The Merseys – ”Sorrow” / ”Some Other Day” (Fontana TF 694) April 1966
The Merseys were two hip cats from Liverpool who formed out of the ashes of The Merseybeats when they disbanded in early 1966.
Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley achieved a big hit with their first single ’Sorrow’ which peaked at number 4 in England.
Pictures from this period show them in cool mod threads and even cooler haircuts.
’Sorrow’ was originally recorded by American group The McCoys (and written by The Strangeloves) but with a sort of folk rock arrangement.
Their version was hidden away on a B-side. Thankfully, The Merseys rescued the song and transformed it into mod pop genius with a groovy hip and new sound adding brass.
An earlier take (without brass) and featuring Jack Bruce and Jimmy Page remained unreleased until recently.
The flip ’Some Other Day’ is a Crane/Kinsley original and is more perfect mod pop. Both sides were produced by Kit Lambert.
”With your long blond hair and your eyes of blue,
The only thing I ever get from you is sorrow”
60s music press reviews:
Sorrow (Fontana) – It gives me great pleasure to announce – at last! – a Merseys record I like!
Manager Kit Lambert can now get up from the floor!
Written by that grand team, the Strangeloves, it’s all about this girl that’s giving them a pretty hard time. Nice voices, good backing. Certainly the best they’ve done. (Disc & Music Echo – 23/04/66)
Merseys punch home “Sorrow”
“Sorrow” / “Some Other Day” (Fontana)
Apart from the moody opening, complete with cello, the title belies the snappy pace of this disc.
The words are wistful, but it’s handled with tremendous punch and verve.
I like the harmonic vocal blend which the boys employ, plus their occasional falsettos, and the way it’s carried along by biting brass, tambourine and crashing cymbals.
Flip: A more orthodox mid-tempo item. Quite melodic, and again featuring that ear-catching vocal sound. (NME 23/04/66)
The Merseys: “Sorrow”; “Some Other Day” (Fontana TF 694)
Gentle, rather poignant opening here, then quietish vocal harmonies.
Good touches in the backing and a gentle, rolling tempo. Words are good and the arrangement simple enough to register.
Has a tendency to drag on, though. Flip is equally gentle, but in some ways more melodic. (Record Mirror – 23/04/66)
The Merseys single “Sorrow” uncovered
“Sorrow” – unissued version
’Sorrow’ was discovered on the ’B’ side of The McCoys ’Fever’ by a guy called Ray, who worked for Kit and Chris.
He said we had to listen to it ’cause there was something about it that he thought could be turned into a great record.
It was a very Neil Young type of vocal and too country and western sounding. We loved it.
So I rearranged the harmonies and decided to add a strange vocal line that was sung after the main line and that was it, we knew we had a winner.
We’d got Jimmy Page, Jack Bruce and Clem Cattini to play on it in a small studio in Denmark Street.
We changed it again and then got a bigger band, including John Paul Jones (Jack Bruce couldn’t make it to the second session), Jimmy Page, Clem Cattini, Benny Green and many more infamous musicians and did the song live at CBS Studios in New Bond Street, London.
This version remained in the vaults but can be found on the CD ”Unearthed Merseybeat”
The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and the Troggs stopped us getting to number one but they were all classic records and we realized that at the time.
To this day I still like ’Sorrow’ and have never got fed up or bored with it. (Billy Kinsley).
60s music press articles
The Merseys Hit Again
The first and obvious question I asked the Merseys was: ‘‘Are you happy you made the change ?’’
“Yes’’, they answered simultaneously. “We’re getting better receptions than ever before’’, said Billy, ‘‘and anyway we always wanted to be backed by a big sound’’.
‘‘Right from the start?’ ‘“Yes’’, said Tony.
‘‘When Billy and I started singing, we decided that we wanted to have a big band behind us’’. “But we couldn’t afford it’’, Billy chipped in.
I couldn’t help wondering if Tony and Billy had invited John Banks and Aaron Williams to form the nucleus of the new backing group.
Billy told me that they had suggested it several times but understandably John and Aaron who are both extremely competent musicians didn’t want to become backing musicians when they had been half of a group for so long.
Special strings
Right now the Merseys are backed by their own group the Fruit Eating Bears. The line-up includes two drummers, organ, bass and lead.
At the moment they are not using their own guitars but intend to do so soon.
“We’re having a couple of six-string Gibson Firebirds sprayed white’’, said Tony, “later on we’ll be using them in the act. We’ll also get the Indian thing going.
