Pool Of Sound - Liverpool Express

Liverpool Express

Anfield born Billy Kinsley had been a successful musician in the 1960s with 'The Merseybeats' and the duo 'The Merseys', also having a solo career releasing singles: 'Annabella', and 'You Make My Day' on the Epic record label. He worked for Apple Records alongside George Harrison on a song for Jackie Lomax and also worked with Paul McCartney. He also played John Lennon's Rickenbacker before John actually did. He says, " Brian Epstein had John Lennon's Rickenbacker sprayed black. I was in the Cavern dressing room at a lunchtime session when a mutual friend walked in with it! He asked me to check if it was in tune, so I played it before John! Later, I watched John open the guitar case and drool over what would become one of the most famous guitars ever."
In 1974 he had started playing football, as did a lot of lads from groups around Liverpool, getting together on a Wednesday to play over at Skelmersdale. It was on the pitch that he met Roger Craig, keyboard player in a local band called 'Paper Chase' along with guitarist Tony Coats and drummer Derek Cashin. Craig was a fan of the 'Annabella' single and asked Kinsley if he would like to join 'Paper Chase', to which he agreed.
Kinsley rechristened the new band 'Rockin' Horse', knowing that they would get more gigs with a familiar name, as it was the name he and Jimmy Campbell had previously recorded an LP under, 'Yes It Is' for Philips. He hoped that Jimmy Campbell would join him but Campbell had returned to his engineering job. After six months of gigging, with plenty of bookings on the club scene, Billy had learned how to play the piano via Roger Craig and, armed with a Mellotron each, the pair started to write songs together.

The band was renamed 'Liverpool Express' by their manager Hal Carter after he landed the band a recording contract with Warner Brothers and their first gig under this name was at Huyton Labour Club in June 1975. The songwriting partnership of Billy and Roger soon developed as they got together in a small rehearsal room at The Bluecoat Chambers in Liverpool city centre to write and arrange some of the bands early material. Their first album was 'Tracks', produced by manager Hal Carter who had also managed the likes of Billy Fury, Eddie Cochran, Marty Wilde and Brenda Lee.

'Tracks' Album

Their first single, 'Smile ( Mr Smiler's) Smile' had failed to dent the charts, but success was just around the corner as they became well known for songs such as 'You Are My Love' (which Paul McCartney once declared one of his favourite songs), 'Every Man Must Have A Dream', with several other hits also charting.
Their greatest success though was found abroad in South Africa and more so in South America where three of their singles, You Are My Love', 'Every Man Must Have A Dream', and 'Dreamin', reached No.1 in the charts. They were the first band to do major stadium tours there, playing to more than a quarter of a million people and were the first band to play large stadiums in Brazil. Billy Kinsley remembers, "It was quite a shock for us to be welcomed to Brazil by so many screaming fans. In fact, we thought someone famous was on our flight and we had no clue what was going on". More TV appearances would follow as they filmed their own TV specials in Brazil, Finland, and for the BBC in the UK.

L.E.X Album cover

After their tour with Rod Stewart on his tour of the UK and Europe in November to December 1976 the band hit the recording studio to record their second album titled, 'Low Profile' in early 1977. They appeared on the major UK TV shows of that era such as 'Top of the Pops', 'Supersonic', 'Swap Shop', and 'Its a Knockout', participated in a multitude of charity events, and played at major venues throughout England, Scandinavia, and Europe. By personal request they played for Prince Charles at a Royal Gala show held at The Empire Theatre in Liverpool in early 1978. At the performance, the band were introduced to the Prince and photographed with him after the show.
In mid-1978, the third album they did was produced by Tommy Boyce and Richard Hartley. They thought that Liverpool Express was a bit of a long title so they said, "Why don't you just abbreviate it, like Electric Light Orchestra became ELO, so why can't Liverpool Express become LEX?." It was going to be done progressively with the albums and they thought maybe people would recognize LEX as Liverpool Express but it never happened because the album really wasn't released. The album cover art however featured the soon-to-be-famous model Jerry Hall, later to marry Mick Jagger. Football friend and drummer, John Ryan, then joined the band in place of Pete Kircher, who departed to work with 'Status Quo' and the following year, Liverpool guitarist, Kenny Parry, joined the band. Not long after, Roger Scott Craig emigrated to America, and John Ryan emigrated to Australia but Billy and Kenny continued working together as 'Liverpool Express' and enlisted Dave Goldberg on keyboards and Brian Rawling on drums. This line-up released two singles, and a charity record, during the 1980s with Kinsley, Goldberg and Parry remaining the three core members of the band, playing with various stand-in drummers.

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