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Ian Haskayne

Merseybeat Nostalgia

About Merseybeat

The musical influence in Liverpool in the late 1950’s was British recording artist Lonnie Donegan who started the skiffle boom. It didn’t last very long as many newly formed skiffle groups turned to rock ‘n’ roll, the most well known being The Beatles who where just one of 100’s of groups performing at dance halls and ‘Jive Hives’ in and around Merseyside, the most famous being ‘The Cavern Club’ which started out as a jazz club but, after some resistance, changed over to rock ‘n’ roll. Not all clubs changed to playing this type of music, some groups played Country and Western, others went into Folk music therefore various music styles made up the ‘Mersey Sound’. Some of these groups recordings have been included on the site. There was also versatility within the groups the line-up wasn’t just a singer and backing musicians, listen to the recordings on the site different group members singing to vary the sounds produced, The Dennisons - Ray Scragge with his husky voice singing ‘Walkin’ The Dog’ is a good example of a different group members taking lead vocals.

One thing to remember, when the recordings where produced, the sophisticated studio equipment in use today was not available and most recordings were made from 1 or 2 ‘takes’, playing and singing at the same time, this must be kept in mind when listening to the music.

Please note, the music on this site is played through Real Player

’Mersey Beat’ front cover is reproduced by kind permission of Bill Harry