She Came From Liverpool

Over the last few years Ace has built up a series of prime British female pop releases, with individual collections drawn from four of the country's leading record companies of the 1960s: Decca, Pye, EMI and, most recently, Philips. With this latest compilation, rather than spotlight a particular company, the focus is on a location: the music hotbed of Merseyside. While male beat groups ruled the Merseyside roost in the 60s, the area was also home to its fair share of female talent. To illustrate the point, here are 25 hand-picked girl-pop artefacts from thereabouts. Liverpool's pop queen Cilla Black is featured with her two most Merseybeat-oriented tracks, including a terrific version of A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues, the first song she ever recorded at Abbey Road. Guitar-toting cover girls the Liverbirds, who released no records in the UK but were stars in Germany where their repertoire of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry numbers made them favourites at the Star-Club also appear twice.

Over the last few years Ace has built up a series of prime British female pop releases, with individual collections drawn from four of the country's leading record companies of the 1960s: Decca, Pye, EMI and, most recently, Philips. With this latest compilation, rather than spotlight a particular company, the focus is on a location: the music hotbed of Merseyside. While male beat groups ruled the Merseyside roost in the 60s, the area was also home to its fair share of female talent. To illustrate the point, here are 25 hand-picked girl-pop artefacts from thereabouts. Liverpool's pop queen Cilla Black is featured with her two most Merseybeat-oriented tracks, including a terrific version of A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues, the first song she ever recorded at Abbey Road. Guitar-toting cover girls the Liverbirds, who released no records in the UK but were stars in Germany where their repertoire of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry numbers made them favourites at the Star-Club also appear twice. The Breakaways, the Vernons Girls and Beryl Marsden three other acts intrinsically associated with Liverpool are also featured. Along with a selection of proven fan favourites, the collection contains many lesser-known gems, among them new-to-CD tracks by the Three Bells, Nola York, Tiffany, Lyn Cornell, Cindy Cole and, not least, Samantha Jones, whose hitherto-unreleased-in-any-format I Don't Want To Lose Him was recorded with visiting American producer Teddy Randazzo. Read all about these and the other featured artists in the accompanying picture-packed 28-page booklet, which contains a 7,000-word note by compiler Mick Patrick and genre expert Ian Chapman.

Over the last few years Ace has built up a series of prime British female pop releases, with individual collections drawn from four of the country's leading record companies of the 1960s: Decca, Pye, EMI and, most recently, Philips. With this latest compilation, rather than spotlight a particular company, the focus is on a location: the music hotbed of Merseyside. While male beat groups ruled the Merseyside roost in the 60s, the area was also home to its fair share of female talent. To illustrate the point, here are 25 hand-picked girl-pop artefacts from thereabouts. Liverpool's pop queen Cilla Black is featured with her two most Merseybeat-oriented tracks, including a terrific version of A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues, the first song she ever recorded at Abbey Road. Guitar-toting cover girls the Liverbirds, who released no records in the UK but were stars in Germany where their repertoire of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry numbers made them favourites at the Star-Club also appear twice.

Over the last few years Ace has built up a series of prime British female pop releases, with individual collections drawn from four of the country's leading record companies of the 1960s: Decca, Pye, EMI and, most recently, Philips. With this latest compilation, rather than spotlight a particular company, the focus is on a location: the music hotbed of Merseyside. While male beat groups ruled the Merseyside roost in the 60s, the area was also home to its fair share of female talent. To illustrate the point, here are 25 hand-picked girl-pop artefacts from thereabouts. Liverpool's pop queen Cilla Black is featured with her two most Merseybeat-oriented tracks, including a terrific version of A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues, the first song she ever recorded at Abbey Road. Guitar-toting cover girls the Liverbirds, who released no records in the UK but were stars in Germany where their repertoire of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry numbers made them favourites at the Star-Club also appear twice.

Not only were The Liverpool Five one of the most commercially unsuccessful of those that made up the British Invasion, they weren’t even from Liverpool. Lead vocalist Steve Laine (who had earlier led The Steve Laine Combo), drummer/vocalist Jimmy May, guitarist/vocalist Ken Cox, and keyboardist/vocalist and sometimes sax player Ron Henley, all hailed from London, while bassist/vocalist Dave Burgess came from the county of Cumbria in the extreme northwest. But because of The Beatles, “Liverpool” simply sounded cooler.

3CD box set spotlighting the pioneering movement that brought the world The Beatles but has been overshadowed by their success. Merseybeat was a brief phenomenon but hugely influential throughout the world. It blew up nationwide in 1963 before Merseybeat groups spearheaded the ‘British Invasion’ of the US charts. This box celebrates the scene on the first two discs, then on disc three presents some of the brilliant mod, freakbeat, psych and Mersey soul music that came from Liverpool when the Merseybeat bubble burst and press and public looked elsewhere. Inspired by US rock ‘n’ roll, R&B and Motown and the D.I.Y. attitude of skiffle, the Liverpool beat groups rocked clubs such as their hometown’s The Cavern and the Star-Club in Hamburg and larger ‘Big Beat’ sessions at The Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. The Searchers and Gerry And The Pacemakers achieved success on the world stage, others never made it out of their local area, made a couple of 45s or even demos and disappeared.

A very groovy comp about mod and beat 60's favorites played at the Atomic Cafe in Germany, compiled by Markus Weissenhorn aka Weyssi.

A very groovy comp about mod and beat 60's favorites played at the Atomic Cafe in Germany, compiled by Markus Weissenhorn aka Weyssi.

A very groovy comp about mod and beat 60's favorites played at the Atomic Cafe in Germany, compiled by Markus Weissenhorn aka Weyssi.

A very groovy comp about mod and beat 60's favorites played at the Atomic Cafe in Germany, compiled by Markus Weissenhorn aka Weyssi.