I'm a kid who became aware of music in the early fifties, grew up with american music on AFN and Luxemburg,towards the mid fifties we were getting some home grown talent, Ronnie Hilton,Dickie Valentine ,Frankie Vaughan to mention some of the few. Then Skiffle and Rock and Roll burst on the scene,again it was the Americans who dominated the airwaves,we had Lonnie Donegan,Tommy Steele, Russ Hamilton and a few others who made it big over here ,but the Yanks were the ones we wanted to hear. come the end of the fifties we had Marty Wilde, Johnny and the Pirates and .....Cliff Richard (yes ,He was a rocker in the beginning ,listen to Move It) .Billy Fury came on the scene and he was very good,but when you were abroad there names did not mean a thing. I never had anybody say "you're from Liverpool!! Fantastic!" Never ,that is, until the Beatles appeared . Talk to any man who was a young sailor in the mid to late 60's,if they were from Liverpool they were treated like pop stars. New York , Chicago, Detroit ,New Orleans ,Singapore ,Sidney ,Boulogne , Hamburg,anywhere in the world,a Scouse accent and a good head of hair was your passport to paradise. The name Liverpool on the stern of our ships did'nt mean very much until those four lads shook up the whole world with the Mersey sound.