Mersey Beat - The Scaffold

The Scaffold

Going out on a slight tangent from the Liverpool bands at the time, 'The Scaffold' were no ordinary band, in fact, they weren't a band at all! This was a group of poets, comics and musicians who performed together in 1962 and mostly resided around the Liverpool 8 district. They formed as a musical group when poet Roger McGough, musician Mike McGear and comic entertainer John Gorman broke away from the 'One Fat Lady' group in 1964 which also included the poet Adrian Henri. In broad terms Mike provided the tunes, Roger the poetry and John the comedy.

The Liverpool Scene

Liverpool born Mike McCartney, younger brother of Paul, had been working as an apprentice hairdresser alongside musician and future actor Lewis Collins who performed with Liverpool bands 'The Georgians' and 'The Mojos'.  McCartney decided to use the stage name 'McGear', so as not to appear to be riding on his brother Paul's coat tails. Mike actually played drums with John and Paul before George joined them but broke his arm and that put paid to that.

Birkenhead born John Gorman left school at 16 to work at the GPO as a technical officer, followed by service in the RAF, but he wanted to be a performer, so started up drama groups in both jobs. He then got involved with arts festivals, cabaret nights, revues and comedy in Liverpool, where he met Roger McGough and Mike McCartney. John organised the Merseyside Arts Festival in 1962.

Roger McGough was born in the Litherland district of Liverpool and became one of the 'Mersey Poets' of the 1960s and 70s. After studying French and Geography at the University of hull he worked as a French teacher, and also taught Geography, at St. Kevins RC Comprehensive School in Kirkby where he introduced the 6th Form pupils to fellow beat poet Adrian Henri who gave them a rendition of his work in the school library.

Their show, a variety of sketches, poems and songs, was very popular with young audiences, especially students, throughout Liverpool and then at the Edinburgh Festival where they became a regular fixture. For a time they were managed by Brian Epstein but at the Edinburgh Festival they got spotted by an agent who signed them to EMI but they subsequently signed for Parlophone in 1966. They were doing comedy, songs and poetry with guests and following the popular singles '2 Day's Monday' and 'Do You Remember?' had their first hit with the McGear composition 'Thank U Very Much' in 1967, which reached No.4 in the UK charts, and then 'Lily The Pink' which got to No.1 all over the world in 1968.
The backing vocalists on the track read like a who's who of British rock music, with Tim Rice, Elton John and Graham Nash of the Hollies joining in and Jack Bruce of Cream playing bass guitar!

In addition to their hit singles, 'The Scaffold's' output included four albums which generally contained a higher ratio of live material and were less musically-driven than their singles.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2016/03/mersey-beat-escorts.html