THE MASTERSOUNDS

Formed in 1962 by leader MAL JEFFERSON (Bass Guitar/ Vocals), with TONY COCKAYNE (Guitar). They were named after an American Jazz Quartet of the same name which featured MONK MONTGOMERY on a Fender Precision bass guitar – the
first jazz group to use the instrument. The Americans disbanded and the Liverpool group was born.
MAL and TONY played with other bands beforehand including:-
Buddy Dean and The Teachers, who deputised for The Beatles on the Tower Ballroom.
Their first gig was opening the first all-nighter on the Iron Door. They played in the Galvanisers with Roy Wood and Chris on Guitars. They also played on Stanley House in Upper Parliament Street with Robbie Montgomery on Guitar/ Vocal. They backed and rehearsed with The Chants there.

The Mastersounds started when they recruited FRANK HOPLEY (Keyboards/ Vocals)
and MIKE PRICE (Drums). Their manager was GORDON BROWN, the European Jive Champion and Featherweight Boxer, brother-in-law to Sam Leach. Photographer DICK MATTHEWS also helped to manage the band. Their repertoire was early rhythm and blues, country blues, instrumentals and rock and roll. They were the first UK band to do
I Got My Mojo Working (McKinley Morganfield) from a demo acetate brought back from the States my Mal’s father, who was a ship’s captain. Mal often supplied Brian Epstein at NEMS with rare American 45s.

Playing the usual venues with The Undertakers, Faron and the rest of the leading groups they gained a good following for their unusual repertoire. They played the 1963 National Jazz Festival in Croydon with the Rolling Stones, Graham Bond and Georgie Fame – scoring a great success. They were offered endless London contracts but Frank Hopley would not turn pro, so the band missed their greatest opportunity. TONY ASHTON took over from Frank for a short time before joining The Remo Four.

Frank was replaced by GERRY STEWART (Tenor Sax) and ADRIAN LORD (Vocals)
and Bob Wooler gave the band all the Beatles’ gigs when they left the Cavern in August 1963. Adrian had just had major hits with The Mojos and for 6 months the band was hugely popular.

The band recorded for RCA International and Mal’s version of ‘Can I Get a Witness?’ was never released after belated permission was given to release Marvin Gaye’s version. However, as MAL JEFFERSON & THE MERSEY FIVE, a full LP of Rock N Roll standards was recorded at Olympic Studios in Barnet. When released in the USA, it sold in excess of 350,000 copies, but did not chart because of budget pricing. The band got £300 each. Additional musicians on the LP were LES REED (Piano/ MD), RED PRICE (Saxes), ARTHUR GREENSLADE (Organ), THE LADYBIRDS (Female Backing Vocals) and BOBBY GRAHAM (Drums). At that time, the band lived in London, were managed by Phil and Dorothy Solomons and were stablemates with THE BACHELORS.

They got a house in Birmingham in late 1963 and worked the Birmingham dance halls every week-end (Plaza/ Ritz/ Brum Cavern) with bands like STATUS QUO and THE ROCKING BERRIES for local promoter, Mary Regan.

In August 1964, they did a month at Hamburg’s Top Ten Club, owned by PETER ECKHORN and run by IAIN HINES. The House sax player was the great RICKY BARNES (Lord Rockingham’s XI) and the House singer ISOBEL BOND. Because the band could read music, these two augmented the band, plus IAIN HINES (Keyboards) and JIMMY DOYLE (Drums). The full line up was 2 x Drums, 2 x Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, 2 x Tenors, plus Isobel – a 9-piece! Frequent visitors to the club to see the band were SEAN CONNERY and THE KRUPP BROTHERS, Hitler’s armourers.

Iain Hines had just finished an in-built recording studio and recorded the band at late-night sessions. Five singles were released and all became Juke Box Hits including a No.1 with Mal’s version of ‘OOH MY SOUL’. The band were a big hit and were offered further contracts in Hamburg, including The Star Club, and the Middle East. Things were looking very rosy before it all collapsed. Adrian was drinking himself insensible most nights and Mal, being the leader, took him to task and the fight that followed broke up the band. They returned to the UK and all went their separate ways.

MAL JEFFERSON became a studio owner, musical cabaret act and music producer, running his businesses under the name of ‘Mastersound’ (www.mastersound.co.uk).
ADRIAN LORD became a full-time builder.
GERRY STEWART moved to Canada and became head of their Parks and Gardens, and is still playing Sax with small jazz groups.
TONY COCKAYNE, (now TONY KAYNE), went to America and is in California playing 7-string jazz guitar around the clubs.
FRANK HOPLEY became a draughtsman and MIKE PRICE worked in a factory.
GORDON BROWN still promotes shows around Liverpool with bands, psychics and fortune-tellers.

Our thanks to Mal Jefferson for the content for this article.