This week we have added 24,516 new pages to The Archive. We have augmented our holdings of the Liverpool Echo by adding further pages from the 1960s.

Liverpool during the 1960s was at the heart of British and indeed global popular culture, with the explosion of The Beatles onto the music scene. Not only did the city produce the Fab Four during this time, it also saw the emergence of their friend Cilla Black into the charts.

The Liverpool Echo gives a wonderful insight into Cilla’s first year of fame in 1963, which saw her go from part-time cloakroom attendant at the legendary Cavern Club to touring the country performing.

In a down-to-earth open letter to her home city, Cilla describes both the perks and the pitfalls of her new found fame. Her main gripe as a singer is the ‘long hours of travelling,’ but this inconvenience appears to be outweighed by the ‘fab’ people she meets along the way. She describes how she used to believe that ‘Londoners were cold, serious people with faces that couldn’t smile,’ but she had come to thankfully realise that they were also possessed of a good sense of humour, just like the famously cheery Liverpudlian native.

Liverpool Echo | 14 December 1963

The Liverpool Echo goes on to chart Cilla’s ascent to stardom: from her humble origins in Scotland Road to topping the charts. In 1964 she is reportedly earning thousands a week, although she herself professes ‘that money just doesn’t mean anything to me at all.’

Liverpool Echo | 29 June 1964

This special commentary provided by the Liverpool Echo on Cilla Black’s music career is not the only insight offered by the paper into 1960s pop culture. An article published in March 1964 announces that ‘A commercial radio station aboard a ship, the Caroline, anchored off the East Coast may be broadcasting to London, the Home Counties and East Anglia within a week.’

This of course refers to Radio Caroline, the pirate radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O’Rahilly in order to usurp the monopoly wielded by record companies over the music played on commercial radio stations. The Liverpool Echo covers the inception of Radio Caroline with a cautious tone, quoting Postmaster General Mr R Bevin’s concern that the ship would ‘almost certainly cause serious interference to radio communications in Britain and other countries.’

However, by September of the same year the newspaper had certainly changed its tune, carrying adverts for transistor radios for ‘easy tuning to Radio Caroline.’

Liverpool Echo | 23 September 1964

UPDATED TITLES

This week we have updated one of our recently added titles.

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