We’ve tried tuning down the guitars and using all second strings to get that special whine but it doesn’t give us the true pitch’’.
‘‘What we need’’, said Billy, “is a set of strings that are thin enough to slur a lot but which still give a true note.
We’ve recently asked one of the big string manufacturers to see what they can do for us, but we left it a long time before asking them because we thought they’d laugh at us’’.
I moved on, ‘‘Now what about this troublesome question of your emulating our American friends the Walker Brothers ?’’
The Merseys single “Sorrow” uncovered
“Anyone who accuses us of copying the Walker Brothers hasn’t seen the Walker Brothers’’, said Tony. ‘‘For one thing they don’t move about, for another thing their backing group is older than ours’’.
‘‘Do you consciously try to move in unison?’’ I asked. ‘‘What we did at first was this’’, said Billy, ‘“We did a trial performance, found out which movements we did naturally and then went to work on those.’’.
For a closer I thought I’d ask the new Merseys what they now considered to be more important; visual appeal or musical and vocal attributes?
“You must be a good entertainer musically, to bring the people along to see you in the first place’’, said Tony, ‘‘to keep them you must be able to give them both’’. (Beat Instrumental – June 1966)
Merseys Make Girls Weep!
Three months ago, in a review of the Who’s tour, I forecast the Merseys would be very big this year. Now, I’m happy to say, that prediction appears to be coming true.
“Sorrow” has jumped eight places to No 13 in this week’s chart.
The Merseys—Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley—were propping up a Soho bar when we met earlier this week. With them were their two managers, Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.
“No one, since-Johnnie Ray, has created the same emotions in fans as the Merseys do,” exclaimed the eloquent Mr. Lambert.
“I have seen hundreds of girls just watching them and weeping,” he continued gleefully.
Tony and Billy agreed that they forge some kind of link with their audiences.
“I can remember one dance we played all the girls in the front row were in tears,” said Tony. “Then suddenly Billy and I started weeping, both at the same time. The girls cried harder! It was pure togetherness! ”
Merseybeats split
As most people now know Tony and Billy are the two members of the Merseybeats who decided to go out as a duo when the group split up. They are both a lot happier now than they were playing as a group.
“The Merseybeats were in the doldrums last year,” said Tony. “We weren’t having much success with our records and so we decided it would be better to go out as a twosome. People were growing tired of the same old four-man line-up.”
As two of the Merseybeats Tony and Billy enjoyed many chart successes during 1964. Then, as the boom in Merseyside groups which followed the Beatles subsided so, too, did the Merseybeats.
“When the Merseybeats were just starting Brian Epstein offered to manage Billy and I as a duo,” said Tony.
“At that time he only had the Beatles and we didn’t want to split with the other boys and so we said no.”
Several changes in the Merseybeats line-up and publicity-some of it unwanted — didn’t help the group’s popularity.
Then last year Messrs. Lambert and Stamp, who manage the Who, spotted them playing in a club.
“We were amazed that such a knock-out group wasn’t far — bigger,” explained Mr. Stamp, sipping his vodka and lime.
‘Call us’
“At this time we had no plans for managing them, We just said hello, told them who we were, and asked them to give us a call some time.
Some weeks later, when they saw that the Who’s ‘‘Anyway Anyhow Anywhere,” was high in the chart, they phoned us.’”
Now that the Merseys are a purely vocal team their backing is provided by a group glorying in the name the Fruit Eating Bears, who are also managed by the Lambert and Stamp organisation.
“There are two drummers in the group,” said Billy ordering another round of drinks, “and they have a great sound.”
What do the Merseys think of other British singing twosomes?
“We try not to see any of the other teams,” said Tony. “We don’t want to be influenced in any way at all by anyone else we see.”
Part of the Merseys’ success, I’m sure, lies in the fact that they are just two, nice ordinary boys.
“We could just as easily be working as clerks or plumbers in Liverpool now. We’ve had a lot of luck.”
The Merseys single “Sorrow” uncovered
But at the same time they worked hard. Both have been playing with groups for about five years. Billy, who is 19, started playing semi-professionally when he was still at school.
“It was tough in those days,” recalled Tony. “So many groups trying to find work.”
And even the jobs that were available weren’t always desirable. Six nights out of seven the evening’s entertainment wasn’t complete without at least one really good punch-up.
“We still like Liverpool a lot,” said Billy, ”and we both live at home although we are getting a flat in London for convenience.”
