1st Souvenir MerseyCats Poster Published

Its Gonna Be A Hard Days Night All Over Again This is the first  in a collectors series of posters commemorating each of the Merseycats show at the Hard days Night Hotel. Each poster has a limited run of 500 copies, so place you order before it's too late. Each poster in the series will be in a different colour scheme, making them eminently  collectable and wall hang able. Click the picture to see a bigger and version of the poster  and to purchase (9.99 inc P&P) the first in an amazing collection. Watch Videos of Mike Byrne & The SunRockers Tempest Ricky Gleason & The Topspots

HARD DAYS NIGHT HOTEL FORMS MERSEYCATS PARTNERSHIP

MERSEYCATS 20^th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS START AT HOTEL

PRESS CALL 11.00AM, WEDNESDAY 15th JULY 2009, HARD DAYS NIGHT HOTEL, NORTH JOHN STREET, LIVERPOOL, L2 6RR

30 June 2009: Hard Days Night Hotel, Liverpool's four star Beatles-inspired boutique hotel, today announces a unique partnership with the world famous Merseycats fundraising organisation to celebrate it's 20th anniversary.

To launch the partnership, and the ongoing events, there will be personal appearances at Hard Days Night Hotel from Pete Best, formerly of the Beatles, and Billy Kinsley of the Merseybeats on Wednesday 15th July at 11.00am.

To celebrate the 20 successful years of fundraising for local children's charities, a series of exciting events will take place in Liverpool. Firstly, there will monthly shows taking place in the Zygmant Suite at Hard Days Night Hotel with the Merseycats providing live bands from the 60s on a regular and ongoing basis. This will continue the famous Mersey Sound in Mathew Street. Adding to this, the Merseycats anniversary shows in 2009 will also include:

·            29th   August: Casbah Club Celebrating it's 50th anniversary

·            30th   August: Mathew Street Festival (10 hour show at Hard Days Night Hotel)

·            9th  October: 20th Anniversary show at the Olympia (Ballroom Liverpool)

Jonathan Davies, Managing Director, Hard Days Night Hotel, commented: "We are proud that Hard Days Night Hotel is assisting in bringing back the music of 60s to Liverpool on a regular basis. Our city has music intertwined in its DNA and this partnership will ensure that music fans can once again regularly listen to the sounds of one of the most successful periods of British music."

Wally Shepard, Chairman of Merseycats,said: "Over the last 20 years we have raised over 300,000k  for charities including Alder Hey, Clare House, K.I.N.D, Variety Club and many more. The partnership with Hard Days Night Hotel will allow us to increase fundraising for worthwhile of causes whilst also keeping the spirit of Mersey Beat well and truly alive. We cannot wait for all our 20th anniversary celebrations and we are grateful to Pete and Billy for attending on 15th July at Hard Days Night Hotel."

MerseyCats Go You Tube

 Out-take's, Cock Ups and All

The MerseyCats server is creaking at the edges with over 2 gigabytes of video. Therefore as I've recently found a much quicker way of uploading our videos to You Tube, over the next few weeks I will be transferring all the videos over. This should make the site load more quickly and use up much less server space. I've dug out some out-take's, warm-up's and cock-ups which I've uploaded along with some great performances by Merseycats bands for your pleasure. At the end of the video below some of MerseyCats videos uploaded thus far together with some previously posted by various people will appear at the bottom of the video screen. For the complete list please click the link below the video.

MerseyCats on You Tube

George Harrison and the mystery of the missing Rickenbacker

Longtime Beatles friend and business associate  Tony Bramwell is on a quest for a missing guitar.

He is trying to recover the Rickenbacker electric guitar that was given to Jack Oliver, the former General Manager of Apple Records, in 1969 by George Harrison. No questions asked on its return.

Tony says, "In 1963, when George visited his sister Louise in the states, he bought a small Rickenbacker Guitar and was very proud of it. I had it painted black for him, to match John's. The only time I remember him using it was on the TV show 'Ready, Steady, Go.' In 1969, George gave it to Jack Oliver, and not long after, it was stolen. I would really like to know if anyone had seen it since." 

 

Want To Talk to John Lennon Right Now? 

I decided to re-launch Mersey Beat as a website at the end of the nineties. Much of this was as the result of my e-mail friendship with David Maggin, CEO of Triumph PC, a major American company whose sites included the John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project.  You'll have fun talking to this bot which is the world's first Cyber Beatle. Read on.

Is This The Best Depiction of a Beatle  and Liverpool?

