We asked. And you voted. Over 2000 of you. Thank you. Liverpool.com presents our 50 Greatest Merseyside Albums of all time. As voted for by you... and with an introduction by Paul Du Noyer, author of Liverpool - Wondrous Place:

In a logical world we would see a chart topped by ten Beatle albums. With Atomic Kitten at Number 11. But this is not a logical world - this is Liverpool. So what we get, instead, is something much more interesting. Mere commercial success is not very important here. What Liverpool seems to like are its local mavericks and its lost legends. It definitely prefers acts who have stayed in the city. Those who were lured to that faraway nest of vipers, that London, are often forgotten. Something to ponder, all you young Wombats and Rascals...

"Still not enough room for acts lesser cities could only dream of..."

The trouble with Scousers, people tell me, is that you think you're God's gift to music. To which I reply: Well, let's look at the evidence, shall we? Here is a chart of fifty albums and there's still not enough room for acts that lesser cities could only dream of producing. A few omissions that spring to mind: Pete Burns' Dead Or Alive, Ian Broudie's Lightning Seeds, Billy Fury, Cilla Black, The Christians, the aforesaid Atomic Kitten, China Crisis, George Melly, The Scaffold, Space, A Flock Of Seagulls, It's Immaterial and Gerry & The Pacemakers.

"This is not a list of Easy Listening..."

More surprising than the overlooked oldies, though, are the missing modern acts. Where are The Wombats and The Rascals? And no Ladytron? Or Candi Payne? But as for what is here, few could really complain. Your Beatle choices follow the music critics' consensus, with Revolver riding high. Lennon's stark solo album, Plastic Ono Band, is a much hipper option than the more predictable Imagine, which does not feature. Macca's Band On The Run seems about right, and George's All Things Must Pass is definitely on the money. Elvis Costello's brooding Blood And Chocolate does well - this is not a list of Easy Listening. Pete Wylie of Wah!, Michael Head (Pale Fountains, Shack and The Strands), Edgar Jones (The Stairs and The Joneses), Ian McNabb (solo and Icicle Works) and Ian Prowse (Pele and Amsterdam) all show our loyalty to locally-based talent.

You see, Ringo? If only you'd come back to the Dingle you could have been a contender. But you're nowhere, man. Peace and Love...

Liverpool.com 50 Greatest Merseyside Albums

1. The La's, The La's
(Go! Discs, 1990)
2. The Beatles, Revolver
(Parlophone, 1966)
3. Echo & The Bunnymen, Ocean Rain
(Korova, 1984)
4. Michael Head, The Magical World of the Strands
(Megaphone, 1998)
5. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's ...
(Parlophone, 1967)
=5. The Coral, The Coral
(Deltasonic, 2002)
7. The Beatles, Abbey Road
(Parlophone, 1969)
8. Shack, Waterpistol
(Marina, 1995)
9. The Beatles, The Beatles (White Album)
(Parlophone, 1968)
10. Teardrop Explodes, Kilimanjaro
(Fontana, 1980)
11. Elvis Costello, Blood & Chocolate
(Demon, 1986)
12. Deaf School, 2nd Honeymoon
(Warner Bros, 1976)
13. Shack, HMS Fable
(London, 1999)
14. Amsterdam, Arm In Arm
(CIA/Universal, 2008)
=14. Ian McNabb, Merseybeast
(This Way Up, 1996)
16. Echo & The Bunnymen, Heaven Up Here
(Korova, 1981)
17. Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Welcome to the Pleasuredome
(ZTT/Island, 1984)
=17. Cast, All Change
(Polydor, 1995)
=17. Echo & The Bunnymen, Crocodiles
(Korova, 1980)
=17. The Stands, All Years Leaving
(Echo, 2004)
21. The Real People, What's On The Outside
(Columbia, 1996)
22. Pete Wylie & The Mighty WAH!, Songs of Strength & Heartbreak
(Castle/When!, 2000)
=22. The Zutons, Who Killed The Zutons?
(Deltasonic, 2004)
=22. The Coral, Magic & Medicine
(Deltasonic, 2003)
25. The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night
(Parlophone, 1964)
26. Pale Fountains, Pacific Street
(Virgin, 1984)
27. Pele, Fireworks
(Polydor, 1991)
28. Half Man Half Biscuit, Back in the DHSS
(Probe Plus, 1985)
29. Ian McNabb, Head Like A Rock
(This Way Up, 1994)
30. Gomez, Bring It On
(Hut, 1998)
31. The Icicle Works, The Small Price of A Bicycle
(Beggars Banquet, 1985)
32. John Lennon, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
(Apple/EMI, 1970)
=32. The Beatles, Please Please Me
(Parlophone, 1963)
=32. The Zutons, Tired of Hanging Around
(Deltasonic, 2006)
=32. The Coral, Roots & Echoes
(Deltasonic, 2007)
36. The Beatles, Let It Be
(Parlophone, 1970)
37. Shack, Here's Tom With the Weather
(North Country, 2003)
38. The Icicle Works, The Icicle Works
(Beggars Banquet, 1984)
39. Wings, Band on the Run
(Apple/EMI, 1973)
40. WAH!, Nah=Pooh! - The Art of Bluff
(Eternal/WEA, 1981)
41. OMD, Architecture & Morality
(Virgin, 1981)
42. Hot Club de Paris, Drop It 'til It Pops
(Moshi Moshi, 2006)
43. The Beatles, Help!
(Parlophone, 1965)
44. The Wild Swans, Bringing Home The Ashes
(Sire/Reprise, 1988)
45. The Stairs, Mexican R'n'B
(Go! Discs, 1992)
46. George Harrison, All Things Must Pass
(Apple/EMI, 1970)
47. The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour
(Parlophone, 1967)
48. Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True
(Stiff, 1977)
49. The Farm, Spartacus
(Sire, 1991)
50. Edgar Jones & The Jones', Soothing Music for Stray Cats
(Viper, 2005)

