Bob Stanley Presents Liverpool Sunset - The City after Merseybeat 1964-1969

‘Waterloo Sunset’ is now regarded as the greatest song about London. It comes as a shock, then, to discover it was originally about another city altogether. Watching acts who had been huge stars just three years earlier but now couldn’t buy a hit – the Searchers, Billy J Kramer, Gerry and the Pacemakers – the Kinks’ Ray Davies wrote ‘Liverpool Sunset’ in sympathy.

Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley, with comprehensive sleeve-notes, Liverpool Sunset investigates a thrilling but overlooked era in the city’s musical history, covering soul, R&B, psychedelia and freakbeat.

As this collection makes clear, the city was still producing new acts in the late 60s, and still making great records, it was just that the world had started looking elsewhere for its musical fix.

By 1965 the Iron Door club, once the Searchers’ Merseybeat home, was beginning to host soul all-nighters where local band the Chants were often on the bill. The Cavern was by now hosting the likes of Solomon Burke, Stevie Wonder and Ben E King.

All of this music was an inspiration to the next wave of Liverpool acts such as Just Four Men, Tiffany’s Thoughts and the Clayton Squares. The latter were so highly regarded that breaking out nationally seemed a formality: they had two singles released on Decca, a six-week stint in Hamburg, a Ready Steady Go performance, and management by both the Cavern’s owner Bob Wooler and London tough-nut Don Arden.

Liverpool Sunset also includes overlooked tracks by some of the original Merseybeat stars: Billy J Kramer’s soulful ‘We’re Doing Fine’ deserves to be better known, and Cilla Black’s wildly odd ‘Abyssinian Secret’ in 1968 was considered too outré by Parlophone and ended up buried on an EP. Adventurousness wasn’t an issue. Joe Meek produced both the Cryin’ Shames and Billy Fury’s brother Jason Eddie, while McGough and McGear had Jimi Hendrix helping out on the terrific psych-pop So ‘Much To Love’.

Here are two dozen lost gems; 60s Liverpool classics once hidden now uncovered...

1. IT'S A CRIME - The Kirkbys

2. FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING –Tiffany with the Thoughts

3. NOBODY LIKE MY BABE - The Dennisons

4. JUST TO BE WITH YOU – Johnny Gustafson (aka Johnny Gus & Johnny Gus Set)

5. IT'S ALMOST GOOD - Eddie Cave & the FYX

6. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHISPER - The Dimensions

7. WHATCHA GONNA DO – Jason Eddie & the Centremen

8. DON'T LET A LITTLE PRIDE (STAND IN YOUR WAY) – Billy Fury

9. IMAGINATION - The Clayton Squares

10. COME ON BACK - Paul & Ritchie & the Crying Shames

11. NEVER LEAVE YOUR BABY'S SIDE - Tony Jackson

12. THE CAT - The Merseys

13. ATMOSPHERES – The Wimple Winch

14. SO MUCH TO LOVE - McGough & McGear

15. MICHAELANGELO - 23rd Turnoff

16. SUMMER COMES SUNDAY - Swinging Blue Jeans

17. A MAN WITHOUT A FACE - The Chants

18. ABYSSINIAN SECRET - Cilla Black

19. WE'RE DOING FINE - Billy J Kramer & the Dakotas

20. COME ON - The Carrolls

21. CONSTANTLY CHANGING - The Koobas

22. GIRL ON THE CORNER - Focal Point

23. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME - Crackers

24. INTO MY LIFE SHE CAME - The Penny Peeps