Ian & the Zodiacs

Ian and the Zodiacs had one of the longest histories of any band working in Liverpool, which makes their utter obscurity in that city even more of a puzzle, considering that they had a cool name and played r&b well enough to become stars in Germany. The band's roots go back to the Zodiacs, a trad-jazz (i.e. Dixieland) outfit formed in 1958 as a sextet that included future Fourmost drummer Dave Lovelady-they switched to rock 'n roll soon after. The original Zodiacs stayed intact thru the spring of 1960, when lead guitarist Pete Pimlett exited and Ian Edwards, late of the Deltones (who attended the same school as the Zodiacs) came aboard, along with Charlie Flynn, from Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes. The core line-up of Ian and the Zodiacs, as they were named in 1960, was Edwards on guitar and vocals, Pete Wallace on lead guitar, Charlie Flynn on bass and vocals, Cliff Roberts on drums, and Geoff Bethell at the piano. This was the line-up that held for much of the early 1960's, thru 1964, when Bethell and Roberts left. It was in 1964 that, after years of languishing in obscurity in Liverpool, the band went to Germany and became major stars-they were supposed to stay for a few weeks and didn't really leave for three years. Their line-up was still a bit fluid, with ex-Lee Curtis All-Stars drummer Joe Walsh eventually settling in, until he left, and Wallace and Flynn exited for the Connoiseurs, to be replaced by Arthur Ashton (lead guitar), Freddie Smith (drums), and Tony Coates (bass). By that time, the group had cut three LPs (that's one more than Gerry & the Pacemakers, who'd topped the charts in England, got to do) that were released exclusively in Germany on the Star Club label, which was part of Polygram, and two albums of Beatles covers issued under the name the...