The Roadrunners were a band that emerged from the burgeoning music scene in 1960s

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. (They were billed either as The Roadrunners or as The Road Runners. The word "Liverpool" has been added to distinguish them from other bands who subsequently used the name.) Unlike many of their Liverpool contemporaries, they specialised in a

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

Bo Diddley Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...

Bobby Bland Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was descr ...

style of

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

- a genre of music which was more popular in

Southern England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes G ...

at the time, led by the up-and-coming

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

Bill Harry William Harry (born 17 September 1938) is the creator of '' Mersey Beat'', a newspaper of the early 1960s which focused on the Liverpool music scene. Harry had previously started various magazines and newspapers, such as ''Biped'' and ''Premier ...

, editor of

Mersey Beat ''Mersey Beat'' was a music publication in Liverpool, England in the early 1960s. It was founded by Bill Harry, who was one of John Lennon's classmates at Liverpool Art College. The paper carried news about all the local Liverpool bands, and s ...

, recollects that

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

once said that "The Stones are good - almost as good as the Roadrunners". The band was resident at the Hope Hall (now the Liverpool Everyman Theatre). Here they entertained students from the nearby university and

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...

. They also took part in "happenings" organised by Liverpool poet

Adrian Henri Adrian Henri (10 April 1932 – 20 December 2000) was a British poet and painter best remembered as the founder of poetry-rock group the Liverpool Scene and as one of three poets in the best-selling anthology '' The Mersey Sound'', along with ...

. The band also performed many times at the

Cavern Club The Cavern Club is a nightclub on Mathew Street, Liverpool, England. The Cavern Club opened in 1957 as a jazz club, later becoming a centre of the rock and roll scene in Liverpool in the late 50s and early 1960s. The club became closely assoc ...

. They were invited to support

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

on their last Cavern gig on 3 August 1963 and, on 28 February 1964, were on the bill of the first annual British Rhythm and Blues Festival held in Birmingham. They supported the Rolling Stones when they played at the Cavern November 5th 1963. Two trips were made to Hamburg's

Star-Club The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, that opened on Friday 13 April 1962, and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the 1960s, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 3 ...

, first over the Christmas and into the New Year period of 1963 / 64 and again during July / August 1964. While at the Star-Club, the group recorded two sessions for the club's own Star-Club Record label that were initially only released in Germany under the titles of "Twist-Time im Star-Club 4" and "Tanz-Show im Star-Club 2".

Line-up

The original line-up was: * Mike (a.k.a. Henry) Hart - Guitar, Sax, Vocals (born Michael William Hart, 3 December 1943,

Bebington Bebington () is a town and unparished area within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it lies south of Liverpool, close to the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula. Ne ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

died 22 June 2016) *Pete Mackey - Bass, Vocals *Dave Boyce - Drums (born 19 February 1945,

) *John Peacock - Piano *Dave Percy - Guitar, Vocals Inevitably there were changes in the line-up. The first being the leaving of guitarist Dave Percy and the arrival of two sax players (Nick Carver a.k.a. Nick le Grec and American Johnny Phillips) following the group's first Hamburg engagement. The band have commented that, by 1964, "everyone was jumping on the R&B bandwagon, so it was time to move on". Their second Star Club Records release - recorded live on-stage in front of a Star-Club audience - reflects a move towards a more contemporary soul / blues sound in the manner of

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

and was very much facilitated by the sax sound of Johnny Phillips and Nick Carver. Unfortunately, Johnny Phillips was obliged to leave the group at the end of their second Hamburg stint. As a

US citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

, he had been working in the UK without a work permit and was advised not to attempt returning to Liverpool with the other members of the band. Success in Britain was elusive. Recording deals were talked about, but never seemed to happen. The Roadrunners make two contributions to the recording of the grandly-named "First Annual R&B Festival" (1964) and also cut an e.p. to help raise money for Liverpool University's rag or "panto" week (a charity fund raising event). Mike Hart left the band to pursue a solo career, recording two albums for

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

's "Dandelion" label. (Peel was a British radio presenter who championed the innovative rather than the commercially successful.) In 1980 he began work on a third solo project. Five tracks were recorded, but none were released. They have been rediscovered, remastered and put online via the Roadrunners' website. The band finally split in 1966. In an articl

published in the Liverpool Post newspaper, 31 May 2011, poet

Roger McGough Roger Joseph McGough (; born 9 November 1937) is an English poet, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Poetry Please'', as well as performing his own poetry. McGough was one o ...

stated that his and the Beatles' favourite band of the time was the Roadrunners. The paper and its website closed in December 2013, so this fact can no longer be verified online.

References

*Bowen, P; A Gallery to Play To - the story of the Mersey Poets; Stride Publications; 1999; *Frame, P; The Beatles and Some Other Guys - Rock Family Trees of the Early 60s; Omnibus Press; 1997; *Thompson, P; The Best of Cellars; Bluecoat Press; 1994;

External links

The Liverpool Roadrunners' website

The Roadrunners - Liverpool's First R&B Group

Myspace

Youtube

Reverbnation

discogs.com/artist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liverpool Roadrunners, The English rock music groups Beat groups English pop music groups Musical groups from Liverpool 1962 establishments in England Musical groups established in 1962