Tony, who is two years. older than Billy, is the youngest of ten children and is inclined to regard Billy as a younger brother. ‘We’ve always got on well together,’? he said, ‘‘Billy is a bit shy but genuine.”
Billy spoke well of Tony, too.
“He’s one of the most amusing blokes I’ve met. He’s sincere and a good man to have around in a fight.”
Two scars
Unfortunately Tony couldn’t have been around on the days when Billy got involved in a couple of arguments. He pointed to two small scars on his face. He got those in Liverpool. “Still, I’m a lot luckier than some,” said Billy philosophically.
Nowadays, they’re glad to say, life is a lot less hectic, “London is pretty quiet in comparison to Liverpool. You seldom see any fights here.”
Having been at the top of the pop tree once what lessons had they learned?
“The experience we had with the Merseybeats was invaluable,” said Tony. We learned a lot about the business and we met a lot of people.
“Most of them we trusted. Some of them let us down. I’m sure we’re not nearly as gullible now as we were then.”
And what about their hopes for the future?
“Getting a hit record was our first problem, which we’ve overcome. Now, of course, we’re thinking about a follow-up. Then we’ll just take things as they come.” (NME – 13/05/66)
New-look duo make it in their own right
Within seconds Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp’s London office was full of nasal shouts. There seemed to be hundreds of Liverpudlian ‘“moddies” all in check hipsters, greeting the arrival of Keith Moon’s dazzling red trousers, and causing “rush hour” havoc.
This was the Mersey’s advance guard. The amount of sudden activity resembled army manoeuvres rather than departure for a gig in Chesterfield.
Maps were consulted, phones kept ringing and the gramophone sang out. Moon couldn’t get a minicab. “Turn the bloody record player off,” someone shouted through the melee. “Where’s our road manager” mumbled another sunglassed Scouse.
“Where are Billy and Tony?” asked Mersey’s manager Lambert, “they have an interview now.” “Dunno,” came the sparkling answer. “We left them in Piccadilly Circus,” said a more helpful person.
“Better look in the nearest coffee bar then,” said Lambert laughing, “anyway, you lot had better start off for Chesterfield.” The Fruit Eating Bears, as the Mersey’s backing group is known, filed out one by one.
Minutes later a harassed Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley came into the office, and once armed with tea, milk, soup, and steaks they broke into speech.
survived the Liverpool boom
“Yes, we were very worried when the group split up and Billy and I formed the duo,” said Tony, “it had been in our minds for a long while—ever since we started out actually.”
“We were going to call the original group the Merseys anyway,” added Billy.
How did the boys think they managed to survive the Liverpool boom?
“It helped starting when we were young,” answered Tony, “Billy and I were only 14 or 15, whereas Gerry Marsden and people like that must have been 19 or 20 already. I mean we’re only his age now!”
Billy and Tony tend to be cynical about the whole Merseyside beat boom. “It got to the stage when the kids thought whatever you did was great—just because you were a Liverpool group,” said Billy.
“However, the kids in London rather resented all those hits coming out of Liverpool.”
The Merseys single “Sorrow” uncovered
“They didn’t mind at first though,” came in Tony, “when we arrived in London the kids just wanted us to talk so that they could listen to our accents.”
“After a while though,” retaliated Billy, “they realised that everything from Liverpool wasn’t great, in fact, a lot of it was phoney.
The Mersey kids raved over rotten groups, and London kids sussed it out.”
Silence reigned while Tony tucked in. Billy talked about a weird Indian instrument that he had just ordered from Indiacraft.
Indian music and rhythms
“We’re looking for weird sounds that can’t be reproduced on guitar. Sitar seems to be the main kick now but its sound can easily be reproduced on a guitar, with the strings de-tuned,” said Billy.
“There is some very good Chinese music,” informed Tony, “which in many ways is far more adaptable to pop music than Indian music and rhythms.”’
The two Merseys haven’t played guitar since the reforming about three months ago. “We miss playing so were going to start again,” said Tony.
“When we formed the Merseys we spent so much time building up a repertoire, and rehearsing with the group that we didn’t have time to catch up with our playing, as well as doing the singing.”
Were the Merseys at all worried about being compared with the Walker Brothers?
“That’s one reason why we’re starting guitar again,” Crain explained, “to try and shake off this ridiculous tag. I mean, apart from the fact that there are three Walker Brothers and two of us, why should we copy them? We used to be very good friends as a matter of fact.”
“I know people have said our actions on stage are like theirs but you are very limited when using a hand microphone,” said Billy.
