Post by yerblues1968 on Mar 30, 2011 22:35:46 GMT -5
Gerry Marsden (center)
GERRY WILL NEVER PERFORM ALONE
KIMBERLEY CRAYTON-BROWN
Last updated 05:00 31/03/2011
A member of Liverpool's music royalty arrived in Invercargill yesterday pleased that, so far, he hadn't been in trouble with anyone.
"That's unusual for me."
Gerry Marsden, frontman for Gerry and the Pacemakers, said in the four months of the year he toured he and his wife divided their time between homes in Liverpool, Spain and Anglesea.
"We are wandering gypsies, going from house to house. I love Spain because I love the weather, I love the people, I love the food and I love the Spanish wine."
Formed in 1959, Gerry and the Pacemakers was the first act to reach No 1 in the UK singles chart with their first three single releases – How Do You Do It, I Like It, and You'll Never Walk Alone.
Gerry and The Pacemakers in the 1960s.
The band held on to the record until Frankie Goes To Hollywood equaled their success in the 1980s.
Liverpool was rocking in the 60s, Marsden said, and another of the famous Mersey Beat bands had close ties to Gerry and the Pacemakers – the Beatles.
Not only did they share the same manager, Brian Epstein, but Marsden and John Lennon were best friends.
"We had the same sense of humour and the same disrespect for anything in authority," Marsden said. "I miss him and wish he was still alive. He was killed too early in his life."
Marsden said they had eight or nine years playing concerts with the Beatles before they got "a break like the boys did".
"We never intended making records until Brian Epstein met us and said `I'm going to make a star of you all'.
We thought `sod off, you've got no chance'," Marsden said. "But we got some record deals, and from then it took off."
Initially Marsden expected the band to last five to six years.
"And then nobody would want to know anything about Gerry and the Pacemakers. Thank God it didn't work that way, we just carried on touring."
And more than 50 years later, the band is still touring and will perform to a sold-out crowd at the Civic Theatre in Invercargill tonight.
"I get such a joy on stage. I play golf, I fish, I jetski, but I don't get the same joy as entertaining," he said. "If I retired I wouldn't know what the bloody hell to do."
With many hits to choose from, the band is best know for their recording of the Broadway song Carousel.
"I recorded it because I like the tune and I enjoyed the lyrics. I wanted to have a ballad in the top 20 because I thought, if I could get one into the charts, I could do more. When the record was No.1 at Anfield [the Liverpool Football Club home ground] they were playing the top 10 before kickoff."
Fans continued singing You'll Never Walk Alone even when it dropped from the top 10, and it is still the Liverpool anthem.
Gerry and the Pacemakers - "You'll Never Walk Alone." (2:42 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7zWtQagdMY
"On special occasions I go on the pitch and sing it. When 90,000 people are singing it it is a hair-raising experience. But they are singing it better than me and that's the bastard."
- The Southland Times
www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/4829839/Gerry-will-never-perform-alone