Merseybeats / Merseys - I Stand Accused: Complete Merseybeats & Merseys [CD]

Emerging from the Liverpool group scene during the goldrush years, The Merseybeats' combination of Everly Brothers-style vocal harmonies and adroitly-chosen beat boom ballads saw them record several hit singles (including 'I Think Of You', which reached the Top Five), a brace of very popular EPs and a self-titled album that spent a couple of months in the LP charts. After their superb version of 'I Stand Accused' (a big favourite of local teenager Elvis Costello, later to cover the song) failed to become the huge success that it deserved to be, group leaders Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley reinvented themselves as vocal duo The Merseys, who recorded one of the classic mid-Sixties pop hits in 'Sorrow', subsequently quoted in Beatles track 'It's All Too Much' and taken back into the charts a few years later by David Bowie. 'Sorrow' was followed by a handful of Merseys singles that, although less successful, are now highly regarded by admirers of late Sixties British pop and psychedelia, and are now legitimately assembled under one roof for the first time. I Stand Accused: The Complete Merseybeats and Merseys Sixties Recordings features everything known to have been recorded by both acts, including demos, out-takes, alternative versions and home recordings. The set also incorporates the various splinter projects that took place during the same time-frame, with a pseudonymous single as Crackers joined by some highly sought-after 45s involving Merseybeats drummer John Banks and former Big Three bassist Johnny Gustafson, who had briefly replaced Kinsley in The Merseybeats. A 2-CD digipak release, I Stand Accused features many superb full colour photos as well as a new 9,000 word essay that covers the fascinating careers of both bands, including their relationships with the pre-fame Beatles and Brian Epstein, their adventures with The Who (with whom they shared the same management team, leading to John Entwistle and Keith Moon playing on a handful of Merseys tracks) and their unwitting part in the tale of Pete Best's dismissal.