <333333 #paul #80 #ref #fave #jp #all you need is love

[mydaroga]

It was fancy-dress too: Paul and George wore sweaters upside down, legs through arm-holes, the head-hole hanging down limply, added to which Paul dolled himself up as a woman.

Mersey Beat: The Beginnings Of The Beatles (Omnibus Press , London, 1977), p6 of Bill Harry’s introduction. Quoted in Tune In by Mark Lewisohn.

Pics or it didn't happen.

#what is wrong with them #paul mccartney #George Harrison #tune in #mark lewisohn #Kris reads tune in

[delightfullyatomicfest]

John’s biography of The Beatles in the first issue of Mersey Beat in July 1961:

Once upon a time there were three little boys called John, George and Paul, by name christened. They decided to get together because they were the getting together type. When they were together they wondered what for after all, what for? So all of a sudden they grew guitars and fashioned a noise. Funnily enough, no one was interested, least of all the three little men. So-o-o-o on discovering a fourth little even littler man called Stuart Sutcliffe running about them they said, quite ‘Sonny get a bass guitar and you will be alright’ and he did – but he wasn’t alright because he couldn’t play it. So they sat on him with comfort ’til he could play. Still there was no beat, and a kindly old man said, quote ‘Thou hast not drums!’ We had no drums! they coffed. So a series of drums came and went and came.

Suddenly, in Scotland, touring with Johnny Gentle, the group (called the Beatles called) discovered they had not a very nice sound – because they had no amplifiers. They got some.

Many people ask what are Beatles? Why Beatles? Ugh, Beatles, how did the name arrive? So we will tell you. It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them ‘From this day on you are Beatles with an ‘A’. Thank you, mister man, they said, thanking him.

And then a man with a beard cut off said – will you go to Germany (Hamburg) and play mighty rock for the peasants for money? And we said we would play mighty anything for money.

But before we could go we had to grow a drummer, so we grew one in West Derby in a club called Some Casbah and his trouble was Pete Best. we called ‘Hello Pete, come off to Germany!’ ‘Yes!’ Zooooom. After a few months, Peter and Paul (who is called McArtrey, son of Jim McArtrey, his father) lit a Kino (cinema) and the German police said ‘Bad Beatles, you must go home and light your English cinemas’. Zooooom, half a group. But before even this, the Gestapo had taken my friend little George Harrison (of speke) away because he was only twelve and too young to vote in Germany; but after two months in England he grew eighteen and the Gestapoes said ‘you can come’. So suddenly all back in Liverpool Village were many groups playing in grey suits and Jim said ‘Why have you no grey suits?’ ‘We don’t like them, Jim’ we said, speaking to Jim.

After playing in the clubs a bit, everyone said ‘Go to Germany!’ So we are. Zooooom Stuart gone. Zoom zoom John (of Woolton) George (of Speke) Peter and Paul zoom zoom. All of them gone. Thank you club members, from John and George (what are friends).

#Jim McCartney living in John’s head rent-free

[crepesuzette2023]

Marvelous Liverpool

SDE: You witnessed Paul have all that massive success in the sixties. How did that affect you? MM: Bloody fantastic! Can you imagine little boys in Liverpool having no hope of going anywhere, our father in a trade that was dying – the cotton business – our mum dying when we were 12 years of age… we were on a hiding to nothing. Liverpool was not in a good place, the bottom fell out of the cotton industry, mum dying, so that was no money coming in, just one parent surviving. And, there was nothing you could compare it with, because it was the upper and the lower classes, it always had been, and for us, we thought it always will be. That’s why my dad always had this respect for the upper class posh London accent, and we all went along with it because they were control. People that have no chance of getting any further than… like the Indian class system, right, everyone accepts their place.  And then suddenly in the lower class Indian system somebody gave the lower class a little magic wand and they were suddenly upper class. Now, that’s what happened with us and suddenly there, this thing called ‘Mersey Beat’. We would go down to London in parties. I always tell the story, it happened virtually like this. The week before Merseybeat broke down here [London], or a couple of weeks, I’d was just down with friends and you would be at a posh party and they’d come up to you [adopts ‘posh’ voice]  “hello, how are you?”  “Great, thanks.”  “My name is Peregrine and this is Cecilia..” “oh, great, hi” “and where are you from?” “Oh, from Liverpool…” “Anyway, Cecilia, you were saying…” And they just turned their backs on you because, it was very simple – you were no good to them, no use to them. Anything north of the wash was hinterland, it was jungle. So, they didn’t give a shit. And then, the week after, suddenly Merseybeat becomes ‘wham!’ It’s down to London before it took on America and the world… and the same kind of party “oh, I’m Sebastian and this is Claudia, what’s your name?”  “I’m Mike.”  “And, where are you from?”  “Liverpool.”  “Liverpool, my God, chaps get over here, look, these chaps are from Liverpool, absolutely marvellous.” And then, they would do the Liverpool accent, and so it always came out Brummie [Birmingham] because they couldn’t do a Liverpool accent.  So, yes, you were nothing and suddenly it all changed.

