You know Gerry's old when some of his kids are younger than the joke about how, nowadays, he needs a real pacemaker...
When it comes to the big names in pop music in Liverpool during the '60s, there were the Beatles, of course...but, then, there were Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Hey! Belay that snickering, you!
Although Gerry Marsden and his Pacemakers -- Leslie Maguire, Les Chadwick, and Freddie Marsden -- were certainly no Beatles, they had more success than history might lead you to believe. In the US, they managed three Top Ten singles ("Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying", "How Do You Do It?", and "Ferry Cross the Mersey"), an additional pair of Top 20 entries ("I Like It", "I'll Be There"), and even a couple more that managed to creep into the Top 30 ("It's Gonna Be Alright" and "Girl on a Swing"). In the UK, their achievements were even more substantial, having their first three singles enter the charts at #1, a feat not equaled until Frankie went to Hollywood in the '80s.
The Pacemakers' days on the charts may have ended by 1966, but Marsden became a hometown hero. "Ferry Cross the Mersey" all but became a theme song for Liverpool, much as "You'll Never Walk Alone" is the tune that defines the city's football team. (From our the-proof-is-in-the-pudding department: the team's official web store sells baby clothing bearing the phrase, "I'll Never Crawl Alone".) In 1989, "Mersey" was revived and re-recorded by Marsden, Paul McCartney, Holly Johnson (of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who, ironically enough, had also recorded the song for their debut album), and the Christians for a charity single, with proceeds going to victims and the families of the Hillsborough disaster. Marsden continued to perform over the years, with an ever-changing roster of Pacemakers supporting him.
One of those performances was captured on film and has recently been issued in the States by Kultur International Films. That it was filmed live at the Pavilion Theater in Glasgow seems undeniable, given the title of this DVD (if it was recorded elsewhere, someone at Kultur is just begging to be sued for false advertising), but frightfully little detail is available on the box as to when this concert was actually recorded, minus a copyright date of 1992 for something called the Flying Music Company Ltd. An online search of the Kultur website, however, provides the detail that the show took place in 1990; it might've been nice to include that information somewhere on the back of the box, eh, fellows? (It turns out, by the way, that the Flying Music Company, Ltd. is a concert promotions firm, who, as recently as April of 2005, was handling the Solid Silver '60s Show, a tour by the Searchers, the Merseybeats, the Swinging Blue Jeans, and, you guessed it, Gerry and the Pacemakers.)
To look at the other gentlemen sharing the stage with Marsden, there can be little question that none of them are original Pacemakers; indeed, it seems unlikely that a few of them were even born during the group's heyday. At the very least, he allows his bandmates to make fun of this fact as part of their on-stage patter. As Marsden begins to say that the next song was one that they recorded in 1964, he's interrupted by a loud sigh. "Oh, for God's sake, Gerry," snaps the unidentified band member, "what do you bloody mean we recorded it? If there's even one person in this audience who thinks I look old enough for that to be true, I'll slit me wrists".
Marsden's attire looks as though he's attempted to take wardrobe hints from Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas, an attempt to look hip that's a few years out of the loop, but you can forgive him his fashion mistakes. It's his taste in music, however, that's suspect.
The group indulges in several covers that are none too surprising for a band of their era: Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen", Tommy Edwards's "It's All in the Game", Jerry Lee Lewis's "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", and Little Richard's "Rip It Up". There's even a cheeky version of "I Saw Her Standing There". But in an utterly inexplicable move, Marsden also favors the crowd with renditions of Bette Midler's "The Rose" and Lionel Richie's "Hello".
What the...? "The Rose" is strange enough, but..."Hello"?!?
The mums in the audience may have been pleased, but surely longtime Pacemakers fans were cringing and demanding to know, "Where's 'I'll Be There'? Where's "Girl on a Swing', you wanker?" Fortunately, those are the only two Pacemakers hits not represented; Marsden also knocks out versions of "Pretend" and "Chills" for the crowd.
The most beneficial part of the DVD, a ten-minute interview with Marsden interspersed with archive clips of the Cavern Club and early performances from the Pacemakers, is described as a bonus feature, which is highly misleading. In point of fact, hitting "play" on the main menu begins the interview and clips, which lead straight into the concert. Once something's been incorporated into the program, it's not exactly what you'd call a bonus feature; it's just an extended introduction... which, as it happens, is what it's called on the chapter menu. That complaint aside, this introductory segment provides a historical perspective that's extremely interesting; one hears about the Beatles and the Cavern all the time, but to hear the side of the story from another group of the era is fascinating.
All in all, recommending this DVD is tough. A performance of Gerry and the Pacemakers from the '60s would be a must-buy, but even with the so-called "bonus feature", Marsden and a bunch of fresh-faced youngsters trotting out the old hits in a performance that would fit in quite nicely in Branson, Missouri...? It's hard to view it as crucial.
— 12 May 2005
