Entertainment For Lively Minds
Which Liverpool band and what song?
Posted by jonnyartist on 16 March 2011 - 11:26pm.
On one of my aimless wanders around Youtube, i found this great clip about legendary trio The Crucial Three. You may or may not know they were a band comprising of Pete Wylie, Julian Cope and Ian McCulloch. Makes interesting viewing, but also got me thinking about the somewhat incestuous Liverpool scene of the Seventies and Eighties and the original Mersey beat scene too.
So my question to the massive is, with so many bands and so much great music coming from that city, but excluding The Beatles (because, well they're The Beatles arent they), what is your all-time favourite track, by a Liverpool band!??
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La's - Doledrum
Ooh, a toughie
But because it reminds me so strongly and so urgently of certain parties I used to frequent in my youth it would have to be this:
My favourite Bunnymen tune too
Tony Wilson said it was 'the greatest song I've ever heard'. Mind you, he said that about a few songs I think.
The Teardrop Explodes
Julian Cope - one of the Crucial Three - at his most poppy:
Echo
(Miming aside...!)
Countless
Of bands and songs to choose from. But for now, and forever, this will always be the best. From Toxteth's finest son (after Robbie Fowler and Ian Callaghan, of course):
Gerry
The Last Chant
As an ex-pat Liverpudlian who never took the pledge of allegiance, I feel the need to claim some obscurist points, so I'd have to vote for Run of the Dove by The Last Chant http://soundcloud.com/mickpuck/run-of-the-dove - It's not on youtube, but was available on a Liverpool compilation a while back.
Otherwise, it would have to be something by Deaf School - even though most of them were from the Wirral.
Birds Fly (A Whisper To A Scream)
Indeed it is a toughie la, but i've gone for this!
Something of Michael Head and The Strands I think
lets go with this one for now.
Good call
Dr V!
Great times and too many tunes...
But off the top of me head la...
It just
has to be this...
Amsterdam - Does This Train Stop On Merseyside
In Leeds This Weekend
playing the Brudenell club Saturday 19th.
What Tony said
Or failing that, Raid The Palace by Pele, Ian Prowse's earlier band. (and yes, they're woolybacks from The Wirral - but so am I).
So many
especially EATB songs, but this came into my head first so.....
Wah! "The Story of The Blues"
Tune!
Tune!
Everybody wants to pick the Teardoop Explodes
And like Mac said, I feel like I've been up to Villers Terrace about a million times.
So I will choose the lesser known scouse band from the 1980s, Cook Da Books.
and of course
the guitarist is Mr Peter 'Digsy' Deary, later of Digsy's Dinner fame
Great Noel quote
Apparently meeting Digsy is like 'opening a bag of monkeys'
The Trestles - Sing On
One of the new bands -
Up Arrow!!
whoever you are - if you're around Liverpool on Saturday they have their album launch at Casa on Hope Street.
Al's a good mate of mine
Good to see the lads doing so well, can't make the Casa this week though. See you somewhere else.
Nice Guy ..
..met him via myspace - wrote something about the song which he really liked. I won't be there either - had a small hand in getting Amsterdam a gig in Leeds on Saturday so I'm at that.
Makes the La’s
sound like they come from Chalfont St Giles
Minion TV
Instrumental band - huge sound live.
The Sand Band
The La's - Fly On (Alright)
So many, but I always loved this when The La's did it - much better than the later version by Cast.
All this time...
... and no Half Man Half Biscuit?
They aren't from Liverpool
But Birkenhead
One of the best songs ever written
It would have to be
Do I have to spell it out?
Except
The Rutles came from Rutland (Weekend Television).
I was thinking maybe I could get away with that
Another name added to the list. ;)
If I'm allowed two
Let's complete the Michael Head set (Shack and The Strands get a mention above)
and, from another Toxteth band (much better than Gerry and the Pacemakers imo), some fantastic scouse soul
The Real Thing
Tremendously underrated band unfairly categorised as cheesy 70s. Children of the Ghetto is as close as any British band got to Curtis Mayfield. Ta
Won't Appologise for this one...
...so loved this song I did my own little (well nicked off the net) video.
Not the best but the strongest accent?!
A band I never liked at the time but quite enjoy now - possibly because of the continued lack of new La's material.
Some full on Souse accents in this one though - '"I don't know where I'm goin" in particular
There's only one...
Jimmy Tarbuck. On this record he sings the Stones's Wastin' Time
Them again . My absolute favourite .
There's not been much gender equality on this thread yet,
so let's hear it for a lady from Liverpool, Kathryn Williams, singing the rather wonderful "Flicker"
Please
no-one post Cilla on the grounds of "gender-equality"
How about this one then?
Have another!
What no Thea?
Ms Gilmore
Simply because they've been overlooked
so far I'll add
Liverpool - 39 miles and 45 minutes to Manchester
Especially for millymollymandy:
Thought these were going to be big
Also, not on youtube
but I'd highly recommend the all-time lost Liverpool band Muddyhead. Album called Land and Sea on Spotify. I challenge you to listen to opening track She Moves Me and not be moved.
Don't forget
the third bestselling artist of the 60s:
Deaf School ....
