Liverpool Five - The Best Of

Amazing story of Britbeat abroad in the 60s

As a hard-working band of Londoners, the Liverpool Five’s youthful imagination is really only hinted at by their chosen moniker. Their particular brand of adventurousness didn’t really translate on to vinyl: they’re super-tight pros, but far from original. It’s the band’s story of roaming the world as missionaries of the Brit Sound that is surely unique, and well worth the telling.

Graduating from the clubs of London and Germany to cash in as welcome Anglo moptops in the Far East (the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games was quite a gig to score) the group then took up their big-thinking manager’s idea of leading the Brit Invasion of the West Coast as residents rather than tourists. The daring move makes for shedloads of great anecdotes, and a CD of cleverly chosen lesser-hit covers ranging in sound from Them (minus Van)-ish R&B through to Paul Revere & The Raiders’ garage-pop.

She’s Mine is the single true gem: it’s one of only three self-written numbers (all highlights), a muscular pounder recorded in Nashville, which accounts for the colossal, shimmering solo. But, hey, let’s talk film rights.

Sundazed | SC 11158

Reviewed by Derek Hammond
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