The LIVERBIRDS

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The following bio of the Liverbirds was written by their former manager, Joe Flannery and is courtesy of Mayfield Records.

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By Late 1963, the Liverbirds, formerly a folk group in Liverpool were making ready to travel to Hamburg courtesy of my agency, Carlton Brooke. By this time I was also Manfred Weissleder’s right hand man at the Star Club in Hamburg. Visually, the Liverbirds were probably years ahead of their time for they were a four- piece R&B group, not (as one might expect in those days) a vocal group.

They wore their hair in a cross between a Beatle cut and a mod bob and sported leather jerkins and tight fitting slacks with winkle pickers on their feet…quite a shock for the male-orientated scene in Liverpool! Actually, they had found things very chauvinistic back in Liverpool and it had taken a successful support gig with German band the Rattles to bring them to our attention at Carlton-Brooke.

The Rattles, incidentally, had spent most of December ’63 in Liverpool and had become quite a draw at the Cavern. They returned to Germany just before Christmas ’63 to promote their recording ‘The Stomp’, which was a massive hit on the Continent.

There were simply no female group role models and few precedents for the Liverbirds back in the UK. Instrument-playing female groups have always been rare but back in the 1960s they were like proverbial ‘hen’s teeth’. America’s Goldie and the Gingerbreads were knocking us out with their musical ability in early 1965, but the Liverbirds were a full twelve months before this.

To compete, any new girl group not only had to contend with well-established singers such as Dusty Springfield and Co., but also the seemingly unassailable brigade of boys. It was little wonder that so few women broke through. My business partner and I discussed this at length and decided at an early stage that, if the Liverbirds were agreeable, we should target Germany exclusively.

The Germans were no less misogynists than the British, but we knew that the group would - by association - be described by the West German press as ‘female Beatles’ for the word ‘Beatle’ was an encryption in Germany by 1964, meaning any person directly associated with Liverpool, the appropriate sound and hairstyle. Tapping into this relationship would be superb publicity for the girls before they even played a note.

We duly contacted the German music press prior to the Liverbirds leaving the UK in order to hype up the arrival of the girls in Hamburg. Between the New Year 1964 and our departure for Hamburg mid-February the girls were heavily booked. Carlton-Brooke placed them in as many local venues as possible in order to expand their skills and repertoire. With the help of Bob Wooler we were able to get them regular gigs at the Cavern alongside the likes of Chick Graham, the Kubas, the Riot Squad and the Remo Four.

Their most successful gig, however (and one in which they seemed to physically grow on stage) was supporting Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated one Sunday in January (26th). They were up against a very knowledgeable blues crowd that evening – all duffle coats and sandals – but they handled the gig well and were commended by Alexis. The hype certainly worked in Germany for there was a large posse of pop press and male fans at the airport on their arrival with Lee Curtis and the All Stars Mk 2 during late February, 1964.

The band was led by Pam Birch, who was not an easy client to keep happy and was something of an eccentric, but she was totally her own person and I admired her for that. I’d brought Pam into the group myself at a late stage after a fellow Liverbird – Mary McGlory’s sister – had decided that the beat group life was not for her. Pam had been attempting to make a name for herself on the folk scene in Liverpool during 1963 but has found it equally misogynistic and intransigent. She was, at times, rather unpredictable but was always willing to take musical risks – never following trends. She was fully aware of trends, however, for she had worked in the NEMS record department, buying imports. She was a mine of useful information, in this respect.

The aforementioned Mary McGlory was the bass guitarist – she was a very quiet individual. I always thought that she would have made the perfect nun. Instead she married Frank Dostill in Germany. I shall never forget Mary’s first sight of the Reeperbahn. Our taxi dropped us off near the Catholic Church around the corner and Mary remarked that her parents would be very pleased. We then walked around that corner to view all of the strip clubs and prostitutes! She nearly fainted!

Val Gell played rhythm and I always thought that Val was quite butch, but she was as straight as they come. She eventually married a young fan by the name of Stefan who, having met the band at the Big Apple club in Munich, attempted to drive to Hamburg to see the group again. Sadly, Stefan was involved in one of those all-too-common 1960s car accidents, leaving him paralysed.

Sylvia Saunders played drums. Syl was the mothering type and quite bossy and independent. She ultimately met and married a drummer from the Bobby Patrick Big 6, came back to Britain but then subsequently spent some time in Spain. I believe she has returned to the UK.

Of course, having a girl band in tow meant that both my self-perceptions about being a father figure and my paranoia about their welfare increased dramatically. I regarded myself as their overseer and frequently rang home to their respective parents to convince them all was well.

