Farewell Gerry, and thanks so much for the tunes. Recording in Abbey road, working with Brian Epstein and George Martin, you were one of the first wave of the Mersey artists who broke free and gave us all your scouse magic. RIP
Gerry Marsden RIP
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Very saddened by this news. I remember telling my grandson about his famous song last year when we were on the ferry across the Mersey.
I thought his music was very much of its time, but what a time to be in a successful band.
RIP.
RIP and what an incredibly good song that is
“How Do You Do It?” must be one of the first pop songs to enter my consciousness. I wasn’t even two years old when it became a UK number 1 but it has stuck in my brain since childhood. I knew the lyrics off by heart by six, and still remember them.
Spot on choice of song VV, simple lyrics plaintively sung. I always found it quite moving.
For some reason I always picture him in a butchers apron, probably from a newspaper back in the day. Might be mixing him up with someone else but either way, another part of my childhood gone.
The butcher was probably Brian Poole.
Anyway, RIP Gerry.
Like Sid says above, you were a much loved part of all our childhoods and a time when the world seemed to be a much kinder, safer place.
Sorry to hear this news. There’s only one Pacemaker, Les Maguire, left with us now. My parents had a couple of their singles and I used to play them loads when I was a kid. How Do You Do It? in particular was a favourite. I just have to hear the first few notes and it takes me back to being 9 or 10 and starting my love affair with music.
I nursed his niece on my very first ward as a student nurse, having only lived in Liverpool a few weeks and every day I went in I was hoping he’d come and visit her, but disappointingly he sent her a big bunch of flowers cos he was away with his band. Disappointing for me that is, cos she loved her flowers!
Bummer. My favorite version of Whitesnake.
aah, thats really sad. ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ is indeed a magnficent, tear-inducing record. And, let it not be forgotten, Gerry and the Pacemakers were the first act to have nuber 1 hits with their first three records. If nothing else, he always had that over the Beatles.
I do have a very slight anecdote to contribute here, having worked at the Oxford Apollo when Gerry and his Pacemakers appeared in Jack and the Beanstalk in – oh about – 1988. Firstly, Mr Marsden’s rug job was featured in the local press as part of his preparation for the demanding role of Simple Simon. Secondly, what a show – Madge from Neighbours, Alvin Stardust, Lynsey De Paul and the Care Bears, plus Gerry. They didn’t go overboard on the seamless storytelling: ‘Well if we’re going to have a party then we’d better invite the Pacemakers!’ Cue a curtain rising revealing the band and gear ready for a short medley before the songsheet and walkdown.
Gerry and Alvin in the same show?! They could have had a sing-off to determine who did the best version of Pretend. I think Alvin shades it for me, but not by much. Both versions are brill.
Saw him along with the Beatles and Roy Orbison at the Sarfend Odeon. Typical package tour 3 songs and off, but 3 no.1s on the bounce went down well.
RIP GM
YNWA
Drove to Greenock with Dad to wave goodbye to Auntie Barbara and her family who were emigrating to Canada (ten quid to start a new life). Everybody was crying and wailing – I had my little Philips tranny (those were simple days) and it kept playing How Do You It? It was then I truly fell in love with Pop Music.
ps Ferry Cross The Mersey is one of the most awful songs ever ever ever recorded
You’re not wrong, surprisingly.
Have you heard Gerry’s version of the song that was released in Sweden, Loki – Færge på tværs af Øresund? I don’t think it was a hit.
Eh? That doesn’t sound real (and if it is, it sounds like it’s in Danish actually!)
Aha… well, I blame Google translate! That is supposedly ‘Ferry Cross the Oresund’ in Swedish 🙂 And yes, of course, it never existed!
I would have enjoyed hearing Gerry try to pronounce that! 🙂
In actual Swedish your fake Swedish version would probably be called “Färjan över Öresund”…I don’t know if those exist anymore, since they built the infamous Bridge. When I was young it was popular to take the ferry from Malmö and immediately start drinking at the ferry’s bar to make sure you had a proper buzz already when you hit the Danish side!
You can’t do that if you drive over…
You can do it on the train, mind. Or me and my son did.
