Merseybeat drummer Freddie Marsden dies

Source: Music Week

 

 

Merseybeat drummer Freddie Marsden, who enjoyed success with his brother Gerry in 1960s band Gerry and the Pacemakers, has died, aged 66.

 

The band were the first act to score three number ones with their first three releases, with How Do You Do It, I Like It and You'll Never Walk Alone, all released in 1963.

 

In 1962 they were Brian Epstein's second signing after The Beatles, and the two bands played alternative lunchtime gigs at the famous Cavern club in Liverpool. The band covered the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstien song You'll Never Walk Alone in 1963, which has subsequently been the anthem of Liverpool football club ever since.

 

Freddie Marsden co-wrote the band's biggest American hit, Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin', which charted at number four in 1964. In 1968 however, Gerry Marsden accepted a key role in West End Musical, Charlie Girl, and the group disbanded.

 

Born in Liverpool in 1940, Freddy and his brother Gerry began their first band, The Mars Bars, in the mid-1950s. Complaints from the sweet manufacturer signalled a name change and, by 1959, the band took the title Gerry and The Pacemakers.

 

Les Chadwick became bass-player the same year, but it was not until 1961 that the line-up was complete, when piano-player Les Maguire replaced Arthur Mack.

 

Freddy died in Southport, Lancashire on December 9. He is survived by his wife Margret Naylor and their two children.

 

$h!t, he was young... i liked gerry and the pacemakers whom i consider epitomised the mersey sound..