Pretty much anything from the first 2 albums, but let's go for "What a Way to End it All"
..... or Yachts
Sunk (!) by badly mixed albums but a magnificent live band, I give you ... Yachting Type (oops - just corrected a yachting typo!):
Cherry Boys - Kardomah Cafe
Closely followed by Bunnymen's Never Stop, Frankie's Two Tribes and Ken Dodd and the Diddymen's Where's Me Shirt?
How low
can a video budget get?
A fine choice.
A fine choice.
I didnt get where I am today by
not banging on about obscure bands:
or by picking just one song:
Can it be true....
... that no one has yet mentioned The Big Three?!?
One of the tragedies of the Merseybeat era was that the Big Three - whom all the bands of that era regarded as the most virtuosic, loudest, most exciting band on the scene - were never properly recorded or indeed filmed. Their 45 version of 'Some Other Guy' is widely regarded as the best version of this archetypal Merseybeat number, and yet still its apparently a pale shadow of their sound (recorded only as a demo, with Johnny Hutch having vocal problems on the day). Their 'Live At The Cavern' EP was blighted by technical issues (having recorded a whole LP's worth only to find the technical issues meant they then had to re-record a bunch of stuff straight after that set, which made up the EP.
Etc etc...
Bass player Johnny Gustafson went on to join Roxy Music and various hard rock acts in the 70s. Singer/drummer Johnny Hutch famously sat in with the Beatles at their Larry Parnes audition (looking bored in the pics of the event) and later moved to Canada - I believe he's never given an interview about that era since 1981, and only rarely before then - surely the last major muso from that period not to be properly 'on record' in books etc. No idea what happened to the guitarist.
The one rtecording which I think gives the best hint about their onstage power is a throwaway b-side 'Cavern Stomp', which I'll post next. Meanwhile, there IS something ragged yet great about this imperfect 'Some Other Guy'...
I was going to suggest
The Big Three, and specifically 'Some Other Guy' but, as you say, the recording doesn't give a sense of what they were really like live. I saw them many times at The Cavern, and they were sensational. They were also one of the bands you wouldn't liked to get into a fight with (see other thread). Johny Hutch was the driving force, but they all contributed mightily. Brian 'Griff' Griffiths was the original guitarist, then Adrian Barber took over (though it might have been the other way round). For the best info on Sixties Liverpool bands get hold of 'Twist and Shout' by Spencer Leigh.
Power trio, 1963 style...
...as promised above, 1:33 of of the Big Three captured on tape as close to their legend suggests. Forget about the A side (it's deardful), go straight to 2:05...
It's a nothing song, but try to imagine three guys in a studio in 1963 laying this down live in the time it takes to play it - and compare it with the very early Beatles, Gerry et al 45s. The power/musicianship here is simply in a different class. I guess they just didn't have the songcraft or the luck...
Too many to choose from, so this
Have we all forgotten this lot?
At one point apparently set for megastardom
And since there aren't enough girls
Don't forget
Our Kid and Liverpool Express. On second thoughts...
OMD - Joan of Arc
Cranebuilders
Another band I thought would go on to better things
Have we not the forgotten...
....the late 60s jazz-fusion'n'poetry community? Namely...
Pale Fountains
Jean's Not Happening.
I think all bands should look like this.
One of my favourite songs.
And, funnily enough, the first song I checked out on youtube.
Recipients of
The biggest advance ever paid. Virgin I think.
No room for Edgar?
The Coral
So many great songs to choose from but this wins it by a short head..
Why just groups?
...thur's a heaven above
Another from Bisto's choice -
The Stairs
Comedy
A personal favourite
All my favourites appear here
except this one?
Lotus Eaters - first picture of you
Scouserock!
Mugstar are a very good band.
Good grief!!
How could I forget the magnificence that is Clinic?
The Most Successful Group from Liverpool in the 80s
Not so much now...
Soul to Feet
Someone posted Kathryn Williams earlier but not this song which is gorgeous
You're all way, way wrong.......
Read 'em and weep ladies!
I promise I'm not IN this band or anything:
Collecting Skies by The Big I Am.
It really is utterly beautiful :)
And they're a new band, so you can actually go and see 'em ...
http://thebigiam1.bandcamp.com/track/collecting-skies
All hail The Searchers!
John McNally - hugely underrated guitarist...
This Made Me Smile.
Ian McNabb
Icicle Works have been mentioned but can't forget Ian McNabb and his celebration of the girls of Liverpool.
Wondrous Place
I did a Spotify playlist based on Paul du Noyer's marvellous book a while back...
http://open.spotify.com/user/bluepaul/playlist/6BepzqYrNLwjY0MghLREqu
Lots of Liverpool loveliness...
I was about to do this too!
Now I can focuse on the cooking instead. Well done, mr Waring!
Should've been number 1...
... didn't even chart
Play some new la
Some fine pop rock from Liverpool's Sound of Guns.
Happy Man
For some reason, this came to my mind today... Bear with (or skip) the silence for the first 30 seconds or so... a great tune!
this.
I'll assume
that this is what we were thinking of all along.
Not to mention the finest pop song of this current century
Pure
Wonderful, wonderful
Vearncombe's never got the recognition he deserved - good job this is a pension plan in itself.