THE LONG TWILIGHT IN LIVERPOOL (2025): After the legends left

 |   |  2 min read

Imagination, by Clayton Squares
THE LONG TWILIGHT IN LIVERPOOL (2025): After the legends left

Many years ago an interesting but hardly essential compilation What About Us? pulled together material by Liverpool bands (the Chants, Koobas, Johnny Sandon etc) and also-rans like Tommy Quickly in the years of Beatle-led Merseybeat.

71322_oOcxL._SL1000_It was a bit of fun but few of the songs leaped to attention as lost classics from the era. 

A more recent collection compiled Bob Stanley of St Etienne picks up where What About Us? left off, the artists from Liverpool who remained in the city after the Beatles and others set themselves up in London and the wave of aspiring managers and record company people felt that particular Merseybeat mine had been tapped out.

What is apparent from the collection – subtitled The City After Merseybeat 1964-1969 – is that there were some inventive artists who were were racing to keep up with the changes, new sounds and directions pop was going.

814_zAV1VyL._SL1500_So here is Stones-like fuzz guitar on the Kirkby's garageland raver It's A Crime and something approaching dramatic R'n'B prog from the Koobas on Constantly Changing.

It's A Crime, by The Kirkbys
 

There is Donovan-influenced psychedelic folk on Michelangelo by The 23rd Turnoff which was the Kirkby band under another name, again cruelly overlooked.

Michaelangelo, by The 23rd Turnoff

So small echoes of the Zombies, Spencer Davis soul (Imagination by Clayton Squares, Come on Back by Paul and Ritchie) and an early hint of dream pop by Focal Point with Girl on the Corner.

There are certainly ambitious bands here, notably Wimple Witch with Atmospheres which is fuzzbox and soul with shimmering avant-psychedelia.

Atmospheres, by Wimple Witch
 

Among the better known names are the Swinging Blue Jeans (who'd had hits with Hippy Hippy Shake, Good Golly Miss Molly) who go the soft-pop route on Summer Comes Sunday, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas getting a bit pop-soul of the serviceable We're Doing Fine . . . and Cilla Black with the peculiar Abyssinian Secret (what is behind that locked door?).

Abyssinian Secrets, by Cilla Black

But none of these bands or artists had much relevant longevity (aside from Cilla), for the familiar reason that few – other then the Kirkbys/23rd Turnoff – had in-house writers.

And the focus had shifted from Liverpool to London, then back to America with Bob Dylan, the Byrds and the psychedelic sounds coming out of the West Coast.

It would be a decade – during which the Beatles' star fell in the public imagination – before Liverpool would re-emerge as a contender with bands like Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen, Wah! Heat and others.

But Liverpool Sunset offers a postcard from home. 

.

This exact album isn't out there digitally at the time of writing but on Spotify someone has posted a version which is worth finding. See here

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Absolute Elsewhere articles index

WILLIS EARL BEAL INTERVIEWED (2013): The reluctant Nobody who knows

WILLIS EARL BEAL INTERVIEWED (2013): The reluctant Nobody who knows

In that broad spectrum of characters, craziness and genius in popular culture – from Mormon rockers to gun-carrying hip-hoppers – Willis Earl Beal is unique. And it's not for his... > Read more

THE FACES ANTHOLOGY (2012): A Rod's as Good as a Drink

THE FACES ANTHOLOGY (2012): A Rod's as Good as a Drink

Making records wasn't the point of the Faces – aka just “Faces” – although they delivered four albums in the five years to 1975. Certainly Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

GUEST WRITER MADELINE BOCARO revisits Sparks' classic album Kimono My House on its 40th anniversary

GUEST WRITER MADELINE BOCARO revisits Sparks' classic album Kimono My House on its 40th anniversary

We have found the missing link between Sparks and Alvin & the Chipmunks! To some, the two groups are considered the most annoying of all time, but that’s not it. Come On-A My... > Read more

THE BARGAIN BUY: Creedence Clearwater Revival; CCR + Cosmo's Factory

THE BARGAIN BUY: Creedence Clearwater Revival; CCR + Cosmo's Factory

In the course of a long and good-humoured interview some years ago, John Fogerty of Creedence told me that back in their heyday his pals in hippie-era bands would note enviously that CCR could get... > Read more