Merseyside, teenagers who have teamed up to try and break

the male monopoly of the beat world.

Boyfriends have had to have the brush-off,

and the girls spend most of their spare time

rehearsing.”

Well, we did.

Yeah, of course we did.

We did, every day after work.

But I did have a boyfriend.

And this was a good excuse, and I said, “Oh, I'm sorry.

I can't go out with you anymore,

because I've got to really concentrate on my music now.”

Oh, look.

There's one here, that John Lennon said we'd fail.

Yeah.

Liverpool, 1962.

Everybody was playing music.

People were saying, there's this fantastic band on,

and they look great, and we've got to go then to The Cavern

and see them.

I was 16.

And I'd never been to a concert or a dance before.

It was so hot in there.

It seemed as though the sweat was running down the walls.

Just sitting there, waiting for them to come onstage.

And then that was it —

The Beatles.

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, 'SOME OTHER GUY']

(SINGING) Some other guy is making me very —

Oh, my god.

I said to my cousins, “We're going to be like them.

And we're going to be the first girls to do it.”

[MUSIC - THE BEATLES, 'SOME OTHER GUY']

[CROWD CHEERING]

I was born just after the war.

So much of Liverpool had been damaged,

and they hadn't managed to build new houses yet.

Four children, my grandparents,

and an uncle living in a three-bedroom apartment.

I think about how sad it was, how cold it was in winter,

because we had no heat.

We'd put coats on top of ourselves

as well to keep us warm.

The parish priest would just knock at the door

every now and then.

And when my mother opened the door,

they'd just give her an envelope

and say, “Here, Maggie.

That's for you.

Buy something that you need.”

I wanted to be a nun to pay back

what they did for us one day and help all the people that

were poor.

But before that, I wanted to earn a lot of money

to help my family to have a better life.

So when I got home, I said to my parents,

“We're going to start a girls' group.”

“A group girl?

What are you going to do there?”

And I said, “Play.”

“But you can't play anything.”

“Well, we've got to learn.”

We went to Hessy's.

We said, “We're starting a girls' group.”

And they said, “Oh, that's a good idea.”

We just bought the guitars and the drums.

Although we couldn't play a note between us.

We started go into The Cavern with our guitars.

Talking to other musicians, well, they all

thought it was a great idea.

Oh, my god, girl, isn't that crazy?

But when are you going to start practicing?

And we tried and said, “Oh, this

is a lot harder than we thought it was going to be.”

[KNOCKING]

[DOOR OPENS]

And there were two girls outside the door.

We said, “We're looking for Mary.”

And he said, “What you want off our Mary?”

We said, “Well, can we speak to her?

Because we believe she's got a band.”

“Oh,” he says, “I don't know about that.”

He said, “Mary!”

And Valerie, she was like the main one.

“You've got a band?”

“Oh, um.”

We knew it was a fraud.

They couldn't play.

We said, “We can't play.”

She said, “But you've got the instruments.”

We said, “Yeah, we've got the instruments.”

So Val said, “Look, don't worry about that.

I'll teach you to play.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Valerie was a very good musician.

She had a very deep voice, long black hair

with a fringe.

There was something about her that

made you be a bit frightened of her

if you didn't know her properly.

Mary, she was quite shy and sort of quiet, you know.

I couldn't understand how she wanted

to start a group and thing, because she was so quiet.

And very religious.

Oh, I was still going to be a nun.

I was going to play in the group for a few years,

earn a lot of money, and then be a nun.

Very religious.

Sylvia was always bubbly.

- [LAUGHS]

And Sylvia wanted to play guitar.

But Sylvia's hands were too small.

[LAUGHS] So I said, I'll get a kit of drums.

My cousin left.

And somebody said, “Well, that's strange,” he said,

“because there's a girl here tonight.

She's just told me that she's from Liverpool

and she plays guitar.”

That was Pam.

And we came up with Liverbirds,

because that's the emblem of Liverpool.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

And on this one day, the compere Bob Wooler

said, “Would you like to come and meet The Beatles?”

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

So he took us into the dressing room.

We had our guitars with us.

It was just John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

And he said, “This is The Liverbirds.

They are going to be Liverpool's

first all-female rock and roll band.”

