By Elliott West
Introduction
Everybody has heard of the band The Beatles but you may be less familiar with another Liverpool export, the all-female band, The Liverbirds. Not the iconic ones that overlook the Mersey nor the comedy duo of BBC television fame. Part of the Merseybeat scene in the 1960s. Formed in 1963, The Liverbirds, originally The Debutones, were one of the few female bands around at the time. Dubbed “The Other Fab Four” or “The Female Beatles”, the band was made up of compromising singer Valerie Gell, guitarist/singer Pamela Birch, bassist/singer Mary McGlory and drummer Sylvia Saunders. A group that achieved a top-ten hit single, reaching number five in Germany with their cover version of Bo Diddley’s “Diddley Daddy”. A band that went down a storm in the Star Club in Hamburg.
These ladies were way ahead of their time and a definite precursor to Girl Power. Ladies that had a play and work hard ethic. A brave move at a time when men were still seen as the breadwinners. Yet these ladies were on the cusp of a wind of change. Changes that include the Sex Discrimination Act a decade later in 1975. Legislation that wouldn’t have been possible if it hadn’t been for trailblazers like these.
Leading The Way
“The cheek of it! We’re going to prove him wrong”.
Sylvia Saunders
Yet this female force was often faced with numerous direct and indirect sexist comments. When they were first introduced to The Beatles backstage at The Cavern, they were met with a penetrating stare from John Lennon and on another occasion Keith Richards wasn’t too complimentary either. Yet beyond the snide remarks and stares, there were a few people who championed their cause. These included the Cavern Club’s compete and DJ who told The Beatles that The Liverbirds would be “the first all-girl group” which Paul McCartney thought would be “a great idea”. However, John Lennon was less than impressed, saying “girls don’t play guitars”.
Ironically this comment by Lennon made the group more determined. Leaving the dressing room, they vowed to prove the Beatle wrong. It was a comment that Lennon later regretted. In a 1971 interview with Yoko Ono in the underground newspaper Red Mole said that it would be impossible to have a revolution that didn’t also involve and liberate women. The group later believed that the comment that Lennon made to them was actually uttered to spurn them on to succeed. A strategy that worked.
Keith Richards also overstepped the mark when the band’s singer Irene flirted with Mick Jagger. A young and innocent woman who was starstruck and who just wanted to have a conversation with a pop star. Yet Richards accused the band of being “real slags”. A comment that they never received an apology for and are still waiting to meet the Rolling Stone to get an explanation.
Face The Music
The Liverbirds split up in 1968 and briefly reformed in 1998. They recorded two albums and several singles. Three members of the band continued to live in Germany while Sylvia Saunders went to live in Alicante, Spain with her husband John. Her husband passed away in 2017 and Sylvia now lives in Glasgow. Sheila McGlory went on to run a Hamburg-based company called Ja/Nein Musikverlag with her German songwriter husband, Frank Dorsal. A man who worked in the Star Club and later became the vice chairman of the German performance rights organisation GEMA. Pamela Birch died in 2009 and Valerie Gell died in 2016. The two surviving members of the group Sylvia Saunders and Mary McGlory published an autobiography The Liverbirds: “Our Life in Britain’s first female rock ‘n’ roll band”in 2024.
