Gone But Not Forgotten

  Emotional Night For Friends of Bobby Scott

Family, friends and fellow musicians gathered at MerseyCats on Friday 4th March to pay tribute to Bobby Scott drummer with the Clayton Squares who passed on recently. The audience and bands included Lee Curtis, Karl Terry, Geoff Nugent, Dave Goldberg, Allan Schroeder, Frank Hopley,Tempest, The Bumblies, The Weekend Warriors, Beat Club, and of course The Claytons who paid tribute to Bobby with an emotional version of one of Bobby's favourite songs "I Shall Be Released".

Former Quarrymen, Ken Brown, dies at age 70

Former Quarrymen guitarist Ken Brown, 70, was discovered dead at his home in Essex on Monday after a concerned relative had raised the alarm. In 1959, Ken persuaded George Harrison to bring along John Lennon and Paul McCartney to fill an opening at the Casbah Coffee Club. The Quarrymen performed a number of gigs in Liverpool before Ken was ousted from the group in a dispute over money. Ken played with Pete Best in The Blackjacks until the drummer was poached by the Beatles to join their crucial groundbreaking tour in Hamburg, Germany.

 Dick Mathews - Sam's Just Lost His Best Friend

Its been a sad week for Merseybeat with the news that Sam Leach's best pal Dick Mathews has passed away. Dick was Sam's right hand man in over 400 gigs in the late 50s and early 60s and was involved in most of the major Beatles promotions.

He took most, if not all of the photos with the Beatles in their black leather outfits and Sam has kindly given us permission to print two unique photos. The first one is a shot of Sam and Dick with The Beatles taken on December 9th 1961 in Aldershot (Paul took the shot standing on a rickety chair) and the second, one of the most iconic Beatles photos ever, taken on December 8th 1961 in their leathers at The Cavern.

Founder Member of the Searchers Passes On

Tony West one of the founder members of the Searchers has passed away aged 72.
One of the original members of the band which was originally founded as a Skiffle group in Liverpool in 1959 by John McNally, the band took their name from the classic 1956 John Wayne western The Searchers.
The band consisted of John McNally (Guitar), with Brian Dolan (guitar) and Tony West (bass). Mike Prendergast replaced Brian Dolan and a short time after Tony Jackson replaced Tony West.
Shortly afterwards Chris Crummey (who later changed his name to Curtis) joined on drums and the Searchers went on to become one of Liverpool’s top bands.
In later life Tony became a successful agent founding Tony West Entertainments booking many top acts throughout the United Kingdom.