Gerry and the Pacemakers
Literature

Gerry's autobiography is a joy to read, and never boring. It reflects upon his early life, his rise with the Pacemakers, his period in theatre and television, his return to touring in the 1970s and beyond, and his two charity singles in the 1980s. Gerry provides accounts of many of the famous people he grew up and worked with, naturally with a heavy focus on The Beatles and their entourage. The book includes UK and USA discographies in appendices, and prints a number of rare photographs of Gerry from all phases of his life and career.

The first two-thirds of the text recount Gerry's life up to 1967 and the breakup of the Pacemakers, with only the final third devoted to 1968 to 1993. Nevertheless, this autobiography is by no means a definitive history of the Pacemakers, and there is still a need for an authoritative narrative of those years. For example, precious little in this book deals with anything the band did after the Ferry Cross The Mersey album and film, leaving almost all of 1965 and 1966 a blank. But this book did not set out to be a blow-by-blow history of the band, and it should not be evaluated as such. It's a lively read, and it is indeed interesting to compare some of the differences in narrative between this book and the "Gerry and the Pacemakers Story" series from the 1964 Monthly magazines!

Contents

Preface (p. 1)
Chapter One -- On The Streets Of Liverpool: Fighting Fit (p. 5)
Chapter Two -- The Hits Begin: Liverpool Explodes (p. 29)
Chapter Three -- Love and Marriage: Ferry Cross the Atlantic (p. 59)
Chapter Four -- Farewell to a Friend: A New Stage (p. 91)
Chapter Five -- The Pendulum Swings :Walking Alone (p. 109)
Chapter Six -- Tragedies and Triumphs: Magic Moments (p. 135)
UK Discography (p. 156)
US Discography (p. 167)
CD Discography (p. 172)

This songbook originally retailed for $1.25 in the United States. Its has numerous pictures (b&w), a plug for the official American Fan Club, and arrangements for guitar and piano of eight songs, which are:

Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying

How do you do it

I Like It

I'll Be There

I'm The One

It's Gonna Be Alright

Pretend

Slow Down

Songbooks from the 1960s are notorious for poor arrangements, and this one proves little exception. The arrangements have a passing similarity to the original songs when actually played on guitar. The British market seems to have had no compilation songbook like this one (at least, not that I've seen), and instead single-song sheet music proved the music publisher's preferred method of distribution.

The magazine lasted a mere four issues, running from March to June of 1964. Issue #1 was 28 pages, while the remaining three issues had 32 pages. Approximately half of the magazine was taken up with full-page photographs. The last three issues followed a general matrix format:

Editorial (p. 2)
Gerry News (p. 4) - general short notices of recent happenings and upcoming events
Mitch Hastings column (pp. 7, 9) - Short, highly polished articles following the Pacemakers on a typical day, recent tour, etc.
Pacemail (pp. 14-15) - Letters and responses: one wonders what happened to some of the teeneyboppers who wrote about their unstoppable love of the band???
Gerry and the Pacemakers Story, by Ray Jones (pp. 21, 23, 25, 27) - An ongoing series describing the band's rise to fame.
Fan Club Newsletter (pp. 29, 31)

Contains one-page bios of each of the band members, with a facing portrait (pp. 7-13) as well as half-page bios (with smaller photos) of Brian Epstein and George Martin (pp. 16-17)

Lyrics to "How Do You Do It" (p. 20)

Pacemail (pp. 22-23) and Fan Club newsletter (pp. 25, 27).

Issue 2 - April 1964

Mitch Hastings: "Keeping Pace With Gerry"

Gerry and the Pacemakers Story

Lyrics to "Away From You" on page 11

Issue 3 - May 1964

Mitch Hastings: "Gerry Down Under: Australian Tour Report"

Gerry and the Pacemakers Story

Lyrics to "I Like It" on page 11

This issue contains a number of photographs from the 20 March 1964 session at Abbey Road Studios, at which "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying" was recorded.

Issue 4 - June 1964

Mitch Hastings: "Gerry and the Pacemakers Go Stateside

Gerry and the Pacemakers Story

Lyrics to "It's All Right" on page. 18.

1960s Pop Magazine Specials

Meet Gerry and the Pacemakers

Contents

The History of Gerry and the Pacemakers: Pacesetters of the modern pop scene

Mix of colour and monochrome images, with a brief account of the band spread across a few pages.

The British official fan club began in 1963, about the time "How Do You Do It?" was first released. Gerry's then-girlfriend (and current wife) Pauline Behan was the club Secretary, with her primary job being to respond to the mountains of letters directed to the band as their popularity rose. Pauline's reading of these letters apparently resulted in some awkward moments between her and Gerry, as more than a few seemed to comminicate a desire to get more than just an autography from Gerry, and some writers conflated fantasy and reality to recount, for example, a rendesvous that never happened. (See I'll Never Walk Alone pp. 54-55.) The club address in 1964 was 56 Barford Rd., Hunts Cross, Liverpool, 25. Monthly newsletters were produced (probably little more than a single printed sheet) and at least two different types of membership cards were issued. The introduction of the Monthly magazine seems to have been an attempt to make the club more easily managed by including the newsletter at the back of the magazine. Pauline seems to have stopped being responsible for the club soon after the Monthly collapsed: by 1965 it was operated by Rosanna Scott, operating out of Service House, 13 Monmouth St., London W.C.2. I presume the British club started to dry up around the end of 1965 when the band had its last hits.

Originals or photocopies of any fan club newsletters from the 1960s would be of great interest to me.

Present Fan Club

Finding such material...