The surviving components of The Liverbirdsthe first female rock band born in the United Kingdom, have opened up about the challenges they faced during their first steps in the ’60s.
Sylvia Saunders, drummer of the group, 78 years old, and Mary McGlory, bassist, 78 years oldare the only two members of The Liverbirds that remain alive.
Now, they have published, together, the memoirs ‘The Liverbirds: Our Life In Britain’s First Female Rock N’ Roll Band‘. Additionally, his band inspired the musical “Girls Don’t Play Guitars‘, which will be performed again in the United Kingdom, more specifically in Liverpool, this autumn.
And precisely those words, “girls don’t play the guitar“, were the ones that came out of John Lennon’s mouth when McGlory told him that he was starting a band. Now, in an interview with Guitar World (via Ultimate Guitar), McGlory has said the following: “We were more encouraged than discouraged, but Paul McCartney said, ‘What a great idea.’ And I thought, well, I’ll play bass because that’s what Paul McCartney played.”
From the beginning, The Liverbirds were offered a management contract that led them to play mainly in Europe, but also in places like Japan. However, in the United Kingdom they were not as valued and played less. Now, McGlory says: “I met Charlie Watts about 10 years ago. We played with the Rolling Stones when we were still in England. And when she found out who I was, she said to me, ‘You know, Mary, Bill Wyman and I… we always said we were wondering what happened to those fantastic girls.. We never heard from them again in England.’”
“So you know, even people like the Stones, or later The Kinks. Everyone liked us and thought we had something special. Now it’s just Sylvia and I left.”
“AND We just realized how special we were because we didn’t have other girls we could look up to. and say: ‘Well, let’s try to be like them.’ “We had to be ourselves.”
