GERRY Marsden is still one of Liverpool's great musical ambassadors and he recalls the '60s with special joy.
"There was no great competition between ourselves and The Beatles. We were all mates and we had the same manager in Brian Epstein. We were 'made up' for each other when we had number ones.
"The bottom line was we both wanted to keep 'those southerners' off the top spot. But seriously, as for competition, it was never really there.The Beatles were years ahead of everyone else."
Gerry says it was John Lennon who he really felt closest to. Recalls Gerry: "He was my best mate in the band.
"We always got on very well, possibly because we shared the same sick sense of humour. I remember we were all in Paris when news came through of their first number one in the States.
"This is ridiculous, we thought. Four Scousers with a number one in the States!"
And Gerry revealed that he does regret not taking a special offering from John Lennon during the early days of John's prolific songwriting.
Gerry recalls how John burst into Gerry's room with an acoustic guitar while the two were touring on one of their pop packages back in 1963.
Says Gerry: "John said to me, It's called I Want To Hold Your Hand. What do you think, Gerry?"
Gerry laughs: "Looking back I think John was a little concerned that I didn't like it. He kept on saying 'yeah but when we put all the harmonies on it, it will be great'.
"But I just told him I thought it was terrible. Of course, it went straight to number one."
