Faron’s Flamingos & MonaLisa Twins on stage – Collaboration
The Beatles, The Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, … these are 60’s bands from Liverpool everyone has heard of. But there was so much more to the ‘Merseybeat scene’.Merseyside is a county in North-West England and encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the River Mersey estuary.
Liverpool, its biggest city and the 5th largest of England, with an estimated population of 2.24 million people today, is internationally known for music and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the World Capital City of Pop. It is said musicians from the city have produced 56 No. 1 singles, more than any other city in the world.
A hurricane of rock’n’roll and creativity blew through it in the early 60’s. This new sound and musical genre often gets dubbed “Merseybeat”, not least because of Bill Harry, one of John Lennon’s classmates who coined the phrase by creating the popular music magazine “Mersey Beat” in 1961.
Unfortunately, we’ve not yet gotten to meet Bill in person but he wrote us some incredibly kind words when a friend introduced him to our music. We couldn’t be more grateful for this comment:
“In the days of Mersey Beat my criteria was TALENT. The national music papers would only feature chart artists, I would give my covers and stories to people who I considered talented – apart from Mersey artists, I’d cover talented acts performing in Liverpool such as the Hollies, the Animals or Herman’s Hermits. If I was publishing Mersey Beat today, the Mona Lisa Twins would be on the front cover.”
Besides the obvious well-known bands that emerged from Liverpool during the early 60’s, there were dozens of other groups, many of which never quite made it outside the local scene.
A very short-lived band, but one of our favorites was “Faron’s Flamingos”. Check out this clip below to see them at the Cavern Club back in ’63 doing “Do You Love Me”. It’s by far our favourite version of the song:
So we were in the middle of playing our weekly gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool one Saturday night, when we got told Faron had come along to watch our set. Of course we asked him if he wanted to do a few songs with us. Well, off we went 🙂 …
To see him so full of energy, even after all these years, just made made us happy, and we’re grateful he made the effort to come down the sweaty, hot cave once more to see our show and join the fun.
Afterwards, backstage, he told us many stories about how he and the Beatles used to hang out back in the day. Apparently, they loved silly wordplay, which gave us a wonderful excuse to spend the rest of the night making the most awful jokes.
Stay groovy, at least as groovy as Faron 😉Mona & Lisa
I met Faron at the 1984 4th annual Beatles Convention at St. George’s Hall, Liverpool. A lovely man who made time to chat and signed my programme ‘All the best, Faron’. A hugely energetic and exciting performer and band. Thank you for the memories. Steve
That’s great that you got to meet him! He was very kind to us too and soo energetic! He loved to tell puns in the backstage room.
I’ve never heard of Faron’s Flamingos but watching that Do You Love Me video was certainly and eye opener to how fantastic he was as an entertainer hopping and bopping around and his fellow band members were great too and a flawless performance of the song….I first remember it was the Dave Clark 5 that had a hit with this song…but actually it was The Contours an early African-American soul singing group from Detroit, Michigan on Motown Records that had this 1962 chart-topping hit selling over a million copies.
Watching Faron & Flamingos really shows how the simplest form of Rock & Roll. Can not beat. I think of all those groups back then not heaving the technology and equipment of today. They all held their own. Even the Beatles. They lost a lot in their performances due the girls screaming and the equipment.. It has to be CRAZY !!!
Cool video from The Cavern! Faron and the Flamingos were awesome. As stated by the screams at the end of the song. Great performance. I am so happy to have seen a clip of what it was like back in the sixties. I’m sure they have, and created, some great memories.
And, I forgot (old man syndrome) to mention the fantastic, short clip of you two performing with him when you were playing at The Cavern. What a great experience for you (and him)!!!
This is just awesome! As honored and thrilled you both were to meet and play with him, he was obviously on cloud nine to be up there with the two of you! You bring such joy and excitement to everyone around you. Bill Harry’s statement that MLT would be on the front cover of Mersey Beat if he were publishing it today says it all. Girls you are just phenomenal!
Fantastic, really enjoyed the post. Thanks for sharing with your fans. And greeting from Adelaide!
As thrilled as Mona and Lisa were to play with a Cavern legend, Faron had to be thrilled to play with such talented and supercharged live performers. Mona and Lisa generate such amazing energy and play so flawlessly – seeing them play live is on my bucket list!
Superbly groovy!
What awesome guitar sounds with Faron! Seeing their 60s video in the Cavern, and then to see him play like that with you both so powerfully is inspiring. The power of music transformed Faron to his former awesome performing self on stage with you just like that.
Was traveling through Montreal yesterday and saw a lone busker playing with just his guitar and amp, and he set an incredible mood and vibe throughout the whole square as people stopped what they were doing to listen. All these strangers captivated together in a moment of awe and beauty. The power of music!
Thanks for sharing this short moment of magic playing with Faron.
Absolutely… Fab and Whoa Wow… You share the stage with the Best of Them…. What a thrill it definitely had to have been to have him sharing gig time with you onstage and I can just imagine the backstage comraderie…. This was a cool post to share, Thankyou and Groovy Good?
Wow he is just FULL of energy, especially in that old clip! What a great night for you girls and him!
What a Cool Night, and very special guest on stage. So glad you get to experience this history. It gives you memories and inspiration that you can’t get else where.
How wonderful to see him after all this time, so cheery and full of life! ?♀️????
Glad he finally fixed the problem with his head so it doesn’t bob around so much. 😉