‘John Lennon was violent. He’d fight about anything’: the inside story of Merseybeat, the UK’s early pop explosion

Early 1960s Liverpudlian pop may have been dominated by the Beatles, but it was a thriving scene whose acts filled the charts. Its artists explain why wild success gave way to heartbreaking failure

Thriving locally in Liverpool in 1961, dominating the charts by 1963 and all but over by 1965, Merseybeat was a short-lived phenomenon that reverberated around the world. The sound of young working-class Liverpudlians recasting their love of American R&B, rock’n’roll and doo-wop in their own image, it was the scene that birthed the Beatles – whose debut album recently turned 60 – alongside other stars like Gerry and the Pacemakers, Cilla Black and the Searchers, becoming the UK’s first significant contribution to pop music history. It inspired similar scenes across the UK and beyond, and was sold back to Americans in the British Invasion. “It felt like something was about to happen,” remembers Billy J Kramer, who had two No 1 hits with his backing band the Dakotas. “But it was just an explosion. Liverpool was at the centre of things out of nowhere.”

Merseybeat had its roots in the late 1950s. Always a musical city, jazz and skiffle were the popular sounds of the day until an influx of the latest, hard-to-find American rock’n’roll records and instruments were imported into Liverpool from the US via its docks, changing the pulse of the city. “The place was buzzing with it,” says Nick Crouch of Faron’s Flamingos and the Mojos (two of the bands included on a new Merseybeat compilation, Let’s Stomp! Merseybeat and Beyond 1962-1969). “Virtually every street you walked down, you’d hear guitar music.”