Yes, Gerry’s pronunciation would have been fun 🙂 Fairport Convention did (genuinely) play something called ‘Ferry Across the Baltic Sea’ in a Swedish radio concert some time in the early 70s. Not on YouTube, alas. But it was an instrumental, so no tricky pronunciation for us useless Brits/Irish people to get hilariöusly wrong 🙂
Ferry Cross The Mersey is a great song. Such an unusual structure in the verse, almost Arabic or Eastern or something. And the middle 8 is just glorious. And his accent “turn you away”! love it.
A beautiful song that will outlive us all.
Love it too. And he must have got a monumental cheque in the 80s as it was the B side of the 6th best selling UK single of all (Relax), was on the album too.
Sorry to be one of those blokes, but I’m struggling to understand the love. To me it’s always sounded like what it is, a song knocked up to go behind a random sequence in G and the Ps’ knockoff of Hard Day’s Night.
When I was on the buses I used to sing, “Two-five, off to Shoebury,” or whatever, to remind myself where I was going next.
@Jorrox I think what you’re hearing as “Arabic or Eastern” is the descending string line which is just an E Mixolydian scale – ie it has D natural and not D sharp. Like wot George Harrison plays in Strawberry Fields Forever. It’s wonderfully evocative though, would be good to find out who the arranger was.
Thanks for putting that here, I’d never seen it before.
What a lovely, lovely bloke he was.
Thanks man. I’m a reading musician but I used universal words. I’m not too big on modes mind you.
For writing “Ferry” and “Dont Let The Sun” alone, he deserves all the love
But, me in gott, what a movie!
@henpetsgi
Seconded. See also ‘Flower of Scotland’.
Would anyone know the story of the arrangement/version that Gerry made famous. I’ve heard the Roy Hamilton 1954 version but that is nothing like the Gerry. Roy did do it again in 1966 using the same piano arpeggios as Gerry but I’m guessing this was him copying Gerry.
And who did the Gerry arrangement? There is no credit on the label. Obviously it could have George Martin but I’ve never read anywhere that he did it.
I’m just guessing here, but the piano arpeggios sound like something a pianist would come up with. Maybe Les Chadwick? Presumably they were gigging the song before they recorded it with strings.
Good call. I had always thought it must be a cover, being so fully formed. But it’s possible that they had a stage version that they took into Abbey Road to record. But who did the orchestration?
“With accompaniment directed by Johnny Scott” – from the 45.
1963 was when I really fell in love with music (I was 13), so Gerry was very much part of that. I never bought any of his records at the time, and only got a ‘Best of’ much later. A couple of his albums are in the Merseybeat slipcase bargain boxset and, to be truthful, they haven’t really stood the test of time. However, the hits still hit the spot and he was a crucial part of the Liverpool beat scene, so thank you Gerry.
We were in Liverpool for the August Bank Holiday Beatles weekend about 10 years ago.
Behind the Liver building two stages were erected. One for newer Indie type bands and one for “Heritage “ acts of which Gerry and the Pacemakers were one.
They were very entertaining and went down a storm.
Spooky moment ….. Whilst playing Ferry across the Mersey, the actual New Brighton ferry sailed in and docked about 100 yards from where we were standing.
RIP Gerry.
I saw the FCTM film as the first half of a double bill with AHDN in 1964.
Fairly blew my 10 year old mind it did
As good a place as any, a majestic version to see the cheeky chappie off
There was a film entitled Ferry Cross the Mersey, with Gerry (& the PMs) and Cilla Black.My sister took me to Lewes’s Odeon Cinema to see it in 1965. I like(d) it.
For writing “Ferry” and “Dont Let The Sun” alone, he deserves all the love
I remember when I first bought the Record Collector (about 1982) Merseybeat was all the rage. Rock ‘n’ Roll and Merseybeat, it was only later that Psych 45s seemed to take over, and Merseybeat (wrongly, I reckon) never really recovered. Even the Beatles’ early songs are, let’s be honest, put up with by the likes of Noel Gallagher etc., and, as we know, whatever Noel Gallagher etc. think MUST be wrong.
Strewth, Uncut started their (didn’t get to the end of the dire 1980s) History of Rock in 1965!
There’s real gold in that late-50s/early 60s era and Merseybeat comps (especially those that focus on the b-sides etc., the Viper label did a good job a few years ago) are to be cherished.
I was disappointed that the History of Rock magazines finished when they did, because they were just coming up to some really good years, with Madchester, the rise of Hip Hop, Britpop, etc, just around the corner.