by Colin Albin

Created on: November 09, 2010

Growing up in Liverpool in the Sixties was the most unbelievable experience. As a youngster at the beginning of the decade, I can vividly remember the interest so many people had in guitars and in forming bands. You could look out of the window at night and see teenagers carrying their guitars around with them. They were usually going to practice with friends and everyone was hoping to become famous. Even my elder brother bought one, which was how I got into playing guitar. Luckily, he gave up after a week of trying to play and gave it to me. It’s hard to put it into words but, in those days, even the simple act of learning to play guitar felt like tapping into some kind of communal energy. There was a buzz around the place, maybe a sense that something special was happening.

It was around that time in 1961 that my brother started raving about a band he’d been listening to at a club called The Cavern. He said they were called the Beatles. I didn’t think too much about it at first, but about a year later I was amazed when I heard that they were bringing out a record called “Love Me Do” and were going to sing it live on a local TV programme. I watched in awe and it made a deep impression on me. Here was the band my brother had seen at a local club actually on the TV. And in those days that was something special.

Suddenly, I got very interested in the Beatles and I wasn’t the only one. All my friends at school were also excited about this local group, who were playing some terrific music. They looked great. They sounded great. And it seemed as if every young man in Liverpool at the time, me included, wanted to be just like the Beatles. Lots of local bands sprang up and across the country everyone started talking about the Mersey Sound or the Mersey Beat. There were so many of them: the Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, the Merseybeats and countless others. Of course, as well as those, there were also people like me who were learning the chords and strumming away, aspiring to do what they were doing.

The interest in the Beatles rapidly spread from local to national to international. To young people like me, it literally felt like Liverpool was the centre of the universe at that time. The city was vibrant in the Sixties, full of life, energy and creativity. So much of this flowed from the success of the Beatles and their growing worldwide fame. As the decade evolved so too did their music, retaining its basic simplicity and harmony, yet becoming more complex and experimental. This radical shift in their music was highlighted by two albums in particular, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1966 and 1967 respectively.

As I look back now it feels like the Sixties in Liverpool, and all that the Beatles achieved, was just a dream. I sometimes wonder if it really could have been as great as I think it was. But when I talk with friends, who experienced it too, I know that it really was a magical place and a magical time, largely thanks to the Beatles. It’s a shame it couldn’t last. The break-up of the Beatles at the end of the decade was a bitter blow. I remember I simply couldn’t believe it and didn’t want to believe it. But then as George Harrison once said: all things must pass.

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