Mike McCartney interview on Super Deluxe Edition, 2019

#Peregrine and Cecilia #and Sebastian and Claudia #I'd love to listen to him and Paul talk in private #mike mccartney #paul mccartney #brothers #siblings #McGear

[philcollinsenjoyer]

the mersey beat award for best couple of the year............... goes to john and yoko

#this fag

[get-back-homeward]

—From In His Own Write (1964) | First published in Mersey Beat August 17, 1961 | Written 1958-1959 (see below)

Q: There’s a very, very sad poem at the end of the play about Kakky Hargreaves who is some sort of person whose name changes during the poem who’s gone lost. Who was Kakky Hargreaves?

JOHN: Well, nobody, you know. It was Kakky, or Cathy, or Tammy. So it was all those people. But the point is that you GOT it -- the sadness that I wrote into it. But after you write something, a song or anything, you get the sadness and then you perform it or you put it on paper and then that’s gone. And the only way you get the joy back of writing it or the sadness back, is when somebody like Victor or somebody else comes and reads it to you, or acts it out. Like, when I first saw the rehearsal of the play, and they said these words back to me and I got the sadness from Kakky Hargreaves like I’d never heard it before.

Q: You wrote that one when you were very young.

JOHN: Yes. That was, sort of, pre-Beatle. Eighteen. Nineteen.

VICTOR: (laughs)

Q: And have you written lately?

JOHN: Well I write, I think, all the time. So I mean, it’s the same. I actually don’t put it on paper so much these days, but it goes into songs -- A lot of the same energy that went into those poems. I don’t know what I actually do with the thoughts, but they come out either on film, or on paper, or on tape. I’ve just got lots of tape, which, I suppose if I put onto paper it would be a book. But it’s just a matter of, do I want to make those tapes into paper or make the tapes into records.

Q: Does it feel the same to you when you’re writing something on paper and when you’re writing a song lyric?

JOHN: It does now. In the old days I used to think, if song writing was this... you know, 'I love you and you love me,' and my writing was something else, you know. Even if I didn’t think of it quite like that. But I just realized through Dylan and other people... BOB Dylan, not Thomas... that it IS the same thing. That’s what I didn't realize being so naive -- that you don’t write pop songs, and then you DO THAT, and then you DO THAT. Everything you do is the same thing, so do it the same way. But sometimes I’ll write lyrics to a song first and then I'll get the same feeling as Kakky Hargreaves or a poem and then write the music to it after. So then it’s a poem, sung. But sometimes the tune comes and then you just put suitable words to fit the tune. If the tune is (sings) 'Doodle-loodle loodle-leh,' and then you have 'Shag-a-boo choo-cha.' You know, you have sound-words then, just the sound of it. ‘Cause it IS all sound. Everything is vibrations, I believe, you know. Everything is sound, really, or vision. And just, the difference between sound and vision I’m not quite sure about. But its all just (imitates a vibrating sound) 'vuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh.'

—BBC-2 Interview of John Lennon and Victor Spinetti (about the In His Own Write play) [x] | June 6, 1968

—Remember by John Lennon | Written: started July 1969 | Recorded: October 9, 1970 (John’s 30th birthday), after seeing his father the last time | Released: December 11, 1970

—Get Enough by Paul McCartney | Written: 2016-2018 (?) | Recorded: 2018 | Released: January 1, 2019 (midnight)

#john and paul #thematics #sticking pins in my corkboard #in his own write #i remember arnold #get enough #1968 #remember #1970 #johns 30th birthday he unloads primal on his dad and jams with the other beatles paul noticably absent #remember quotes bring it on home #bring it on home to me #which oh! darling is built off of #the ending has the guy fawkes reference ‘remember the 5th of november’ #and the explosion he claims was politcl but it sounds like blowing up your past memories to me #john interview #stumbled on this interview again looking up stuff from the dick cavett interview #my brain did a thing connecting all of these today #i connected the dots (you connected nothing) #who know who knows but i wanted to put them together to…remember #i love the bit he mentions about realizing all the different creative bits are similar after all #the emphasis on using sound to communicate a feeling hits right on to me #creativity #memories #johns books #gender bendy character #needs a tag there’s so many #mine #song links #it’s interesting too that both remember and get enough are products of studio improv

