PEGGY SUE – BUDDY HOLLY and THE CRICKETS
I grew up in the fifties in a home where music was played often. The wireless and the gramophone that only played 78’s were our main listening sources, and a mother who was always singing and had been a member of the Mai choir as a teenager and won a singing scholarship, but due to the outbreak of WW2 was unable to take up her place. My late, older cousin, Brian had “proper” records, not just David Whitfield and Dickie Valentine, but exciting stuff like Buddy Holly and Little Richard. When I was ten years old I first heard Peggy Sue at his house, and although I had no idea at the time, hearing that song was the start of my life-long love of Rock’n’Roll music. Sadly, within twelve months of my being aware of his existence, Buddy Holly was to die in a plane crash in 1959. But he’s forever my inspiration and always remembered in almost every novel I’ve written since.
JULIET – THE FOUR PENNIES
Not the strongest song of the sixties, but one that instantly takes me back to the days of my first job after leaving school. As soon as I hear the opening bars I’m back in 1964, a fifteen year old, in her element, standing behind the counter at White and Swales, selling records to the public. The Four Pennies came to do a PA at the shop one Saturday morning while Juliet was at number one. I’d never met a pop group or anyone famous before, apart from Sooty and Harry Corbett a few years before! They were lovely boys and I was sent to the staff room to make coffee for them all. When the singer, Lionel Morton told me I made the best coffee he’d ever tasted I was overwhelmed. I’ve never forgotten this day, it’s one of those precious memories that live on forever, even though since then I’ve met, and become good friends with, many more famous singers and musicians.
THE SUN AIN’T GONNA SHINE ANYMORE – THE WALKER BROTHERS
This song brings back the fabulous memories of a night in 1965 when I went to one of our local clubs, The Manor Lounge in Stockport, and saw The Walker Brother live for the first time. Standing right in front of the stage, as was allowed in those heady days before Elf and Safety spoiled everything, and staring up at the gorgeous Scott Walker, who was close enough to touch, and we did. The poor lad went off stage with no shirt! I went home with a piece of white cotton shirt and several yards of unravelled wool from the drummer Gary’s sweater, plus a piece of John Walker’s shirt too. Happy days. Great show by the way. Again, a never to be forgotten time.
YOU BETTER MOVE ON – ARTHUR ALEXANDER
Again, another song that transports me back to my teens and White and Swales record department where I spent the best years of my youth and would later use the shop and settings and people I met for my Rock’n’Roll years series of novels. This was a favourite song of my lovely late boss John Darnley and was played most days with us all singing along. The Stones did a cover version, but for me, the original was always the best.
HANDLE WITH CARE – THE TRAVELING WILBURYS
Moving further on in time, this song is just so special, not only because the best super group in the world sing it, but because it’s a firm favourite of me and my partner and we love to sing along when it’s on the car, which is most days as it’s on the IPod, each taking a turn to be either, Roy, George, Tom, Bob or Geoff. What a wonderful line-up and so sad that we now only have two of them left.
Thank you, Jo, for bringing back some lovely memories here for me. Pam. Xxx
Take a trip down Memory Lane with the first three novels in the series about The Raiders chart-topping rock band and their lives and loves, spanning forty years. Now available in this box-set at a very special price. Individual books have many five star reviews.
Brand New Formatted Version.
THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN (set in the sixties)
‘TIL I KISSED YOU (set in the eighties)
ALWAYS ON MY MIND (set in the nineties)
ABOUT PAM
Pam Howes was born in Cheshire. She is an ex Interior Designer who began writing seriously in the mid nineties. The idea for her first novel, set in the sixties, was inspired by her time as a teenager, working in a local record store and hanging around with musicians who frequented the business. That first novel evolved into a series set in the fictional town of Pickford, based on her home town of Stockport. Three Steps to Heaven; ‘Til I Kissed You; Always On My Mind; Not Fade Away, and That’ll Be The Day, follow the lives and loves through the decades of fictional Rock’n’Roll band The Raiders. Pam is a big fan of sixties music and it’s this love that compelled her to write the series. A stand-alone true-life romance, Fast Movin’ Train, set in the nineties, was published in early 2012. Pam is mum to three adult daughters, grandma to seven assorted grandchildren, and roadie to one musician partner.
Pam recently signed a second contract with the award winning publisher Bookouture and the first novel in her new Lark Lane series, The Factory Girls of Lark Lane, will be published in July 2018.
Her first series for Bookouture – The Mersey Trilogy – is available in E book, paperback and as audio books.
The Lost Daughter of Liverpool
The Forgotten Family of Liverpool
The Liverpool Girls
Follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pam-Howes-Books/260328010709267
And Twitter @PamHowes1
JO LAMBERT 