The second best band to come out of Liverpool; their rockingly good debut was the first LP I ever bought, and the first group I ever saw Live. The reason they never made it bigger was that they had to rely on outside writers for material, and they turned down Brian Epstein’s offer of management as they felt they’d always play second fiddle to The Beatles.

May well have been true, but apart from their bracing pop hits – ‘Sweets For My Sweet’, ‘Needles & Pins’ – they also lay a strong claim to be the prime movers behind ‘folk-rock’, just listen to their covers of ‘All My Sorrows’, ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’ and particularly ‘What Have They Done To The Rain’, long before the Byrds. They are still going in one shape or form today. I just wonder if they ever wonder how things might have been...

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