My early years 1962-1969 in Liverpool

My introduction to music was listening to Lonnie Donegan, a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the "King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. I also listened to pretty much anything from America, although there wasn’t much of that available at the time, except on Radio Luxembourg.

There were two music shops in Liverpool one was Frank Hessy’s in Stanley Street.

All the local musicians would frequent it because they would have all the popular guitars of the time typically from America, perfect for the local groups and musicians including The Beatles and all the Merseybeat bands to see all these amazing instruments.

The other was Rushworth and Draper’s music store

Much more geared for the orchestral musician, but they did have a guitar section and a red Fender Stratocaster in the window, I would stand there with my nose on the glass praying one day I could buy one.  

Before The Beatles became popular my favourite English band at the time was The Shadows. An instrumental group who played Fender guitars and that was good enough for me.

After buying their albums I would spend hours learning all the melodies they created, and Hank Marvin, the lead guitarist would use the tremolo arm on the guitar to bend the notes, something that was so innovative at the time, it sounded terrific.

I taught myself the guitar by learning the skiffle songs, because they were the easiest, usually only using three chords.

I was glued to the radio hoping to hear my heroes play and give me another song to learn. So, after a lot of blisters and practise I decided to find other people to start a band of  my own.

Around 1962 I formed The Minibeasts, and we would play at village Halls and summer fetes.  We were too young for the night clubs. We weren’t very good, but we were very enthusiastic.

Me with my Beatle haircut cut and my first electric guitar a Futurama, which I have today.                  

The Minibeats backstage at the Crane Theatre with Ken Dodd probably around 1963

From left to right Norman, Robert, Ken Dodd, me, and Phil.

Inevitably we outgrew The Minibeats tag, Robert left and with a new band member, Martin Lawrence we became “The Spoken Word” around 1964, a covers band playing all the hit songs of the day. – no idea who suggested the name, but it stuck. Now playing at various local clubs and theatres including the world-famous Cavern, we finally felt we were progressing.

“Spoken Word” at Liverpool University gig 1967. I bought my Rickenbacker from Hessy’s music shop, after Martin bought the Futurama from me.

The Cavern Club, where we played many times and have our name on the Cavern wall to prove it.

An afternoon gig at a school fete.

Phil, the bass player went to university, so we had to rethink our future. We soon re-formed with three new members, Dave on flute, Jimmy on vocals and Tim on keyboards as White Summer a prog rock band. We carried on working at all the clubs in the Northwest, but we were now playing Jimi Hendrix tracks and less of the chart songs.

There was so much comradery between the bands, and we would meet regularly for chats about the newest guitars and where we were playing next. We would sometimes play three gigs a day and end up at the Cavern for one of our chats. We would often see group vans crisscrossing the town on their way to the next gig. It was hard work, but we loved it.

Sadly, with the rise of discos, the gigs for live bands started to disappear in favour of DJs. So, another chapter was soon upon us, and decisions had to be made…