Gerry and the Pacemakers
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| Gerry and The Pacemakers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information | ||
| Origin | Liverpool, England | |
| Type(s) of music | Beat, Rock, Pop, British Invasion | |
| Years active | 1959-1966 | |
| Label(s) | Columbia (EMI) in the UK; Laurie Records in the US | |
| Former members | ||
| Gerry Marsden Freddie Marsden Arthur Mack Les Chadwick Les Maguire |
||
Gerry and The Pacemakers were an English rock and roll group during the 1960s. Like The Beatles, they came from Liverpool and were also managed by Brian Epstein.
[change] Gerry and the Pacemakers
Gerry Marsden was born on September 24, 1942 in Liverpool, England. His brother, Freddie, was born on October 23, 1940 in Liverpool. They formed a musical group called The Mars Bars, with Gerry playing guitar and Freddie the drums, but they later had to change their name to The Pacemakers because of a threatened lawsuit by the Mars candy company. Les Chadwick (born John Leslie Chadwick) was born on May 11, 1943 in Liverpool. He originally worked as a bank clerk before joining the band in 1959. He was their lead guitarist before later changing to bass. Les Maguire (born Leslie Maguire) was born on December 27, 1941 in Wallasey-Cheshire, and he joined the band in 1960 after the group's original piano player, Arthur McMahon, left the group. The Pacemakers were the second band to be managed by Brian Epstein, who was also The Beatles' manager. (They were discovered by Brian at The Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1962, as had The Beatles been before them.) Their first three singles in 1963 ("How Do You Do It?", "I Like It" and "You'll Never Walk Alone") all went straight to number one on the charts, a feat that was unbeaten until recently. The band enjoyed great success between 1963-1966, even releasing a very successful full length feature film through United Artists in 1965 called Ferry Cross The Mersey, based on the song written by Gerry. The song made Liverpool's ferries world famous. Gerry also wrote 8 other original songs for the film. "[Our] songs were happy, the music simple and the lyrics nice to listen to," Gerry recently commented. "We didn't try to change the world." The group broke up in 1967, and Gerry went on to another career in acting and musical theater. He reformed The Pacemakers (with different members) in 1972. Gerry's autobiography, You'll Never Walk Alone, was published in 1993. Original Pacemaker Freddie Marsden passed away on December 9, 2006, at 66 years of age.
