The Beatles were our warm up act!

The current line-up of The Merseybeats with original members Tony Crane and Bill Kinsley (with guitars). Below: The band in 1965 show and it was a good name at the time, but Cavern Club DJ Bob Wooler said the name was ‘too country’ and that we should change it.”

And here we come to what could arguably be termed ‘corporate sponsorship’.

“There was a newspaper at the time called The Mersey Beat and Bob took us to see the editor and suggested that we would be called The Merseybeats and would he be OK with it.”

The band had a string of hits from 1963 to 1965 but disaster struck in ’66.

“At the time, we had Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp (The Who) as our managers, and we were having a few problems with John and Aaron. They were hitting the bottle and generally being unreliable. Kit and Chris said we couldn’t carry on with John and Aaron, so why don’t me and Tony get another backing band and just sing.

“I was at school with John and he was a friend, so we came to an agreement – they would continue as The Merseybeats and me and Tony would become The Merseys.

“To be honest, they weren’t that interested and broke up not long after, while we went on to have a hit with Sorrow. But Tony and I split after a few years.’’

Both Billy and Tony continued with other bands, most notably Billy’s Seventies band Liverpool Express. They had a massive hit with You Are My Love and still perform occasionally. Billy and Tony reformed The Merseybeats in 1993 and have toured constantly since.

One of the highlights of Billy’s career stems from the very early days.

“We must have appeared on the same bill as The Beatles more than anybody else, and even though we toured with everybody, The Beatles were special.

“Funnily enough, The Beatles used to let us go on stage after them. Now, the last act is usually top of the bill, so thought you’d think it was a great honour, but it wasn’t always what it seemed.

“In those days, all the pubs would close at 10pm or 10.30pm and people would tend to leave early to catch ‘last orders’ and then get the last bus home.

‘‘The Beatles naturally didn’t want to play to an almost empty hall as people left, so they’d let us go on last instead.”

But it had its perks.

“We ended up using their equipment. John used Pete Best’s drums and I used Paul McCartney’s bass guitar amp and cabinet. We used to put their gear on our van and store it at our house.”

And, in true raconteur style, this leads on to another, related tale of how some things come back to haunt you.

“At the time, if you could hear the bass guitar sound at the top of Liverpool’s Matthew Street, one of three bands were playing at The Cavern – The Beatles, The Big Three or us.

‘‘The reason being that the bassists in all three bands – Paul, John Gustafson and me – had these big bass cabinets, which makes the bass sound incredible.

“Paul, however, had an 18-inch speaker that no-one else had in this cabinet, that we called ‘the coffin’. Well, one of the times I had his speaker at my house, I took the back off and copied the cabinet.

“It took me three months to save up for the actual speaker, but when people heard the bass, they went ‘wow!’

‘‘About 15 years ago, I had a call from John Hamill, who was working for Paul as his road manager, and he said to me ‘I’ve got a message from Paul that’ll make you laugh; he says, can you make him a coffin?’”

But then, something spooky happened.

“The day after, I got a call from the lead guitarist from The Big Three, who now lives in Hawaii, who built Paul’s original. I told him that Paul wanted me to make him the cabinet, but then I thought that he would prefer one built by the original maker, and he agreed.

“The upshot is that Paul now has a copy of my copy of his original.”

We ended up using their equipment. John used Pete Best’s drums and I used Paul McCartney’s bass guitar amp and cabinet. We used to put their gear on our van and store it at our house.

60ss Gold, featuring Hermans Hermits, The Merseybeats, Marmalade, Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders and Steve Ellis’ Love Affair, is at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on November 24.