The Undertakers

The Undertakers, who hailed from Wallasey (over the River Mersey from Liverpool), worked all the Merseyside ‘Jive Hives’, building up a reputation as a powerhouse group. Their repertoire of US

hit releases included various elements of Soul, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. They invested the money frog gigs in equipment and are believed to be the first group in the country with an all Gibson guitar line-up and also the first to use a 100 watt P.A. system. The Undertakers signed with PYE records who failed to capture their stage excitement on record, and along with The Beatles and The Big Three were considered the best ‘Hard Rockers’ around. The groups of Merseyside new what music teenagers wanted to hear but London A&R men, with no idea how to appeal to the younger generation, insisted on telling the groups what to record. PYE, in particular Tony Hatch, made ‘Mashed Potatoes’ the ‘B’ side of their debut disc with ‘Everybody Loves A Lover’ the ‘A’ side. For their second release, The Undertakers wanted ‘Money’ as the ‘A’ side but PYE made ‘What About Us’ the ‘A’ side, they were allowed to choose the third record and released ‘Just A Little Bit’ which entered the charts. Their fourth and final recording for PYE was ‘If You Don’t Come Back’, it started to move up the charts but unfortunately this coincided with the annual holidays for the record producing factory so no more copies were pressed making it impossible for them to have a chart hit. Some time later, disillusioned with the British music scene, they decided to try their luck in America, Geoff Nugent remained in Liverpool. Jackie Lomax signed with Apple Records but didn’t find success and moved to Los Angeles. Bugs Pemberton and Chris Huston settled in America, Chris became a successful record producer and recording studio designer, Brian Jones went on to play with various bands including The Glitter Band. Geoff Nugent is still appearing in and around Merseyside leading Geoff Nugents Undertakers. Here is "Just a Little Bit" (Thornton/Thompson/Bass/Washington) / "Stupidity" (Burke) Pye 7N15607 (1964)Enjoy