Gerry Marsden
Merseybeat Pacemaker BORN 1942
Toxteth-born Gerry Marsden formed his band – initially called The Mars Bars – in 1959. Schooled alongside local rivals The Beatles on the Reeperbahn, they signed with manager Brian Epstein in 1962, and the following year scored UK Number 1s with How Do You Do It?, I Like It and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s You’ll Never Walk Alone. Further successes followed in ’64, including Marsden’s UK/US Top 10 compositions Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying and Ferry Cross The Mersey, which spawned a film, though the group split in 1967. Thereafter Marsden appeared in West End stage shows and TV, and played the oldies circuit from 1973. In 1985 he sang on a charity re-recording of You’ll Never Walk Alone for the Bradford City stadium fire disaster, and in ’89 reprised Ferry Cross The Mersey in aid of the Hillsborough Justice Appeal: both reached Number 1. In June 2019, he joined Take That on-stage at Anfield to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone to mark Liverpool’s Champions League win.