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...
by Malcolm Pheby | Nov 2, 2019 | Liverpool, Music
You could say the only way was Essex at the Liverpool Empire 45 years ago this month in 1974. Crowds of adoring fans crammed into the theatre to see their idol David Essex croon his way through some of his greatest hits while hundreds waited outside. They’d queued for...
by Malcolm Pheby | Oct 19, 2019 | Liverpool, Music, TV
Forty five years ago this month, a young band from Liverpool made a landmark appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Watching them from the wings on the same programme in 1964 was a fresh-faced young singer from down the road in Manchester. The singer was Davy Jones, who...
