SOME OTHER GUYS 2021 REVISED EDITION - AN ANTHOLOGY OF 'SOME OTHER GROUPS' THAT HELPED CREATE THE 1960's 'MERSEY SOUND'

An unfortunate by-product of The Beatles is that the most influential period of British music (that of Merseybeat) is represented only through the plethora of books about them. That aberration needed attending to, which is exactly what Manfred Kuhlmann has done.Volume 1,  Beat Waves 'Cross the Mersey , of this exhaustive delve into the people that made up Merseybeat looked at 164 groups and solo singers. In addition, there was a list of line-ups to another hundred more and an A-Z at the back that mentioned a further 344 groups active in the area. Of those 444 names, nine are featured in this revised and expanded edition of ‘Some Other Guys’ alongside a narrative of 101 others, with another 133 names and line-ups tagged on at the end. The last 50 pages is a collection of adverts, business cards and promo photos. The main body of text is also liberally spread with group photographs and mouth watering acetates.In addition to those extra groups, there’s an intriguing five pages that looks at a possible [unreleased] third volume of Oriole’s ‘This Is Merseybeat’ of which a dozen artists claim to have been recorded by Oriole and filmed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Will we ever know?Not only did the near incestuous revolving door policy regarding group members not do them any favours, as in the previous volume some of the names left something to be desired, being probably too suggestive or too long; witness The Vibrators and The Climaks, both 15 years before punk, or Gerry Bach & The Beathovens, and Gene Day & The Django-Beats. No doubt The LSD didn't get further than recording two tracks for an acetate for the obvious reason, whilst The Daleks would in all probability have had their name exterminated by the BBC.Two artists, Tommy Quickly and Johnny Sandon, both had a decent mention in volume one (as lead singer with the Remo Four) but get their own section here, including repeated discographies. However, whereas in volume one I was familiar with many of the groups/artists mentioned, in some respects this second volume is better than the first in that, bar the two aforementioned vocalists, all the names are completely new to me (and, I would suspect, you). A possible minor aberration is the inclusion of groups such as Focal Point, The Timebox, and The Perfumed Garden, who didn't record or release anything until the late 60s so might be considered to be outside the scope of this book, but as they were active during the heyday, I'm just nitpicking. (For those of us who have the first edition, the additional group names should have been given an asterisk or some annotation, so we know.)Though you won't need even all the fingers of one hand to count the names here that went on to better things (Jo(h)n Anderson of Yes is one; Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington wrote some huge hits in the 70s, and the singer of Hobo Rick & The Cityslingers is actor Ricky Tomlinson), everyone mentioned here played their part, however insignificant it may seem, in Britain's (if not the world's) greatest musical revolution, though the reasons why most never got anywhere is patently obvious, either joining the party too late or not evolving musically - then again, it wouldn't have been 'Merseybeat' I guess. This is another superb reference book.Once again, many of the groups here recorded demos, a smattering of which found their way onto a trio of official releases ('Unearthed Merseybeat') a few years ago, but to compliment these two excellent books, five CDs with 106 tracks (most of which were originally just found on acetates) from some of the groups featured over these two volumes have now been officially issued on Merseyside Records, although sadly, none are available (to date) via Amazon. If you’re a student of the era, they are essential listening. Beat Waves 'Cross the Mersey

May be seen by some as just a directory of 60's Merseyside 'also ran' groups but fascinating for those who were there or interested in that era

Good reference of the era, I am pleased to be included in this edition so have a personal interest.