Karl Terry & the Cruisers                                          1

 Karl leads the Cruisers at the first ever Merseycats gig at the Grafton Ballroom, Liverpool. left to right : Keith Taylor (bass gtr), John (drums), Karl Terry (vocals), myself (lead gtr).  The date- Sunday 14th May, 1989. The Venue - the Grafton club, Liverpool. We were the first band to play for Merseycats. Other acts acts included Cy Tucker, Earl Preston, Sonny Webb, Jeff Nugent, Faron and their respective bands. We waited all afternoon for a sound check, but when our time came Karl had disappeared. Besides this, Alan Swanson (sax player) had failed to appear at all. The bass amplifier everyone was to use started playing up and I was called on to do a quick repair. At 6.30 we hailed a cab and went looking for Karl. We tried all the local pubs to no avail. Eventually, we found him at home finishing his Sunday lunch. We rushed him out of the house and headed towards the Grafton. With about 10 minutes to show time we arrived at the venue. The sax player still hadn't appeared and we asked Stevie sax (Undertakers) to stand in, but he didn't want anything to do with it. Resigned to having no sax player, we took to the stage at 7.30 and opened with Shake, Rattle and Roll. The rest is Mersey Beat R&R history.   Picture - K.Taylor  

The Clayton Squares. left to right: A very young Karl Terry (vocals), Paul Hitchmough (drums), Gordon Loughlin (bass gtr), Mike Evans (tenor sax), Lance Railton (lead gtr)  Picture -.T.Connor