Ian's lovely wife Betty
Edwards has been kind enough to let us have some
never before released photos of Ian in
Germany.
Band
History:
The
Zodiacs were originally formed in 1958 as a
"Trad jazz" band. In 1960 Ian Edwards joined the band as
singer/guitarist and they changed their format to Rock n
Roll.
Ian and the band
played may of the popular venues of the time including
the OPB,
The Litherland Town
Hall and of course the
Cavern.
They quickly
established a reputation as a quality act and Ian's
distinctive voice set them apart from many of the pure
Rock bands of the day.
Following in the
footsteps of Kingsize Taylor and the
Dominoes and the Beatles they
arrived in Hamburg in 1964 and were an immediate hit with
the local German population, appearing on German TV,
cutting their first records and becoming major stars
(they were supposed to stay for a few weeks and didn't
really leave for three years).
They were featured on the "This is
MerseyBeat Album" including their version of
"It Ain’t
Necessarily So" and"Beechwood
45789".
In 1965 they made a
number of visits to Germany issuing three LPs and
two singles. They released a track called "The
Crying Game" (from their album) in the US where
it sold over 250,000 copies.
Ian
and Betty Edwards with Jackie Lomax
1964
The band disbanded in 1967, but Ian came
back to the music in later years reforming the band with
some excellent German musicians includingManfred Jungwho
played on Ian's last gigs in
Germany.
Ian
and the Zodiacs Germany
1965
Ian played at
Merseycats on a number of occasions and his last
appearance was sadly just a few weeks before he passed
away in October 2007.
Manfred who has visited Merseycats with his
band "The Roaring
Fourties" has kindly sent some photos of Ian and
the band taken on his last visit to
Germany.
Ian
Edwards' Last Performance at MerseyCats -
2007
We have compiled a
collection of audios and videos featuring Ian and the band
to remind us of just how good a performer he
was.