You might have read my previous article about Shannon, the artist commissioned by    The Hard Days Night Hotel  to design some original artwork for the hotel, if not please click the link. Out of all her works of art I think this one stands out.

Click the picture to see a larger version.

For more information on Shannon, go to www.TheShannonGallery.com  .

    My Star Club Zoo! Maja's Latest Blog

My whole life revolved around  the Star Club morning noon and animals!  And I don't mean those R&R guys that I adored so much.  Those strange English boys or should I say the ones that came from Liverpool  just loved animals. I would take all the boys from the Star Club from groups like the Undertakers, Kingsize Taylor and  the Dominoes, Ricky Gleason and the Top Spots and Tom Dick and Harry to the Famous Sunday Fish Market in  Hamburg.    Read on

Apologies: The Underpants should have read the Domitakers or The Undernoes

I got told off this week by G eorge Eccles of the Dominoes for the misspelling of this week's star band which was mainly Dominoes with a flavour of the Undertakers . I was on temporary duty as the line up arranger for the night as Dave Myers was away in France and talk about a job that nobody in their right mind would do. Seven bands who all want the 9.20 slot and have to have it as the world ends at ten. Goodness knows what they must have been like in the sixties. Anyway managed to sort it and it was another great night. Colin Woodruff the drummer with the band was spotted in the loo after the set, mumbling "those Dominoes sure know how to work a drummer", once I'd helped him to his feet he seemed alright:) Anyway the Doms with Geoff Nugent guesting, just rock like no one else can, listen and see if you agree.

Sam  Kicks off with  Good Golly Miss Molly	Geoff starts in D, No B with You Never Ca n Tell
Big finish as  Geoff  rips into Sweet Little Sixteen	The Dominoes are Sam Ha rdie on Keyboards , Ken Shalliker on Hofner bass, George Eccles on Tobias Lead Guitar and Colin Woodruff drums with Guest artist Geoff Nugent of the Undertakers on Gibson guitar.
I'm a Believer - Beat Club with Lead guitar Steve Mahoney on Vocals
	The Boogey Men - Hard Headed Woman with some great lead guitar from Frank.
Next Show Announced at The Hard Days Night Hotel 12th July 7.30 til' late
....Three FAB Bands Mike Byrne & The Sun Rockers 50's Rock 'N' Roll at it's Best Tempest Smooth Operators Ricky Gleason & The TopSpots Blast From The Past ....Plus Special Guests Hard Days Night Price £5.00. MerseyCat members specially reduced price £2.00 pay at the door or or  der on line.   Click on the band's name to see videos of the acts  in action

Casbah Evening Show  SOLD OUT!

The 50th anniversary show at the Casbah consists of two sessions, afternoon and evening. I'm pleased to report that we have a full house for the evening show and the afternoon show tickets are going fast. So, if you want to be there on this momentous occasion,  book now before its too late. If you really wanted to see the evening session, we can put you on the cancellation list by emailing us at info@merseycats.com .  Visit the Casbah page for more details.

 MerseyCats at the St Helens Show

Merseycats have been invited to play at the St Helens Show which is on the 4th and 5th July. We will have our own stage and will be playing from 11. 00 a.m  through until 6.00 p.m on both days. Any bands who wish to be included, please email us at info@merseycats.com  or contact a committee member. More details shortly.

   Mathew Street Festival    Hard Days Night

A collectors piece in the making, this is the design for the tickets and posters for future shows at the Hard Days Night Hotel . The centre piece photographs from left to right show the John Lennon     Statue specially commissioned by The Hotel,  Karl Terry & the Cruisers    from 1962, a special painting of the boys by Shannon     , the centre pic is of course the fabulous  Undertakers    with sax player Brian Jones performing that enormous leap, Chris Huston      in the foreground and Merseycats favourite  Geoff Nugent      far right. Next on the right are  Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes with our very own Ken Shalliker   on the right and  John Frankland      in the middle with the guitar. Bottom left is a shot of  Jackie Lomax  from     the Undertakers   who went on to fame and fortune with Apple. The next photo shows the famous "Compere" of the Cavern the late   Bob Wooler   with     MerseyCats Chairman     Wally Shepard     and his lovely wife Kay     who is also a committee member.     Next are     Rory Storm and the Hurricanes      (Ringo's first band) who could not be left off the collage and finally bottom right, the view from outside  the Cavern   circa 1964. The film strips down either side of the graphic depict scenes from the Hard Days Night Hotel    and examples of the some of the fab artwork on show in the hotel. Thanks go to Bill Harry Founder of MERSEY      BEAT      magazine for his permission to use his trademark.

