Kick Out The Jams
Brilliant compilation celebrating Liverpool’s cultural heritage.
Various Artists Let’s Stomp! Merseybeat And Beyond 1962-1969
★★★★ Cherry Red CRJAMBOX 014 (3CD) Merseybeat gave us The Beatles, Gerry And The Pacemakers and The Searchers but it’s far more than a footnote in their stories. For during the first half of the 60s, it was the soundtrack to where the action was, giving rise to the birth of the UK beat scene. Local teens got their kicks putting their distinct Scouse stamp on US rock’n’roll, R&B and Motown in tiny sweaty clubs: the Cavern, the Jacaranda, the Iron Door etc while also honing their craft at the infamous Star-club in Hamburg. What an absolute thrill it must have been to witness.
Let’s Stomp!: Merseybeat And Beyond 19621969 pays tribute. It’s both a joyous listening experience and an invaluable history lesson. Of course, The Beatles can’t be here due to licensing reasons, but Lennon & Mccartney compositions are executed enthusiastically by Cilla (Love Of The Loved and Step Inside Love), The Fourmost (I’m In Love) and Billy J Kramer with The Dakotas who took the pair’s Bad To Me to No 1.
There are further hits: The Searchers’ Sweets
For My Sweet (UK No 1) and When You Walk In The Room (UK No 3), The Swinging Blue Jeans’ Hippy Hippy Shake (UK No 2) and The Mojos’ ‘Everything’s Alright’ (UK No 9). But it is in the misses and more underground offerings that we find the real gems, such as songs by The Kirkbys and The
23rd Turnoff, which fanfare the arrival of genius singer/songwriter Jimmy Campbell, the former group delivering the fuzz drenched It’s A Crime, the latter the more psych-y Michael Angelo.
There’s also The Undertakers and The Lomax Alliance, who provide a springboard for future Apple signing Jackie Lomax. The first named cover Roscoe Gordon’s Just A Little Bit with verve and flair; the latter bring us the psych-soul-mod classic You Better Get Going Now. And then The Chants, a harmony vocal group fronted by Eddie Amoo who would go on to form The Real Thing but here provides the gorgeous ear worm I Don’t Care. The real coup for some will be the five tracks newly mastered from producer Joe Meek’s
Tea Chest Tapes: The Cryin’ Shames’ Please Stay, a haunting ballad in classic Meek mould; then Paul and Ritchie and The Crying Shames’ top freakbeat number Come On Back; Jason Eddie And The Centremen’s Come On Baby (NB: Jason is Billy Fury’s brother
Albie Wycherley); Freddie Starr (yes, that Freddie
Starr) & The Midnighters’ Peter Gunn Locomotion and the previously unreleased A Different Drummer by The Maracas, who feature Dave Rhodes, later of Focal Point.
But it’s not just about the la’s: there is show-stealing rockin’ from The Liverbirds with Talking About You and a gorgeous cover of Billy Swan’s Lover Please by The Vernon Girls. Ex-vernon Girls also come up trumps as solo artists, Lyn Cornell for one making Sally Go Round The Roses her own and Samantha Jones who proves she’s a contender for the queen of soulful pop with the previously unissued This Is The Real Thing. Fab.
It’s both a joyous listening experience and history lesson