The U.K. newspaper The Guardian has a terrific article on the days of the so-called Merseybeat, when Liverpool suddenly became the center of the pop music universe, leading to the birth of the Beatles. But for all the groups that made it big, even temporarily (like Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas), there were plenty who had a solid sound but were left behind. 

A few snippets from the piece tell that story:

"The Cryin’ Shames’ debut hit Please Stay, the last single produced by Joe Meek, led to interest from [Brian] Epstein; they not only turned him down, but told him to “f--- off”. A second single flopped and they soon split up. “Let’s just say it didn’t help,” says Derek Cleary, who joined just after the doomed meeting. “You have to be crazy not to sign with Brian Epstein. And to swear at the guy, too? It was mad.”

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Of John Lennon, Crouch says: “Oh, he’d fight about anything. Stupid things. He could be quite violent, John. But if you stood up to him, you were a friend for life.”

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"Of the six artists to feature on the first ever broadcast of Top of the Pops on 1 January, two were from Liverpool: the Beatles and the Swinging Blue Jeans, performing their hit Hippy Hippy Shake. The latter got into a fistfight with the Rolling Stones in the BBC canteen after Mick Jagger refused to lend his ballpoint pen. “Our claim to fame is that we gave Mick Jagger his big lips,” Ennis says."

Read the full profile here.