“I think this is a stupid criticism. Why should it be us who are compared with the Walker Brothers,”’ asked Tony, “Paul and Barry Ryan, or Peter and Gordon don’t have any trouble like this. Why us?”
Indeed. But as ‘‘Sorrow” looks like it is going to be a huge and well-deserved hit in its own right, this ought to be a “knockers criticism” that the boys can shake of very quickly. (Melody Maker – 21/05/66)
The Merseys tell how
Batman in person gave
them ‘Sorrow’, and the
new blonde hair cult
their record has started
BATMAN flapped his cloak, flitted down three flights of stairs and leaped into Kit Lambert’s office, He laid a copy of “Sorrow” by the McCoys on the desk, cried: “For the Merseys,” and disappeared from view.
The outcome of that highly dramatic interlude was the Merseys, a gaggle of session men, two managers and assorted assistants going into a recording studio and emerging some hours later with a hit record,
Billy Kinsley recounted the story in less colourful terms when we met in a Soho club the other afternoon. He settled himself in a corner between me and a character rejoicing in the name of Terry the Pill, sipped his pint and smiled.
“Ray Tolliday brought the record to the office a few weeks ago,” he began, “It’s on the ‘B’ side of the McCoy’s ‘Fever’ and Ray is mad about them.
fan reaction
He thinks he’s Batman, you know. He does publicity for Immediate Records and we used to have an office in the same block.”
It’s been some time since the Merseys were resident in the higher reaches of the hit parade, Their last two records were hits but nowhere near as big as “Sorrow”.
The upsurge of fan reaction of late must have something to do with it.
“We never got anything like this when there were four of us,” Billy agreed. “You’re restricted when you’ve got a guitar. We can move more and use the stage better. Yeah, we do rely on sex a lot I suppose.”
Which led nicely into the tricky subject of that much-publicised hotel and the stories about unfortunate horses and pigeons. Billy had answers for all that.
We had some girls in the hotel and the papers got hold of it, so we just told them what we thought. It didn’t do us any harm,” he said frankly.
“That bit about shooting horses was put about by a taxi driver in Ireland. We had gas guns and spud guns in the car, but I’ve never had an air gun in my life.
I don’t know what he means about shooting horses. Just because we didn’t give him a £100 tip.
The Merseys single “Sorrow” uncovered
“The pigeons was supposed to have happened at Paddington. I don’t know about that. We’ve been chucked out of there now, anyway, because we put our road manager on the” balcony in his bed and broke a window getting him in again.”
Billy admitted that as the Merseybeats, the group never for one moment considered that they could stop making hits.
“We always thought the next one would make it.” he told me, “We couldn’t understand it when they stopped. I suppose we took it too much for granted.
We got really down in the dumps. We had no manager, weren’t getting paid for all our jobs and we were broke, “One night we had to stop at our road manager’s house because we didn’t have enough for a hotel. In the morning, we had to borrow money from his mother to set to the next job.
Everything was hopeless. I don’t know what would have happened if Kit Lambert hadn’t taken us over. He saw us playing at the Tiger’s Head in Catford and said he wanted to manage us. It was just like that.
“He’s very shrewd and knows just what he’s doing. He smartened us up und got us going again. It was his idea to have two drummers in the backing group.”
Fruit Eating Bears
It has been noted with obvious glee by many people that the name of the Mersey’s backing group is the Fruit Eating Bears. I don’t need to list the many variations of that title that have appeared in print at one time or another.
“That was Kit’s idea as well,’’ Billy went on. “Did you hear of a group called the Masterminds?
That was what they used to be called. They made a record once. We didn’t want to go on stage with a group called the Masterminds or the Clique. If we did, you wouldn’t be talking about them.
“Kit wanted to have two organs, but they’re tuned differently and it wouldn’t have worked. We didn’t like the idea of two drummers at first, either. The first time we played with them was on a concert with the Who at Finsbury Park Astoria.
One drummer had only joined that day and he didn’t know any of our numbers, but it worked out okay. We don’t have to worry about the noise from two drums because they play differently anyway.”
Billy was walking through Hyde Park when the sun was out when three girls approached him and showed him their blonde locks. Seems they had dyed their naturally dark hair blonde as a result of the Iyrics of “Sorrow”.
“Perhaps we’ve started a cull,” Billy mused. “Next thing, they’ll be wearing blue contact lenses. At least they knew who I was, though, People keep coming up to me and telling me I look like someone else.
