"I think the majority of the groups are badly paid, but this isn't altogether the promoters fault. The groups are just as much to blame. There are too many undercutting each other so as to get bookings at any cost for the publicity. It's a question of business, I suppose, and I take the same view with my group. Promoters don't do me any favours by my group playing for them."

Which makes one wonder if it's worth all the grinding down. As far as Howard Casey is concerned, it is.

"I've learnt a lot of things. For instance, never to overestimate my group. I did that when we went to Germany and what happened? The Beatles came over and showed us the way to go home. In a way, I suppose, we were the first group to become Beatlised.

"But at least we've now got a recording contract. The future looks pretty good. Derry and Freddy and the rest of the group - we'll probably record under a different name - we're contracted to Philips to make 18 titles during the next two years for the Fontana label. Initially we're likely to do cover jobs of American Twist releases, but there is one number which Jack Baverstick, A&R man, is particularly interested in. It's an original, which I wrote, called 'Little Bo-Bop.' He thinks it could register, so that may be the first release."

Howard Casey thinks Dennis Wheatley is the 'perfect writer.' He rates as tops Tubby Hayes, Charlie Parker, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Ella, Marlon Brando and Doris Day.

He likes 'earthy, vulgar music with real warmth and feeling.' He dislikes the panel members of Juke Box Jury, who knock Rock. He particularly dislikes people who say, 'You mustn't do that - what will people think!' I think Howard Casey is quite a character.

He started talking again: "Man, this finger called Frankie Martino...You know what I think..." Which is just about where we came in.

Editor's Note: This article almost caused Mersey Beat to cease publication. After it appeared, we received a solicitor’s letter from Martino demanding an apology in print. I refused to do so, deciding to support Bob and Howie. Then the printers told me that they had also received a solicitor’s letter and refused to print Mersey Beat unless I printed an apology. Two weeks went by without Mersey Beat and I finally capitulated, else the paper would have folded.

Martino had first arrived in the Mersey Beat office one lunchtime dressed in an evening suit and dickie bow. He began to make extravagant claims about who he was and the influence he had and said that he’d come across Mersey Beat and realized there was a flourishing music scene on Merseyside and he could do a lot for it. I was immediately suspicious and didn’t want anything to do with him. Some days later we received a huge flood of mail. There were letters to every group who had ever appeared in the paper, addressed to them, c/o Mersey Beat. I suspected what it might be, but didn’t want to open anyone else’s mail, so I called in a number of groups and asked them to let me know what was in the letters.

Each one displayed a letterhead from Frankie Martino’s company, claiming offices in London, Monte Carlo, Sydney, Buenos Aires and Los Angeles – with head offices in Bath! Each contained a management contract asking the group in question to sign it and return it.

Obviously, I warned every group off. Imagine what would have happened when the Beatles found their success and then it was discovered that almost every other Liverpool group had been signed up by Martino!

We never heard from him again, presumably because he never received a single reply to his scores of letters.

That wasn’t entirely the end of it. Once again, in broad daylight, a man entered our office dressed in evening suit and dickie bow: another Martino-type character. He said he’d read Mersey Beat, was impressed with the Mersey scene and was keen to exploit it. We wouldn’t have anything to do with him, although I noticed he enticed a number of groups to perform on a free concert for him at Central Hall.

Dennis Wheatley was a popular writer in Britain during the late Fifties and Sixties with occult novels such as ‘To The Devil A Daughter’ and ‘The Devil Rides Out.’

Sadly, groups led by Mark Peters and Karl Terry never made it, although Karl still performs in Liverpool as part of the Merseycats charity promotions. The stories of every Liverpool group, famous and relatively unknown, will also be unfolding on the Mersey Beat site.

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