The Story of the Merseybeat Protest Song

We’d decided to do a concert at the Hard Days Night Hotel to celebrate 50 years of Merseybeat and Radio Merseyside called us in to give an interview on the Frankie Connor Show and I was sitting in the green room with Geoff Nugent of the Undertakers who was sharing the interview with me and Geoff said “ “Fergy you are not going believe this, they’ve dropped the Merseybeat Stage from this year’s stage”,

"What! I said that’s crazy they wouldn’t have a festival if it wasn’t for the music we created".

It didn’t sink in at the time as we were focused on promoting the show at the Hotel. After a few days I decided to check Geoff’s revelation with John the Chairman of MerseyCats and sure enough this year there would be no stage. “Too late to do anything about it” he said….."no it bloody isn’t" I said to myself. So I tried to find out more, but other than, “yes there was to be no stage”, there wasn’t any easy way to get to the truth. I’d streamed the “Beatles Fest” live from New York in April on Liverpool Beat and Billy J Kramer had been interviewed and he intimated that he would be appearing, but that was it. The Mathew Street Committee don’t reveal the line up until well into June for “contractual” reasons. Someone said they had made their decision because the stage had been unpopular (Later refuted by Bill Heckle ), but whatever the reason I was stunned. After an hour or two of total anger and frustration, thinking about that other great Council decision to knock down the original Cavern to make way for an underground railway airshaft (Which never happened), I thought, I have got to at least try and bring this disgrace to the attention of the people out there, who if they knew, might feel the same as I did. The first step was to run an article on Liverpool Beat (LB) and hope that people would complain to the council. Hope! well that’s was an understatement, within twenty four hours hundreds of emails started coming in from all over the world with one common theme…”How could they have a Mathew Street Festival without paying homage to the legends who were there at the beginning?”. It was like New Orleans without the Jazz.

They had seen the recent videos on LB of the Undertakers and Karl Terry and the Cruisers at a 50 year celebration sell out concert at the Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool and the ol guys showed they could still bring the house down.

Facebook

Next thing, I got a call From Brian (Sax) Jones of the Undertakers who was just as livid as the rest of us, announcing that he had set up a special a face book community BRING BACK THE MERSEYBEAT STAGE FOR THE LIVERPOOL MATHEW STREET FESTIVAL. The comments piled in and were universal in their condemnation of this insult to the heroes of Merseybeat, but would it fizzle out? The organisers of the festival would hope so, but we were obviously having an effect when Bill Heckle one of the organisers and current owner of the Cavern said on Radio Merseyside said...

 “"I still get passionate and upset when people kick off. This one kicked off without them knowing what they are kickin off about."

Well Mr Heckle I beg to differ, we do know what we are kicking off about and Bill Harry founder of the Mersey Beat magazine said it better than anyone when joining the protest

“It is not only the duty of the Council to honour the pioneering musicians who have done so much to make Liverpool a worldwide attraction which has resulted in the city being the third most popular tour destination in Britain, but an actual insult not to include them in a festival which resulted from the development of their music and influence from those heady days of the Mersey Sound.” Bill Harry founder of Mersey Beat magazine.

And as I write, the Face Book campaign continues to grow with support coming from all over the world with celebrities including Hank B. Marvin of The Shadows and Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones adding their support to the protest.

But we needed something more…. Suddenly about 3.00 O’ clock in the morning, I sat bolt upright and shouted” You idiot; What we need is a song”. I would like to tell you what the lovely Lynny sleeping next to me said, but the censor wouldn’t pass it.

The Protest Song

Yeh, a song, it’s got to be punchy; does what it says on the label; anthemic; true MerseyBeat; catchy; sing-a-long; and most of all….. the music has to be right.
OK then, not a problem, just come up with a great melody line, powerful poignant words, super professional playing in let’s say 24 hours ….not a tall order then!!!!!

One slight problem; Other than the epic “I’m Going to A Dance on Saturday Night” song I’d written in 1964 featuring one chord per word, which made it to the top of my filing cabinet, I hadn’t written anything that remotely resembled a song.

This is where the Great Spirit in the sky comes in. Blank sheet….suddenly the words started to flow…not too complex, after all, if you believe in something passionately you can “kick off” Bill, without too much trouble.

Next thought…..Creosote: What does it say on the label? The first line manifests itself
“Bring Back the Merseybeat Stage to Liverpool”…..and I’m away, as if the keyboard has a mind of its own.

The words just flowed and what’s more they worked. But….What about the melody? I started thinking about other anthemic hits, Angels…no too soppy, Don’t Look Back In Anger…no…. could be accused of plagiarising their plagiarisms (Allegedly), Neil Young style, yes, that’s more what’s in my head, there’s got to be a minor in there somewhere, a minor was always a MerseyBeat signature and was probably The Beatles greatest secret.

The Middle 8

The middle 8….I’m struggling, let’s call Ken Shalliker from The Dominoes he’s just turned into a songwriter on his latest album Mersey Thunder. Sure enough within a few hours back he comes with a great a chorus…we’re ready….now all we need is a band.

The Band

Now here’s the thing, it takes years to make a top band sound right and we’ve only got a few days to make this thing happen. We need to take the back bone of an existing band and surround it with the best of the best. Ken on bass of course, George on lead guitar a no brainer, drums? Charlie from The Cryin Shames probably the most authentic Merseybeat stix around. Who is the best keys in Liverpool it’s a toss up between Sam Hardie from the Dominoes and Dave Goldberg of the Merseybeats. Sam can’t make it and Dave steps in. We need a legend to take the first vocals, who else but the leg-end himself Lee (Mr Star Club) Curtis. Bobby Sox will come in later and do the second verse. And, the Pièce de résistance, the world’s greatest Sax player….. Brian Jones of The Undertakers.

In The Recording Studio

But what about a studio? Keith Hubbard founder of pro band Shooter and one time member of Merseybeat band Ricky Gleason & The Topspots agrees to do it, and adds a guitar into the mix. Within twenty four hours we are in the studio, and the magic begins to happen….

What about this for an intro? Lets put in a run down to the E; Brian takes the sax solo into the galaxy; what about this for the middle 8? Lee changes the words for the first two lines of the Chorus and writes Copyright Lee Curtis on his amendments; Let’s lay an organ over the piano; big finish.... what about this for an idea?......Eureka……a lot of smiles around the studio............

THE MERSEYBEAT IS BACK.

It was an honour and a privilege to play with and be in the company of these world class musicians and shortly you will hear the result.

You should have been there……..

Fergy

Keith Hubbard of JKH Music has kindly offered his recording studio for the upcoming "Let’s Bring Back the Merseybeat Stage to Liverpool" track. 

Producing The Best In Live & Recorded Entertainment. www.jkhmusic.co.uk