by Malcolm Pheby | Oct 7, 2020 | Manchester, Music
For Manchester music fans there was only one to place to be on the milestone evening of Saturday September 11th 1965. The Twisted Wheel nightclub was holding its very last all-nighter at its Brazennose Street premises – and topping the bill were two music legends. The...
by Malcolm Pheby | Sep 19, 2020 | Liverpool, Music
Merseyside had a major part to play in the early career of singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, who burst into prominence in the late 1970s. Born in Paddington in August 1954, Costello moved to Birkenhead with his mother when he was 16 and went to school in Liverpool....
by Malcolm Pheby | Dec 14, 2019 | 1950s, Liverpool, Music
A decade before Merseybeat exploded on the scene, singers Frankie Vaughan, Lita Roza and Billy Fury were putting Liverpool firmly in the national spotlight. Roza became the first women ever to top the UK singles chart in 1953 and Fury ended up matching the Beatles hit...
by Malcolm Pheby | Dec 7, 2019 | 1980s, Do You Remember, Liverpool, Music
The music world was numbed when the news broke that former Beatle John Lennon had been shot and killed outside his New York home in December 1980. Mark Chapman fired five bullets at Lennon from a range of three yards as he was returning to his apartment in the Dakota...
by Malcolm Pheby | Nov 30, 2019 | 1960s, Liverpool, Music
More than 40,000 fans applied for tickets to see the Beatles play Liverpool’s Empire Theatre on Sunday December 5th 1965. The venue could only seat 2,250. So the concert, part of the band’s UK tour, was massively oversubscribed. The lucky ones, who paid 15 shillings...
by Malcolm Pheby | Nov 14, 2019 | Music
Popular music has always struck a vibrant chord in Wigan, stretching from George Formby and his father right through to 90s rock group The Verve. The dance troupe The Eight Lancashire Lads, who gave Charlie Chaplin his professional debut, were from Wigan. So too was...