You can buy tickets for both shows at the Hard Days Night Hotel here.     Tickets are already going fast with a significant allocation for Hotel guests so act now and don't be disappointed.

HARD DAYS NIGHT HOTEL SHOWS - ONLINE PURCHASE

Sunday 12th July

Sunday 30th August

Tickets are priced at 5 pounds sterling plus 2.99 Credit Card  and Postage charges. Or email and reserve your tickets and call in at Cats night at the Old Roan any Thursday before the event.

     Special Hard Days Night Feature Page

An in depth look at our new venue, and some of its spectacular features in this Grade 2 listed building renovated at a cost of over 20 million pounds.  Read on

 Searchin Share Billing with Dean Friedman

As part of the Concerts in the Courtyard  series at Fort Perch New Brighton planned for July and August MerseyCats own Searchin'  have been chosen to support Dean Friedman (Ariel, Lucky Stars). The full schedule is shown on the poster. For a larger image click the poster.

 Back to Where We Once Belonged

Merseycats took the show on the road to the Paul McCartney Stage at the Cavern Club  Friday 1st May and produced some fabulous live performances from Tempest , Beat Club, The Clayton Squares and the Jam Band with a guest performance from Geoff Nugent of the Undertakers . Apologies to the Clayton Squares as the battery ran out on the video. See videos of the rest of the show here.

 Mersey Beat CD/DVDs

New CDs this month from Ricky Gleason & the Topspots and Shooter  . Ricky and the boys are selling their CD for £5 with 50% of the proceeds going to MerseyCats  .

Shooter is also priced at £5 with £1 going to MerseyCats   so dig deep and support the charity.

Here are a couple of tracks from Ricky's Album, if you would like to buy a copy please visit the band's website

www.rickyandthetopspots.co.uk

             Candy Man

         It's So Easy

            Just One Look

          Mustang Sally

Check Out All the Albums

Beryl Meets her Idol Maggie Bell

Beryl     pictured     here with Hubby Bernie   after finally meeting up with her idol Maggie Bell. Beryl and Bernie are members of Tempest

Casbah 29th August Update

The evening show is sold out, but still tickets available for the daytime session. The Pete Best band is now appearing in both shows.

For more details of the line up and how to purchase tickets click the image or  follow this link

MerseyCats 20th Anniversary Show

First bands have been announced for our 20th anniversary show. More details

Take a look at the original show in 1989

Mathew Street Festival 2007

The Delrenas - Mathew Street Festival 2007

Photos of Events at Cologne     Cats

• Wally Shepard Chairman of MerseyCats donated a specially autographed "Joe Brown" Fender for Cologne Cats to present to a deserving handicapped person.  
• Brigitte Christoph, Cologne's First  Lady of Charity, is now a "Mersey Kitten". Take a Look    

Welcome back Jim

After spending a considerable time in hospital, one of our great MerseyCats  Jim Kelly was back at Cats , and what's more he was up performing with The    Chris Rimmer Band . Welcome back Jim, and we all wish you a continuing recovery.

There is an explosion of Merseycats bands on You Tube. The Formby Mafia with our compere Paul Bowen doing the singing, have a whole host of new videos out there on the net. The    DelRenas   have also been busy with a secret practice in a garage somewhere in Liverpool together again after 40 odd years and wow! do they sound great.

The DelRenas - True Love Ways

More Videos from The DelRenas

The Formby Mafia - Rockabilly Rebel

See all the new videos

Northern Band Scene

The Latest events in and round the North West and a few from further away. New events from The Merseybeat Story

MerseyCats Photos

Want to look back on those crazy Thursday nights, check out the new archive section.

Merseycats Photo Archives

The Ian Edwards Tribute Page Updated

 Ian's Zodiacs featuring   Manfred Jung

Livin' Lovin Wreck

Betty Edwards the lovely wife of the late great Ian Edwards of Ian and The Zodiacs has been kind enough to let us have some never before released photos of Ian and Betty in Germany reliving those Halcyon days of yesteryear

                                Visit the updated page                                     Lee Curtis talking to Betty Edwards 1967

Pete Best In His Own Words

As the 50th anniversary of the Casbah approaches, we recall the story of the Fifth Beatle Pete Best and what really happening when Ringo replaced him as the Beatles drummer.

The Beginnings of The Beatles

This  new section contains interesting stories from the early days of the band, some rare video footage, photos and audio tracks before they were fab.