It was Jeff Beck today. Can you say that I would like to be known as Billy Kinsley?” (Record Mirror – 04/06/66)
On The Mersey’s Side
The Merseys have been accused of copying the Walker Brothers. Do they? RAVE’s Dawn James went along to find out, and discovered a lot more about them.
Two boys, relaxed, and with long hair, clambered on to the stage and headed towards the mike. A cry went out from the studio audience, “the Merseys!’’ and respectability was quickly replaced by chaos.
“We’ve not had this reaction since the Walker Brothers were on,” remarked a technician.
Audience reaction isn’t the only comparison made between the Walkers and the Merseys. RAVE received a letter which suggested the Merseys were a copy of the Walkers. So I went along to see them and to find out for myself.
They don’t seem particularly like anyone else. They have long hair, but so have most. They certainly don’t sound like the Walkers, for even their ballads have a swinging beat to them, which the Walkers’ ballads never have.
“I don’t see why we have been compared to the Walkers at all,” said Tony Crane after the programme, as we settled into a basement room to sip coffee and talk.
“Why not compare us with Paul and Barry Ryan? We like the Walkers as people, but we don’t base our act on theirs, in fact we couldn’t if we wanted to, because we haven’t seen their act!”’
Everly’s Influence
Billy Kinsley, the other Mersey, explained: “We make a point of never seeing other acts in case they influence our own. The only people we do watch and are influenced by are the Everlys and that is because they are so great?”
Billy has a soft Liverpudlian accent, rather dreamy eyes, and reminds me a bit of George Harrison in a relaxed mood. He’s calm, rather quiet, and he laughs spasmodically.
The two boys joined forces when there was a final split in the Merseybeats.
There had been a long line of comings and goings in the group, frayed tempers, bad press reports and rather dreary slanging matches between them.
Now Billy and Tony have settled things well, and like working together.
“The changes the group underwent were a strain on us,” Tony said, “but we didn’t realise how great a strain it was till Billy and I went into the double act. Then we realised how good it is to work without rowing.’
‘‘He and I have been good mates for ages,” Billy said. “We are going to buy a garage with the money we have saved up. We like working together. It is much easier when you get on with your workmates. Tony and I always agree on what to record.”
The Merseybeats always did have a great sense of dress and occasion, which the two boys have brought with them into their act.
“We dress deliberately for our stage act,’’ Tony said, “alike, but casual. We like to match up our out-fits piece by piece.”
These boys are great showmen. They make a startling entry onstage. The stage goes dark, the backing group play, and they leap on.
“If we were not well-dressed it would be an anti-climax,” they said.
What about the fans?
“Sometimes we get treated roughly,” Tony said. “At times we feel a bit put out when girls tear our shirts.
Merseymania
“Sometimes when there are really big crowds we get a bit panicky as we run for the car. The individual fan never means to get hurt, it just happens when there’s a crowd.”
There was a pause, and Billy looked thoughtful.
“But there again,” he added. “I say to myself, when they stop wanting to get at me is the time to really worry. I suppose I shall end up trying to convince my grand-children that one day long ago, thousands of girls used to go mad for me!”
The Merseys have been in pop for a long time, and it shows. They rode successfully on the Merseysound tide in the early Beatle days, and have died a death along with a lot of other groups.
And it shows. Now they are successful again, and they can cope with it—that shows too.
“It is very good to drop down in this business,” Tony said, quite seriously. “| don’t care who you are or how nice you are, success goes to your head even if it doesn’t notice.”
Whenever they get the time (usually once a fortnight), the boys go home to Liverpool. “We both live on the outskirts of the city,” Tony said.
Enjoying Life
Are they finding being back in the pop spotlight a strain?
They looked very far from a nervous breakdown and said cheerfully, “No, we’re used to it. We like it. We work six nights a week and it’s fine. Even when we were out of the Charts as the Merseybeats, we still worked hard.
We make life as comfortable as possible by travelling in a big, hired car. It’s our way of life now and we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves if we had more time off.”
“I would like a bit more time for girlfriends though,” Tony added, “we never seem to get time to date any these days.”
A scream went up from outside the window. They had a date with a hundred or so on the pavement above. It was time to emerge from the quiet cool of the studio below the ground, and alight into the summer’s day.
“It’s them,’’ screamed a fan, hurling herself at Billy, ‘‘the Merseys!”
The cry caught on.
Two boys, relaxed, and with long hair, lost a couple of good shirts and gained a few scratches, but didn’t get mad because they’ve had it bad—the noise is sweet music to their ears. I left them, well able to cope . . . . (Rave – July 1966)
GEAR! 