Biography
The Liverbirds—occasionally rendered as the Liver Birds—stood out among Liverpool bands, and indeed far beyond, as an all-female hard-rocking unit that played its own instruments and concentrated on rhythm & blues. Commercial traction proved elusive for them locally, yet a move to Hamburg in 1963 elevated the group to one of the Star-Club’s most enduring draws. Irene Green on vocals, Sheila McGlory on guitar and vocals, Mary McGlory on bass and vocals, Pamela Birch on guitar and vocals, Valerie Gell on guitar and vocals, and Sylvia Saunders on drums first assembled in early 1962 as the Debutones before adopting the geographically pointed Liverbirds moniker. Irene Green soon departed for Tiffany’s Dimensions and Sheila McGlory moved on to the Demoiselles, leaving a quartet that quickly became a fixture at the Star-Club. The reduced lineup recorded two albums for the venue’s own label and scored a German number-five hit with their reading of “Diddley Daddy.” Visually they jarred with period expectations that female performers appear conventionally glamorous onstage; instead, four rugged northern women clad in black attacked their instruments with swagger. They delivered a ferocious take on Bo Diddley’s “Mona” and tore through countless rock & roll standards, though attempts by their label to insert saccharine Everly Brothers-style ballads came across as ill-advised, given the singers’ limited harmonizing ability. Their real strength remained raw, high-energy rock, which sustained them until 1967, largely on German stages where several members eventually made permanent homes.
Albums
Singles
