Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Jackie Lomax should have been one of Liverpool's homegrown rock & roll stars -- that's what the Beatles believed, and George Harrison and Paul McCartney both thought enough of his talent to back him variously as producers and record company executives at a critical juncture in all of their careers. By rights, based on his talent, he ought to have been at least as well-known and successful as, say, Long John Baldry, yet somehow the necessary breaks eluded him. Born in Liverpool in 1944, Lomax came of age amid the rock & roll explosion in England, and started out in music playing rhythm guitar with Dee & the Dynamites, a group from Wallasey, in 1961.

Late that year, the Dynamites' drummer, Warren "Bugs" Pemberton -- agood friend of Lomax's -- jumped to a rival Wallasey band called the Undertakers; Lomax soon learned of a new opening when that band's bassist, Mushy Cooper, exited to join Faron's Flamingos. Lomax joined the Undertakers on bass (an instrument he was wholly new to) and vocals, and took over as lead singer when their previous frontman, Jimmy McManus, quit under acrimonious circumstances to join the Renegades.

Lomax's arrival in the lineup and stepping up to center-stage energized the Undertakers. The band itself had a long history, descendent as they were from Bob Evans and the Five Shillings (reputed to be the very first rock & roll band in Liverpool) and the Vegas Five. By 1962, they'd developed a powerful sound and a great presentation, aided by their unique