I was also constantly sending telegrams and I even remember on one occasion sending back a little money to Pam Birch’s family to convince them that she was earning good money. She wasn’t of course…the money was mine.

Once in Hamburg, the ’Livers’ were given a slot at the Star Club supporting Lee Curtis. They were not officially booked in their own name, being part of the Lee Curtis ‘show’, as it were. This was similar to the arrangement that I had made for Lee Curtis in March of the previous year. I remember that the All Stars were not particularly pleased with the Liverbirds, thinking that they were a bunch of amateurs. I must admit that, although I knew the girls could play a little, I did have some reservations about their musical ability (mainly to do with lack of volume).

They could play, but they had been folkies before entering the world of R&B and, despite the exhaustive pre-Hamburg gig schedule, were still not aux fait with the drive and volume demanded on the Reeperbahn. I did feel, however, that their novelty value, alone, would fill the Star Club for at least a week and the musical ability stuff could take care of itself.

Sure enough, despite a few rocky moments during that first week, they tightened up considerably – turning the amps up full blast along the way. Manfred Weissleder was duly impressed and over coffee and cake the following week, he retained them for the rest of the month.

After the Star Club booking had been successfully completed, I sent the girls home to rest and recuperate. They returned to Liverpool full of hope and with money in their pockets. Once back in Liverpool, however, they became anonymous and played only a handful of rather uninspiring gigs – including one at the Cavern with the Kubas once again.

They quickly wanted to return to Hamburg. Weissleder was so keen to have them back that he offered the Liverbirds a recording contract with his newly formed Star Club label. Recording deals were not the same in Germany as they were in Britain. They were usually one-off affairs, but I was able to negotiate royalties for them.

I can never work out whether I caught Manfred in of his rare weaker moments or whether he really loved the band. Either way, they recorded regularly for Star Club Records over the next couple of years and sold plenty of records in West Germany.

Which leads me finally to their repertoire. One of the things that attracted me to the group in the first place was their repertoire. The Liverbirds’ set had moved one step beyond most of the Mersey Beat groups in1964, playing R&B numbers that would not have been out of place in the Marquee or the Crawdaddy. I distinctly remember storming versions of Got My Mojo Working, Too Much Monkey Business, Diddley Daddy and Roadrunner – odd, if you think about it!

Not unlike my other ward, Beryl Marsden, the Liverbirds did not necessarily associate with the sound that has been (retrospectively) described as ‘Mersey Beat’. In fact, one could argue that the very term ‘Mersey Beat’ is a rather over-used narrative. It has certainly deflected attention away from groups such as the Liverbirds, the Hideaways and the Clayton Squares - all because they did not sound like they were about to burst into a rendition of ‘Some Other Guy’ – what a pity!

Eventually the Livers settled in West Germany and they are still highly regarded to this very day. As for me? Well, the weight of caring for them, and Lee Curtis, and the All Stars, and the Star Club began to tell on me. Chiefly, once I had discovered that Lee Curtis (my already married younger brother) was enjoying secret liaisons with one of the Liverbirds – but that, dear reader, is another story!

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LISTEN HERE to more of the Liverbirds during those Hamburg days of 1964 - 65

Track 1: He’s about a mover
Track 2: Talkin’ about you
Track 3: He’s something else
Track 4: Too much monkey business
Track 5: Roadrunner
Track 6: Leave all your old loves (in the past)
Track 7: Why do you hang around me

The last two tracks on this list were written by Liverbirds group member, Pam Birch. Sadly, she died in Hamburg on the 27th October, 2009 aged 65.

CLICK HERE to read Spencer Leigh’s obituary of Pam Birch as printed in The Independent.

[admin]

Very nice information on the Liverbirds, Peter. Exciting times to be sure. Thank you.

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During a recent visit to Liverpool, Mary McGlory (now Mary Dostal), bass guitarist with the Liverbirds, sat down with Spencer Leigh, host of BBC Radio Merseyside’s On the Beat program and talked about the group’s time in Hamburg and playing at the Star Club.

CLCK HERE to listen to the interview

To avoid any possible confusion, the opening minutes of the interview references the annual Eurovision Song Contest that on the evening the interview was broadcasted was taking place in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The particular segment that made me laugh out loud was towards the end of the interview when the story of an offer by Chuck Berry’s manager to take the Liverbirds on tour in the US was told. I’m not going to spoil the punch line but it involves what the all-girl group would be required to do if they ever played Las Vegas.