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Ian and The Zodiacs...
It was from this strange new world that ships continued to come in the late fifties and early sixties bringing with them not the mysterious riches that came in the Victorian era but something far more important…black plastic gold…American Rock ‘n’ Roll and R&B records. It was this connection that gave many of the Liverpool groups the ideas which became the “Liverpool” sound and it is no surprise therefore, that two of the premier bands of the era Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes and Ian and the Zodiacs emanated from there. These two groups formed in the Crosby/Liverpool area in 1958, were originally called respectively, The Deltones and The Zodiacs. The Deltones originally consisted of Paul Dougherty (voc), Ian Edwards (voc/guitar), Geoff Bethal (piano/organ), George Hodges (bass guitar) and Peter “Mesh” Stephenson (drums).
In 1960 Ian left the band and joined an up and coming outfit called the Zodiacs. The Zodiacs originally consisted of John Kennedy (vocals/guitar), Peter Griffiths (bass guitar), Pete Pimlett (guitar), Jerry Garagan (piano), and Dave Lovelady on drums. When the vocalist Johnny left, Ian stepped in. Not long after the group nearly disbanded following the tragic death in a motorbike accident of bass player Peter Griffiths, but they carried on and changed their name to Ian and The Zodiacs.
Ian in Germany 1964
In a new line up Ian was joined by Peter Wallace, Charlie Flynn, Geoff Bethel and Cliff Roberts who came from Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes. Charlie Flynn had played before that with the Bobby Bell Rockers and Geoff Bethel of course with the Deltones. With all these changes new Ian and the Zodiacs line up in 1961 consisted of:
It Aint Necessarily So" Soon afterwards they released their first single, a great version of the Marvellettes number Beechwood 45789. "Beechwood 45789" For reasons that are not absolutely clear, two of the album tracks, “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “Turkey Trot” were released as a single under the name of Wellington Wade.
1963 was a great year for the band and they were booked to appear at the Star Club where they quickly became firm favourites of the in crowd.
More recordings followed with the single “Just the Little Things I Like” and an album “Gear Again”.
By this time the band were becoming hugely popular in Germany with most of their records charting amidst a number of TV appearances.
"So Much In Love With You"
Records flowed from the band including “Message to Martha”, So much In love and “Bitte Komm Wieder” the German version of Message to Martha. All released in 1966. "Bitte Komm Wieder" Two more albums followed “Just Listen to…” and “Locomotive”, again hugely successful in Germany. It remains one of life’s great mysteries as to why their huge German successes weren’t repeated in the UK and the US, particularly as Ian’s records were hugely popular with the American service personnel serving in Germany at the time.
In 1966 to capitalise of the Beatles success they released an album as the KoppyKats featuring cover version of the Beatles hits It was the biggest selling success for the group in England and two single albums were released in Germany as “The Beatles Best By The KoppyKats and “ More Beatles Best By The KoppyKats. They also released Help! and Nowhere man as a single. It is hard for us now to understand why anyone who could buy the original versions would want to buy cover versions of the same songs. The reason was simply price. These cover albums were sold in places like Woolworths for a much lower price, so if you were poor, like most of us, it was great alternative. Later on the Record was re-released as the Original Ian and the Zodiacs - Beatlemania
The band went through a number of personnel changes until in 1967 they finally disbanded when Ian returned to Liverpool and joined the Fourmost for a short time, he then moved on to the Connoisseurs and the Chesterfields before finally quitting the business all together.
Ian and the Zodiacs, one of Liverpool’s greatest secrets, a fabulously versatile band with top quality musicians, a stylish vocalist guitarist in Ian and probably the most polished stage presence of any band (Beatles excepted) of the era. In 1999 Ian returned to the music scene after a successful career in business and re-formed the band with former Gerry & The Pacemakers pianist Les Maguire, Colin Fabb who with was with Ian in the Connoisseurs, Carl Hardin and Malcolm Little.
They toured Germany in 2000 and were hugely popular once again. In 2003 Ian left the band, although they continued on for a while, but I guess it was like the Beatles without John Lennon. Ian met up with a German Band from Cologne (The Roaring Fourties) in 2005 and they became the last incarnation of Ian and the Zodiacs. Ian returned to Germany and played for one final time in front of his many fans who packed the houses to see him perform live.
I was fortunate to see Ian perform at MerseyCats in 2007 and he had lost none of that star sparkle. Ian tragically died unexpectedly a little later on that year on 22nd October 2007.
My thanks go to Ian's wife Betty for supplying most of the information for Ian's story. Betty is a lovely person and I see her quite regularly at the Merseycats evenings reliving those wonderful Merseybeat days which with your help and support can continue on for a while.
"Ian you was fab"
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To the north of Liverpool lies the suburb of Crosby. It had some scruffy bits
but mainly it is an up market elegant end of the city. Close to the river Mersey and not far from docks it
boasts some of the most beautiful Merchant Houses from the boom period of the nineteenth century when
Liverpool was the hub of sea traffic to and from the New World and Africa.
This was to be the line-up through their most successful period and in
1963 the band was chosen to be featured in the Oriole compilations “This is Merseybeat” Vol.1
and Vol. 2, with the songs “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, “Let’s Turkey Trot”
and “Secret Love”.
An album Star Club Show 7 (the picture includes Ian's
autograph) was released in Germany but never made it to the UK.
