A brief but expanding history of Gerry and the Pacemakers,
written by Amy Michaels, a Pacemaker fan. This shoud answer a
few of your questions.
Gerry Marsden was born on Sept 24, 1942 in Liverpool,
England. His brother, Freddie was born on October 23, 1940 in
Liverpool, they formed a group called The Mars Bars (hoping to
get backing from the candy company--instead, they were invited
to a lawsuit and then changed their name to the Pacemakers).
Les Chadwick (born John Leslie Chadwick) on May 11, 1943 in
Liverpool, originally worked as a bank clerk before joining the
band in 1959. He was their lead guitarist before moving to
bass. Les Maguire (born Leslie Maguire on December 27, 1941 in
Wallasey-Cheshire) joined the band in 1960 (?) after their
original piano player, Arthur McMahon left the group.
They were the second group to be managed by Brian Epstein,
who was also the Beatles' manager. Their first three singles
went to number one (a feat that was unbeaten until recently).
The band enjoyed great success between 1964-1966 even releasing
a full length feature film, Ferry 'Cross the Mersey, in
which Gerry Marsden wrote nine of the songs. In 1967 the group
disbanded, Gerry found another love in acting and the band could
not keep up with the musical changes of the late 1960s. To my
knowledge, none of the original Pacemakers are involved in the
music industry today, except Gerry himself.
This page maintained by Ian Speers
Last updated: April 15, 1997.
Back to the index.
