Whatever Happened to Gerry Marsden

The name Gerry Marsden might not ring a bell to most people these days, but if you are old enough to take yourself back to the early 1960's, the time when the Merseysound or Merseybeat rules the radio waves, you couldn't listen for long before a song was played by Gerry And The Pacemakers, which featured Gerry Marsden on guitar and lead vocals, and which was the second most successful band to come out of Liverpool, behind the Beatles.

Like all musicians from the early 60's, Gerry Marsden is now getting on in age. He was born in Liverpool on 24^th September 1942,

Gerry's music career began when his father bought him an acoustic guitar, and he formed a Skittle band, Skiffle being the rage in the UK at the time, with big names like Lonnie Donegan.

It wasn't long before Gerry bought his first electric guitar, and Skittle gave way to Rock n Roll, and the band got their name "Gerry And The Pacemakers".

Before long, the band built up a strong Merseyside following, and were at one time bigger than The Beatles. Like The Beatles, they played at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg and at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.

In 1962, Brian Epstein became their manager, as well as that of The Beatles, and stardom was imminent.

With hits like How Do You Do It ,which was originally given to The Beatles and which became their first number one hit, Ferry Cross The Mersey and Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, Gerry And The Pacemakers were consistently in the pop charts alongside The Beatles and other great Liverpool bands of the time, and in fact were the first band to have a number one hit with each of their first three singles.

Their second number one hit was surprisingly enough a Rogers and Hammerstein song from Carousel, You'll Never Walk Alone, which became (and still is) the anthem of Liverpool Football Club and is sung before every home game at Anfield Stadium.

The Pacemakers disbanded in 1966 after their popularity declined, after which Gerry starred from 1968-1971 in the West End musical Charlie Girl, but then faded out of the pop scene until the 1980's.

After the tragic fire during a game at Bradford Football Club in 1985 which left 56 people dead, Gerry formed a group called "The Crowd" together with other musicians and disk jockeys and they recorded a new version of You'll Never Walk Alone for charity.

After another horrific football stadium tragedy in 1989, this time at Hillsborough Football Ground, where 96 people were killed, he joined together with Paul McCartney and other Liverpool musicians to re-record Ferry Cross The Mersey.

Gerry Marsden published his autobiography in 1993, which was appropriately titled You'll Never Walk Alone,

Over the years Gerry Marsden has done a lot of work for charity, and in 2003 he was awarded an MBE (Member Of The British Empire) and the freedom of the city of Liverpool.

Gerry And The Pacemakers recently reformed, but not with the original band members other than Gerry, and are currently touring the UK having had a sell out tour in Canada in May 2010. They are also set to tour Australia and New Zealand in 2011.

Sources:

Gerry And The Pacemakers Official Web Site

Gerry Marsden (Wikipedia)

Merseybeat Nostalgia