sensational from the word go. 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Hey, Hey, Hey' and 'Shortnin' Bread' are particularly good. For the moment, you have to take my word for this, but 'Roll Over Beethoven' will be included in a unique LP from the Merseycats charity of previously unreleased material by Merseybeat groups.

Although the members of Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes were amongst the first rock n rollers on Merseyside, more and more skiffle groups were changing their ways. The Dominoes were a catalyst, but the single most important event was Buddy Holly & The Crickets' appearance at The Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool on March 20th 1958. Many skiffle bands turned electric overnight! (Not all skifflers went rockin'; The Gin Mill Skiffle Group turned to folk songs and became The Spinners.)

The fact that Liverpool was a port with a direct line to New York was also significant. Kingsize Taylor: "We were getting records in Liverpool from the American boats before you could buy them in the shops. If the Liverpool groups had gone down to London at the start of the 1960s, they'd have ripped them up because they were playing crummy old stuff down there. Everybody up North was playing songs by Chuck Berry and Fats Domino and Little Richard. People in London would have thought they were brands of

Cigarettes."

 On 16th February 1960, there was a Gala Rock Night at Litherland Town Hall. For three shillings (15p), you could see The Zodiacs, The Searchers, The Bobby Bell Rockers, Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, The Deltones and The Dominoes. How many other cities could boast such rock n roll talent as early as that?

Although Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes were an excellent band, it is surprising that they got many bookings. Bobby Thomson admits, "We had a dreadful reputation with Brian Kelly, who used to give us bookings. One time he banned us from Lathom Hall, Litherland Town Hall and a place He had in Skelmersdale. We got banned because we liked picking fights with the audience. I feel ashamed about it now but at the time we thought it was clever. It was straight off the stage and sail into them."

And, no doubt Kingsize was to the fore. Dave Lovelady, who became their drummer, recalls, "One great advantage of having Teddy Taylor in the group was that he was six foot five and 22 stone." There was a private function for Southport Rugby Club and the chap who was supposed to pay us said that there was some trouble over the money. The atmosphere got quite nasty and it ended up with Teddy Taylor hanging two rugby players on coat hooks. He just lifted them up, one in each hand, and hung them on the wall. And I remember a terrible fight breaking out in Knotty Ash village hall. Teddy threw five blokes through the window, real Clint East- wood-style! So he was very handy to have around. We always got paid." Sometimes, Kingsize could use his strength ~

to extract a higher fee. Pat Clusky of Rikki & The Red Streaks recalls, "The money wasn't r too good and Kingsize Taylor decided to strike for more. Teddy barricaded everyone out of Litherland Town Hall and said that nobody was going, to play. We were on very little money, or just food and nothing else, and he was trying to get us all more money. We did get more. I got a pound."

A turning point in The Beatles' career was their appearance at a suburban dance hall, " Litherland Town Hall, on 27th December 1960. They were so little known that their total fee was £6.00. The billing 'Direct from Hamburg' conned the audience into thinking that they were a German group. By contrast, 'Bob Wooler introduced The Dominoes as "Direct from the lounge bar of The Black Bull'! John Kennedy, who was singing with

The Dominoes, remembers, "We used to open and close the show there. We'd do our spot and then go to The White House for a few pints. We never got to the pub that night. We'd just reached the door when they started off , and that was it. We stayed all night and watched them. They were brilliant. There was something raw and animal about them."

Bobby Thomson also remembers that night. "The place went bananas. I've never seen a  reaction like it. You could see that they were going to be big and I wanted them to be. It was a funny feeling for blokes to want that. You can understand hero worship from girls, but the blokes felt the same. Everybody loved them."

Despite The Beatles, Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes were becoming the group's group. They preferred rock n roll numbers to current chart material and Bobby Thomson sang 'You Win Again' and 'The Wild Side Of Life'. Drummer Dave Lovelady,  who later joined The Fourmost: "The Dominoes were the first group on Merseyside to have vocal backing. Teddy' Taylor's voice was out front, which was a cross between Carl Perkins and Chubby Checker and in the background you had Bobby Thomson, John Kennedy and Charlie Flynn - they, did their "'oohs' and 'aahs' in perfect harmony, " and no other group in Liverpool was doing that at the time. That, combined with Teddy's very original rhythm playing, made it a very unusual group. Teddy was unique because of  what he left out. All the other rhythm guitarists were cramming in as much as possible but he used to do nothing for half a bar and then do a few accents which made it swing like mad, real Carl Perkins-style." (Everyone testifies to Kingsize being a superb rock n roll guitarist, but when you see his enormous hands you " wonder how he managed to play at all!)

Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes made their debut at The Cavern on 25th January 1961, The Beatles made their first appearance on 21st .

March 1961, Kingsize appeared with a female vocalist, his then-girlfriend, Cilla White, billed as 'Swinging Cilla' and later to be Cilla Black. Sam Hardie: "Cilla was with quite a few bands. She sang with The Big Three and The Beatles and I don't think she minded who she sang with. She just wanted to sing. We gave her a 20-minute spot and she did about five numbers, usually Ray Charles stuff like 'Unchain I My Heart'. She was never a rock n roll singer , though , she had more sophistication than that." ,

For some months, the group was semi-professional. This meant working in the day time, playing in the evening and catching a r few hours' sleep a night. Bobby Thomson recalls, "I left Kingsize because I was fed up plumbing and I wanted to be a professional musician. I'd play The Cavern with Kingsize and I'd do the odd gig with Rory Storm. Rory  had an offer to go to France and they asked me to join them. It was for two days later and I didn't even have a passport. It was a right kerfuffle but I said, "Yeah, I'm going” I gave my notice to Kingsize that night and I packed up my job the following morning. The next day I was in France."

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Kingsize Taylor, Howie Casey and John Frankland

 in Hamburg instead. We had our car laid on and all the beer was free. We were gods. It didn't last long because the groups started pouring over by the millions.'

Kingsize Taylor: "The furthest we had ever been was St Helens. In 1962 we were signed up at The Star-Club for £60.00 a week each. Our fares and our taxes were paid as well, and the average working wage here was £17.00."

Kingsize Taylor & The -Dominoes were booked to appear in the new Hamburg Star. Club, which opened in April 1962 and could seat 2,000. Sam Hardie: "The star-Club had been a cinema. The stage was in the place where the screen would be and it had a balcony the same as a cinema. The only difference was that it had tables instead of seats. Most of the liverpool clubs were sleazy affairs, The Cavern especially. Anyone who didn't like rock n roll wouldn't stay five minutes."

Bobby Thomson had rejoined The Dominoes and when he describes the working conditions, you wonder why they put up with it." On Saturday, the club used to open at four in the afternoon and close at six the following morning. Sometimes there were three or four bands and we'd only play for four or five hours. We'd do an hour on and then have a few hours off .There were occasions when we had to play from four o'clock in the after- noon until six the following morning."

I asked Bobby how this affected their repertoire: "We made up 'The Gas-stove Pump' which took about half-an-hour to perform. It was a 12-bar blues with absolutely stupid words. Things like, 'Woke up this morning feeling sick, hit me dad on the head with a brick'. Then there would be a solo that went on for ages. We only did it because of the Sheer length of time that we had to play ."

It wasn't all Merseyside musicians in Hamburg, and they befriended Tony Sheridan. Bobby Thomson: "When John Lennon came back from Hamburg, he stood with his legs apart and held his guitar like a machine gun. He didn't stand like that before and once I saw Sheridan, I knew whom he'd copied. Sheridan became one of my heroes, one of the first good white blues singers."

Continued..