Randolph Peter Best is an English musician known as the drummer of the English rock band the Beatles who was dismissed immediately prior to the band achieving worldwide fame. Fired from the group in 1962 after playing drums as a Beatle for the previous two years in Germany and England, he started his own band, the Pete Best Four. He later joined and started many bands over the years. He is one of several people who have been referred to as a fifth Beatle.
Gerry and the Pacemakers were a British beat group prominent in the 1960s Merseybeat scene. In common with the Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein, and were recorded by George Martin. Their early successes alongside the Beatles were instrumental in popularizing the Merseybeat sound and launching the wider British beat boom of the mid-1960s.
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffle, traditional pop and music hall. It rose to mainstream popularity in the UK and Europe by 1963 before spreading to the North America in 1964 with the British Invasion. The beat style had a significant impact on popular music and youth culture, from 1960s movements such as garage rock, folk rock and psychedelic music to 1970s punk rock and 1990s Britpop.
Big in Japan were a punk band that emerged from Liverpool, England in the late 1970s. They are better known for the later successes of their band members than for their own music.
Rory Storm was an English musician and vocalist. Born in Liverpool, Storm was the singer and leader of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, a Liverpudlian band who were contemporaries of The Beatles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Ringo Starr was the drummer for the Hurricanes before joining the Beatles in August 1962.
Mersey Beat was a music publication in Liverpool, England in the early 1960s. It was founded by Bill Harry, who was one of John Lennon's classmates at Liverpool Art College. The paper carried news about all the local Liverpool bands, and stars who came to town to perform.
Kaiserkeller is a music club in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg, Germany, near the Reeperbahn. It was opened by Bruno Koschmider on 14 October 1959. The Beatles had a contract with Kaiserkeller to play there in 1960.
The Swinging Blue Jeans are a four-piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hit singles with the HMV label: "Hippy Hippy Shake", "Good Golly Miss Molly", and "You're No Good", issued in 1964. Subsequent singles released that year and the next made no impression. In 1966, their version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Don't Make Me Over" peaked at no. 31 in the UK Singles Chart, but the group never charted again.
Ged Peck was an English musician who played in several bands - mainly backing work with Billy Fury, Vince Eager, Tommy Quickly when he was managed by Brian Epstein, Americans Bob & Earl who had a hit single with Harlem Shuffle, The Flower Pot Men, the Pirates, singers Marsha Hunt, Billie Davis, Screaming Lord Sutch and David Garrick, whilst doing numerous studio sessions.
The Big Three were a Merseybeat group from Liverpool. They are best known for their 1963 recording of "Some Other Guy" and their close connection to the Beatles.
The Top Ten Club was a music club in Hamburg's St. Pauli district at Reeperbahn 136, which opened on 31 October 1960 and kept its name until 1994.
Ambrose Reynolds is an English musician and artist who formed part of the 1970s and 1980s musical scene in Liverpool, playing bass in various bands.
The Koobas were an English beat group from Liverpool. Their music, and their early history, is similar in some ways to that of fellow Liverpudlians The Beatles, though they never achieved widespread popularity.
The original lineup of the Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best regularly performed at different clubs in Hamburg, West Germany, during the period from August 1960 to December 1962; a chapter in the group's history which honed their performance skills, widened their reputation, and led to their first recording, which brought them to the attention of Brian Epstein.
Shotgun Express was a short-lived British R&B band formed in London in May 1966. Although it achieved little success at the time, it is notable for having briefly included such subsequently famous musicians as Rod Stewart, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green and Peter Bardens.
Beryl Marsden is a British R&B and pop singer, who first came to notice on the Liverpool club scene of the early 1960s. She recorded a number of "powerful and soulful", but unsuccessful, records, and has been described as "undeservedly neglected".
Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes were a British rock and roll band, formed in Liverpool in the late 1950s. One of the first beat groups in the Merseyside area, they were a locally popular and influential group who were contemporaries and rivals of The Beatles, and featured Cilla Black as a guest singer before her solo career, but had little commercial success except in Germany.
Howard William Casey is a British rhythm and blues and rock saxophonist. He came to prominence in the early 1960s as a member of Derry and the Seniors, the first rock and roll band from Liverpool to play clubs in Germany, and later as leader of the renamed Howie Casey and the Seniors, the first Liverpool group to record an LP. He was a sought after session musician, particularly in horn sections in the 1970s, recording and/or touring with groups including Paul McCartney and Wings, T. Rex, The Who and ABC.
Lee Curtis and the All-Stars were a beat group from Liverpool. They were contemporaries and briefly local rivals of the Beatles in the early 1960s. Led by Peter Flannery, who used the stage name Lee Curtis, other group members included Pete Best and Wayne Bickerton.
Brian Casser is a British singer and guitarist. He led the first notable beat group in Liverpool, Cass and the Cassanovas, who were early rivals of The Beatles in the city. He later led another group, Casey Jones and the Engineers, which was one of Eric Clapton's first bands, and then, as leader of Casey Jones and the Governors, became successful in Germany in the mid-1960s.
