Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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As a folk
act, based on Merseyside, they became a quartet, with Hughie Jones (guitar,
harmonica, banjo) who was born in Liverpool. Cliff Hall (guitar, harmonica),
was born in Orient Province, Cuba, of Jamaican parents. When his mother
died he returned to Jamaica with his father who worked in the plantations.
There wasn’t enough money to provide Cliff with further education and as
a teenager he worked moulding breezeblocks and milking cows.When RAF personnel
came to Jamaica on a recruiting drive, Cliff claimed he was older than he
was, signed up and came to Britain in November 1942 and was stationed in
Worcestershire. He married a Scottish girl Janet Massie in 1947 and the
couple had three children. By 1953 he was working as an electrician in Leeds and when he was sent to work in Capenhurst in Cheshire he met Tony Davis and was invited to join The Spinners. Mick Groves (guitar), born in Salford was to say “I think our strong Liverpool identity is actually a great tribute to the city. They call it a melting pot and we all melted together greatly.” Tony Davis (banjo, tin whistle, guitar, kazoo), was born in Blackburn, but moved to Merseyside at the age of 14. The Spinners had founded a folk club in Liverpool in October 1958 which they called the Triton Club and their live performances formed the basis of their debut album ‘Songs Spun In Liverpool’ in 1962. The Spinners ran the club for 25 years and it continues with new regulars under the name Triton Folk. |
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group signed with Philips Records in 1963 and recorded eight albums on the
label before signing with EMI Records in the early Seventies. Apart from
performing vintage folk numbers, they also included original folk songs
penned by Hughie in their repertoire, including ‘The Ellen Vanin Tragedy’
and ‘The Marco Polo.’ One highlight of their act was a tribute to their native Liverpool with a song originally written by Peter McGovern in 1962, ‘In My Liverpool Home,’ while Cliff introduced some traditional Jamaican songs into their repertoire. One of the original songs on the debut album, ‘Quayside Songs Old And New’ included the song ‘Liverpool Girls,’ which was penned by Cliff and was his comment on British cooking. He said “My first wife couldn't cook the dishes I liked at first, but I called the song 'Liverpool Girls' so as not to offend her." Oddly, the record company were uncomfortable about promoting a multi-racial group and placed a cartoon on the cover in which all the members appeared to be white! The group recorded over forty albums prior to their retirement in 1988, thirty years after their original formation, having achieved considerable fame in Britain via their many concert and television appearances. They even had their own television show on BBC 1 in 1970 which ran for seven years and another of their own series was aired on BBC Radio 2. They officially retired following a concert at the Philharmonic Hall after a 120 date farewell tour. A year after their retirement they gathered together to lead the community singing at the 1989 FA Cup final and also performed some Christmas shows in 1992, 1993 and 1994. There was also a reunion performance at the Everyman Theatre in 2005. During the last 17 years of their career, John McCormick acted as their double bassist and musical director. |
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When
the Spinners decided to retire, he said that The Spinners had become an
institution and “who wants to end their days in an institution.” Following
their retirement, Cliff moved to Australia with his third wife Dottie
(he had been widowed twice) but passed
away on 26th June 2008 at the age of 82.
Tony continued performing and Mick became Chair of Education at Wirral Borough Council and later moved to Devon. Hughie Jones has also continued to perform and has had three albums released, including ‘Liverpool Connexions’ issued on the Fellside label on 14th November 2005. It contained the tracks: Mist Over The Mersey; Moles Of Edge Hill; Down By The Dockyard Wall; Blue And Red; Betsy Of New York; Rent Collecting In Speke; Here’s To Cheshire; Unmooring; Cape Horner; Liverpool Lullaby; Derbyshire; Seth Davey; Shanghai Brown; Dirty Old Town; Safe In Snug Harbour; King Of Edge Hill; Alexander Selkirk Is My Name; Daughter Of Water Street. Their 1994 CD compilation ‘The Spinners’ contains the tracks: Lord of the Dance, All Day Singing, Blaydon Races, Last Thing On My Mind, Amazing Grace, We Shall Not Be moved, Guantanamera, Jamaica Farewell, To Be A Farmers Boy, The Foggy Dew, Greensleeves / Lovely Joan, North Country Maid, Liverpool Hornpipe, The Colliers Rant, Dance The Flora, Banks of the Ohio, The Shepherd Lad, Waters of the Tyne, Lamorna, Bucket of the Mountain Dew, When I First Came To This Land, So Long It's Been Good To Know You. It was reissued on 13th January 2008. |
