RECENTLY, the 50th anniversary of the recording of The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me was celebrated with several notable acts recreating the legendary release in under a day.

One participating act was fellow Mersey sound group The Merseybeats, currently celebrating 50 years since entering the charts with their debut single.

However, The Merseybeats’ story began much earlier than 1963, as front man Tony Crane told me.

“I saw Eddie Calvert on television, the man with golden trumpet,” says Tony, who grew up in Anfield during the 1950s. “I thought, ‘God that looks good, I bet he’s got all the girls after him’.”

Tony pleaded with his parents to buy him a trumpet, but instead they suggested he join the church band as they couldn’t afford one.

“When it came to rock ’n’ roll starting, I remember going to the cinema to see Elvis in Love Me Tender and the trumpet got thrown away,” Tony continues. “I pleaded with my parents to buy me a guitar. They bought it at 2/6 week from the back of The Reveille. I just wanted to be like Elvis, but I was still too young to do anything about it.”

On leaving school, Tony joined Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building as an insurance clerk, but despite his good job, he still yearned to be a musician. A colleague introduced Tony to schoolboy Billy Kinsley. Then things really got started.

“I met Billy and we realised we could sound just like The Everly Brothers – and that was the beginning of the band.We got two friends in and called ourselves The Mavericks.”

Ameeting with Cavern Club DJ Bob Wooller got the band their first professional booking at the Aintree Institute, but not before a name change: “The local paper came out. We ran down to The Cavern – because we lived within running distance. I said: ‘You said you were booking us on this, there’s some other band on called the Merseybeats. Who are they?

“Bob said: ‘No, that’s, yourselves’, and we went: ‘Oh no, you might as well have called us The Liverpool Echo!

“Mersey beat was only the name of the paper, the music was never called Mersey beat: we thought music was the Mersey sound, the ‘beat’ came in much later on.”

The newly named Merseybeats, along with another band called The Beatles, became resident at The Cavern Club. “We hold the record for playing on the same bill with the Beatles,” says Tony, “We became very close and when they went outside Liverpool, they always wanted us on their show with them.”

The Merseybeats signed to Fontana records in 1963 and as the Mersey Sound took over the British charts, they began a succession of hits across the world including I Think of You, Wishin’ and Hopin’ and Sorrow. The band’s success even landed them aTVseries in Italy.

This year sees the 50th anniversary of The Merseybeats’ first chart hit, It’s Love That Really Counts.

The anniversary coincides with the band appearing at St David’s Hall alongside Mike Pender’s Searchers, Wayne Fontana and Dave Berry later this month. The Merseybeats will be performing all the hits along with some fan favourites.

I ask Tony if it seems 50 years: “Not at all, it seems like five years,” he replies.

“The trouble is, I cant tell people I’m 37 any more, I think they all knownow.

“Inside your head, you still feel about 18 when you made your first record. It was such an amazing time, the Sixties go on for ever. What’s the secret in that? I say it’s the songs. Memorable, easy to remember and they’re good tunes above all else!”

●Catch The Merseybeats in The Solid Silver 60s Show 2013 on March 28 at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. Call box office on 029 20878444 for further information.