SUSSEX SOUNDS: Gerry is still making pace after 50 years

From the smoky docks of Liverpool obscurity to worldwide acclaim, Gerry Marsden has become synonymous with the Merseyside music scene and remains a cultural icon of the swinging decade.

Not dissimilar from The Beatles’ journey, there are many comparisons between Gerry and the Pacemakers with the Fab Four, but what many forget is that Gerry and his band, including brother Freddie, rose to fame when Beatlemania was still considered a term for a stampede of belligerent bugs.

I ask Gerry about their first single, which also became a number one hit. The history books tell me that it was originally intended for The Beatles, but the 71-year-old clarifies that it was offered to a London-based teen idol first.

“No, it was originally for Adam Faith and Adam didn’t like it, it was then offered to The Beatles and John didn’t like it, and then Brian Epstein, my manager, said Gerry do you want to do this record? I said yeah, just so I could get on a record, then I could say to people, look I made this one record,” he admits.

This record turned out to be ‘How Do You Do It?’, It was released in 1963 and became Gerry’s first number one as well as Brian Epstein’s.

“It went to number one and I thought Jesus Christ, so I rung John Lennon up and said, hey John you know that song you didn’t like? He said, yeah. I said it’s gonna be number one on Friday (laughs). He said strange things which I can’t mention on the phone.

We both erupt into laughter and amid our chortling I ask if John was genuinely annoyed by the single’s success.

“They were p***** off because their first record went to number 17 - so we beat them to it,” he adds.

Born and raised in South Liverpool, Toxteth in 1942. The city was known for its seaport that dealt with cargo from across the globe. Gerry as a child would stroll along the Albert Docks and hear music emanating from the local pubs.

“There was all different types of music and different types of singing,” recalls Gerry. “Mainly all from the ships that came into the Liverpool docks and I think that’s what started all the bands. It was like living in a musical city.”

When forming his band - born from the skiffle craze. Gerry and the Mars Bars, soon changed their names to the Pacemakers after a lawsuit was threatened by the Mars Bar company.

Hamburg was calling and like his good friends The Beatles (who at this stage included Sutcliffe and Best, but no Ringo), Gerry took to the German music hub to work the dark and bustling night club scene.

“A few of us went over and played for two or three months. We came back to Liverpool and said to other bands, if you wanna play somewhere good get to Hamburg, it’s great fun.

“There was a great apprenticeship. You went on stage from seven in the evening, until two in the morning with a 15 minute break every hour. So that was great - you learnt to play, you learnt to sing, you learnt to chat and the Germans are great people.”

The good times did not stop there, however, as Gerry reminisces about painting the town red with John Lennon after a long shift.

“We’d come off stage at two in the morning and John Lennon would come round to me and say, let’s go out. John and I would then go around the clubs after working all night,” he says.

Gerry explains that John was ‘great fun’ because they shared the same sense of humour and were both ‘mental’.

Under Brian Epstein, who also famously managed The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers had their first number one hit back in the UK and were soon to break a national record with their next two consecutive singles, ‘I like It’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, also going straight to number one, something The Beatles never accomplished.

I ask if Brian Epstein, who was still new to the game, saw Gerry as a big gamble or vice versa.

“He was taking a gamble giving us a record and we thought we’ll try that and just b***** do it. God bless him, he made it right and he became one of the best managers in the country,” he says.

Gerry refers to Brian as a ‘lovely, truthful man’ who dressed smartly and was a great orator.

“I wish he was alive today,” he adds.

On August 26 1967, Brian Epstein overdosed on sleeping pills and was found dead in London. The Liverpudlian recalls hearing the shocking news.

“I was in Bangor in Wales, and The Beatles were in a university with the Maharishi Yogi. I heard about two o’clock in the morning that Brian had died from my doctor who was the same as Brian’s and I thought, oh s***!

“I went down to London to check it all out. Very, very sad, but we can’t live forever,” says Gerry with a sigh.

Trekking back a few years, I mention Gerry and the band’s big splash at the movies, with their only film ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ in 1965.

As MTV had not burst onto our screens until the ‘80s, the music video had not been invented, so Gerry explains that a movie back then was the best way to promote your music with a visual.

“We thought it will go all over the world, which it did. It went to America, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and it was just a 90 minute video with as many songs as we could fit in and crap stories (laughs).”

Since the band disbanded in 1966, Gerry has taken on the West End by storm and seen his music revive and reach the number one spot twice in the ‘80s to raise funds for the Bradford Football Club stadium tragedy, in which 56 people were killed and later the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 lost their lives.

“We did ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ for Bradford and when Hillsborough happened we did ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ so we could help the people there. Both were very dramatic for those involved and we made a lot of money, and hope we helped lots and lots of people,” he says.

Before this sudden resurgence of the Pacemakers, Gerry was to lose a good friend who he had known since his teenage years in Liverpool, struggling for success.

“I was in bed and I got a phone call about six or seven in the morning from a newsroom which told that John Lennon had just been shot. I said, what?

“I went back to sleep - crazy. Then I woke up about eight and my wife said, who was that on the phone this morning? I said, Christ, John Lennon’s dead. Weird feeling,” he adds.

Still touring across the world every year, Gerry will be coming to Worthing Assembly on October 16 and Crawley Hawth Theatre on November 29 to play his greatest hits.

To book tickets go to www.worthingtheatres.co.uk or www.parkwoodtheatres.co.uk for Crawley.