[earhartsease]

the southern right whale dolphin looks like they're in a mersey beat band

[esherdemo]

Join my coolest ever server if you r a beatles fan

Join cause its so cool and aawwweesomeeee

#mclennon #john lennon #paul mccartney #george harrison #ringo starr #The beatles #discord

[with-eyes-closed]

"The Beatles were then just four lads on that rather dimly lit stage, somewhat ill-clad, and the presentation, well, left a little to be desired as far as I was concerned, because I'd been interested in the theatre and acting for a long time. But, amongst all that, something tremendous came over, and I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humour actually on stage, and even afterwards when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm, and it was there really that it all started."

Brian Epstein, The Mersey Sound special, 1963.

Fifth Beatles, Brian Epstein, Neil Aspinall and George Martin, 1963

#it was so fun watching people pop up on the periphery of other videos #that clip of george martin is especially funny because he comes across as such a dad before it cuts to paul george and john all bundled up #anyway #almost finished with the '63 compilations! #brian epstein #neil aspinall #george martin #1963 #beatles edits

[ceofjohnlennon]

John Lennon's text in Mersey Beat Magazine, 1961, taken from the book "John Lennon: In His Own Word" by Barry Miles.

#john lennon #60s #1961 #barry miles #in his own world #my:read

[ceescedasticity]

I really feel like tumblr would appreciate some of Monty Python's takes on the police, particularly this one, picking up mid-sketch in episode 27:

Judge What is it now, you persistently silly usher?

Usher He can't hold the Bible m'lud.

Judge Well screw the Bible! Let's get on with this bleeding trial, I've got a Gay Lib meeting at 6 o'clock. Superintendent Lufthansa will you please read the charge.

Superintendent Is a charge strictly necessary, m'lud?

Judge (heavy aside) The press is here.

Superintendent Oh sorry! Right, here we go. You are hereby charged. One, that you did, on or about 1126, conspire to publicize a London Borough in the course of a BBC saga; two, that you were wilfully and persistently a foreigner; three, that you conspired to do things not normally considered illegal; four, that you were caught in possession of an offensive weapon, viz, the big brown table down at the police station.

Judge The big brown table down at the police station?

Superintendent It's the best we could find, m'lud ... and five... all together now...

The whole court shout together.

Court Assaulting a police officer!

Prosecuting Counsel Call Police Constable Pan-Am. (Pan-Am runs into court and starts beating Njorl with a truncheon) Into the witness box, constable ... there'll be plenty of time for that later on. (the policeman gets into box hitting at anyone within range; his colleagues restrain him) Now, you are Police Constable Pan-Am?

Constable No, I shall deny that to the last breath in my body. (superintendent nods) Oh. Sorry, yes.

Prosecuting Counsel Police constable, do you recognize the defendant?

Constable No. Never seen him before in my life. (superintendent nods) Oh , yes, yes he's the one. He done it. I'd recognize him anywhere, sorry, super. (the superintendent looks embarrassed)

Prosecuting Counsel Constable, will you please tell the court in your own words what happened?

Constable Oh yes! (refers to his notebook) I was proceeding in a northerly direction up Alitalia Street when I saw the deceased (points at Njorl) standing at an upstairs window, baring her bosom at the general public. She then took off her ... wait a tick. Wrong story. (refers to his notebook) Ho yes! There were three nuns in a railway compartment and the ticket inspector says to one of them. (the superintendent shakes his head) No, anyway I clearly saw the deceased...

Clerk Defendant.

Constable Defendant! Sorry. Sorry, super. I clearly saw the defendant ... doing whatever he's accused of...Red-handed. When kicked... he said: 'It's a fair ... cop, I done it all ... Right... no doubt about... that'. Then, bound as he was to the chair, he assaulted myself and three other constables while bouncing around the cell. The end.

Spontaneous applause from the court. Shouts of 'more! more!'. Pan-am raises his hands and the clapping and shouting dies down.

Constable Thank you, thank you... and for my next piece of evidence...

Superintendent I think you'd better leave it there, constable.

Prosecuting Counsel Excellent evidence, constable (the constable is removed, flailing his truncheon the while) ... Thank you very much. Now then Mr Njorl, will you tell the court please where were you on the night of 1126? (silence from the bandages) Move any part of your body if you were north of a line from the Humbet to the Mersey. (silence)