And he turned around and he said to Mary, “What's that?

What have you got there in that case?”

So she said, “A guitar.”

And John Lennon just looked at us and he said —

[CHUCKLES] — “Girls don't play guitars.”

And we thought, oh, god.

We're going to show you.

Then we practiced, and practiced, and practiced,

and practiced.

You have to do rudiments —

mama, daddy, mama, daddy.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Mama, daddy, mama, daddy.

And this gentleman came up to us, and he said,

“I'll get you all bookings up and down the country.”

“I'll give you all 7 pound a week.”

[CHA-CHING]

Oh.

We were ready to go on tour.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We toured all over England.

Playing all around different places.

We were playing with a group called The Kinks.

We did a few days [INAUDIBLE] with The Rolling Stones.

We didn't have time for boys.

Too busy.

The four of us just belonged together.

We were best friends.

The Beatles came back, raving about the Star-Club

in Hamburg.

Now everybody wanted to go to the Star-Club in Hamburg.

We wanted to be as famous as The Beatles.

Why not?

And so what did we do?

We sat together and said, “Well,

who should be our manager?”

And we said, “Brian Epstein.”

Who is that?

The Beatles' manager.

Brian E — how old are you?

Brian Epstein said, “Yes, I'll manage you,

and I want to manage you.”

I know it's crazy.

But it's true.

And we said, “We want to go to Hamburg.”

“Terrible idea,” he says.

“If you go to Hamburg, you won't come back.”

And so then we thought, right.

We need another manager.

We just said, “Good-bye.

Bye-bye.”

The next day we're on the train going to Hamburg.

Then when we got into the streets of the Star-Club

and we saw it, it was all sex —

sex, sex, sex bars.

[GASPS] What is this?

Oh, my god, this can't be true.

[BELL TOLLS]

And then Mary saw the church.

I'm all right.

There's a church next door.

[LAUGHS]

The Liverbirds.

[CHEERING]

[MUSIC - THE LIVERBIRDS, 'PEANUT BUTTER']

(SINGING) Peanut, peanut butter.

Yeah, it tastes so good, but it's so hard to chew.

Peanut —

Peanut butter.

That was the first time we did a television show.

And it was massive.

Yeah, I like peanut butter, and you like peanut butter.

Oh, now, we like peanut butter, too.

Let's go!

[CHEERING]

So we've just got to go and rock now.

Rock and roll.

We did really massive tours all over Europe.

Switzerland, Norway, Denmark —

Vienna –

Holland, Sweden.

All over Germany.

Crazy, crazy days.

The people and the crowds were getting bigger.

We were The Liverbirds.

We were The Liverbirds.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Fans used to meet us as we came off the plane,

just screaming, yah!

People running after us, autographs, presents.

Royalty, you know.

Pam started taking pills to give it a bit more energy.

Oh, the pills.

[LAUGHS]

We played at the Star-Club with Jimi Hendrix.

And Jimi Hendrix was sitting there, and he said,

“Are you the Liverbirds?”

We said, “Yes.”

He said, “Which one's Mary?”

“That's me.”

He said, “I've been waiting for you.”

I said, “What for?”

“Because I've been told that you make

the best joints in Hamburg.”

Very religious one, and rolling joints

for Jimi Hendrix.

And did you try one?

One time.

Well, maybe twice.

[LAUGHS]

It's these youngsters from Liverpool.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles.

[CHEERING]

Just like The Beatles.

There's always been an ambition

to at least go to America.

But go there and play would have been even better.

Manfred Weissleder ruled the Star-Club.

He said, “Well,” he said, “it's up to you.”

But —

“They want you to play in Las Vegas,

and you'll have to play topless.”

That was what he said.

We said, “Topless?”

Could you imagine me on the drums playing topless,

shaking my head, and everything else, you know?

So we said, “No, we're not going.”

We turned it down.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

That one that Pam wrote, 'Why Do You Hang Around Me,' that

was very popular and famous.

[MUSIC - THE LIVERBIRDS, 'WHY DO YOU HAND AROUND ME']

(SINGING) If you've found someone who loves you more

and give you love you never had before —

We stayed in Hamburg and became very well known

all over Europe.