Their
L.P. discography includes:| 1962 Quayside Songs Old and New EMI CLP 1500 (Mono) | 1975 Sing Out, Shout With Joy (EMI SCX6526) | Other compilations include: |
| 1963 The Spinners (Fontana TL 5201) | 1976 Liverpool to Coney Island (Philips SON Q08) | Meet the Spinners (Warwick WW 5058) |
| 1964. Folk at the Phil! (Fontana STL5219) | 1976 The Spinners English Collection (EMI OU 2120) | This Is The Spinners (EMI THIS 7) |
| 1965 More Folk at the Phil (Fontana STL 5234) | 1977 All Day Singing (EMI LP EMC 3167) | The Spinners (EMI Ideal TC IDL 7) |
| 1966 Another L.P. By The Spinners (Fontana STL5431) | 1978 The Spinners Sing Songs of the Tall Ships (EMI NTS 154B) | 1994 The Spinners (EMI 724383018925) |
| 1966 The Family Of Man (Phillips TL 5361) | 1979 20 Golden Folk Songs (EMI NTS 193) | |
| 1967 The Spinners Live Performance (Contour 6870-502) | 1979 By Arrangement (EMI TCEMC 3009) | Their EP’s include: |
| 1967 Another Spinner from The Spinners (Fontana 6857006) | (Later re-released as Everybody Loves Saturday Night (MFP 50339) | |
| 1967 16 Startracks (Philips LP 6308-064) | 1979 18 Golden Favourites (EMI NTS 165) | Songs Spun in Liverpool (Topic TOP 69) |
| 1967 The Singing City (Philips 6382 002) | 1980 Blaydon Races (Ideal TCIDL 7) | The Singing City |
| 1969 The Spinners Clockwork Storybook (Fontana SFL 13191) | 1981 Around The World And Back Again (Dingles LP DID 712) | The City Sings Back |
| (Later re - issued as Stop, Look, Listen) | 1981 Carribean Sunshine Hits (One-up LP OU 2235) | Flowers of Manchester |
| 1969 The Spinners (Contour CN 2026) | 1982 Here's To You From The Spinners (PRT N145) | |
| 1969 Stop, Look, Listen (Contour 6870 529) | 1983 Here's To The Spinners (TC-MFP 41 1038 9) | Their singles include: |
| 1969 Spotlight On The Spinners (Philips 6625 014) | 1983 In Our Liverpool Home (PRT SPN1) | |
| 1969 Not Quite Folk (Fontana STL 5495) | 1983 The Best of The Spinners (2 cassettes) (DTO 10068) | Maggie May / Linstead Market (Fontana TF 450) |
| 1970 The Spinners Are In Town (Fontana 6309 014) | 1984 Last Night We Had A Do (PRT N6553) | Shine Eye Gal / Amen; Dirty Old Town / Philimiooriay (Fontana TF494) |
| 1970 The Spinners Collection (Contour PDA 026) | 1985 Your 20 Favourite Christmas Carols (Capitol LP ED 2607471) | The Old Dun Cow / Hold Him Joe; Family of Man / Shortness of Sight |
| 1970 10 Of The Best (Fontana SPXL51) | 1986 Spun Gold (PRT PYC 12 LP N 6560) | Funeral in Berlin / Diamonds and Pearls; Orange and the Green / Mrs. Hooligan's Christmas Cake |
| 1971 Spinners Vol. 1-3 (Phillips 6382 046/7/8) | 1986 The Spinners In Concert (MFP CC 212) | Seth Davey / All For Me Grog; I've Been on the Road / Bluenose |
| 1972 An Evening With (Contour LP 6870 588) | 1987 The Spinners Christmas Cassette (RTS 1679) | Uncle Sigmund's Clockwork Storybook / Mechanical Blackbird; Black and White / Strangest Dream |
| 1972 Love Is Teasing (Columbia SCX 6493) | 1988 The Spinners Final Fling (EMI EN5007) | Malaika / Wing Like A Dove; Here's To The Couple / Deep Blue Sea |
| 1973 The Liverpool Spinners (EMI ST6406) | 1991 The Best Of The Spinners (Pickwick PWK 103) | Castles In The Air / Lamorna; Last Thing On My Mind / We Shall Not Be Moved |
| 1974 The Spinners At The London Palladium (EMI YAX 4832) | 1992 The Best Of The Spinners (Castle MATCD 228) | The Wind Is Blowing / The Wren Boys Song (PRT 7P316) |
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Bill Harry attended the Liverpool College of Art with Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon and made the arrangements for Brian Epstein to visit The Cavern, where he saw The Beatles for the first time. Bill was a member of 'The Dissenters' and the founder and editor of 'Mersey Beat', the iconic weekly music newspaper that documented the early Sixties music scene in the Liverpool area and is possibly best known for being the first periodical to feature a local band called 'The Beatles'. He has worked as a high powered publicist, doing PR for acts such as Suzi Quatro, Free, The Arrows and Hot Chocolate and has managed press campaigns for record labels such as CBS, EMI, Polydor. Bill is the critically acclaimed author of a large number of books about The Beatles and the 60s era including 'The Beatles Who's Who', 'The Best Years of the Beatles' and the Fab Four's 'Encyclopedia' series. He has appeared on 'Good Morning America' and has received a Gold Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. |
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