Oh you.


Oh you... Its 'tea' not 'dinner' Ive told you a thousand times!
Turn Damo up will ya Wexford is still 20 miles.



Oh you ...Dya think all lovers invent their own language with a speakership of two,
It's own accent and syntax and grammer and rules?

Oh you... I was watching your hands,
they have grace and finesse and they do funny things.


Oh you ....wake up there's a world needs to be changed
but first I will kiss your shoulders then the top of your head.


Oh you....tonight we'll stay in and maybe watch Jaws
I cant believe you haven't seen it at least 20 times before.


Oh you... You blue eyed girl get Hamlet out again
Let me see the joy pour over your happy reading face.



Oh you.... no you can't be a prole
You'll never know what its like to be on the dole.


Oh you... lets push together 2 chairs
and just imagine what one day could be sleeping soundly there.


Oh you .. Dont laugh at me and the silly secrets that you found
Anyone else but you and I'd want to be swallowed by the ground.

Oh you... Let me hold both of your hands
and read out to you the story of what they did to Bobby Sands.


Oh you... Today I find it hard to breathe
without your joyfull spirit nothing means much to me.


Oh you... You make a lovely tea,
cutting your finger in the the kitchen and your looking after me.


Oh you ... How could I ever face Stratford without you there to see?
Quizzes in the car and chocolate on my knee.


Oh you.... I cant still hear your heels clacking on St.Stephens green,
and the night we saw Christy play the best show we'd ever seen.



Oh you ....You could do nothing I would'nt forgive
Even take away my music and this god given life that I live.



Oh you....

Ian Prowse Liverpool 2008

The Walk


I left my dead skin by the roadside as the rain came sheeting down,
But I could not stop my walk,there was this fella I needed to disown.

He's Janus faced,barely a man and operates in a mode I just dont understand,
There's dark clouds at his heels and a tempest at his brow,
He will take all that I am if I don't fight him now.

My walk pounded on down to our river I did stride,
She called my secret family name from 40 mile inland on the afternoon tide.

A crack in the clouds was announced o'er the Welsh tops and the voice on the river grew loud,
'There is a redemption song,but you have to sing it now'

Jacobs ladder broke out on the heights,I could see the sunlight stream,
Her smile filled up the firmament,he was gone,I was me,I was clean.

The river stopped in his tracks and tipped his hat at the leaving storm,
They were very dear old friends and knew soon another would be born.

Then he turned to the sunlight and they embraced o'er the Mersey foam,
'There is a boy over there with a girl in his heart,go see him and guide him home'.

Ian Prowse.Liverpool

Nov 2008

   Tomorrow the world might change in the most profound way imaginable.A black man might be elected the most powerful man on Earth.

   I have everything crossed that this happens and the people of America do the unthinkable.The 400 years of brutality will not be forgotten but at least with this one progressive action the world can be a brighter more hopefull place.

  Come on Obama!! Come on America!!

Ian

Xx

The Irish singer Damien Dempsey is coming to play in Liverpool this Friday.It's a show I've had a big hand in help put together and promote.Gonna get up with a couple of other band members and do a special guest spot too.It's gonna be a helluva night.
    I first heard Damo about three years ago.We were on the road with the Wonderstuff and I'd discovered a new bezzie in Miles Hunt.He was forever going on about this Irish singer/songwrite with whom he shares management team.
   Now I don't know about you but the term 'singer/songwriter' fills me with dread.More often that not they bore the arse off me and I find myself longing for a band to assuage the dullness.After we'd been off the road for a few weeks 'Seize the day' arrived courtesy of Miles on my doormat.It was a Friday.I'll never forget it.
   It was the evening time before I had the chance to listen.'Negative vibe' was first up and it seemed to pass my by and I half resigned myself to another disappointment of being promised an artist was brilliant and he wasn't.The next song was 'Ghosts of overdoses' and it contains the unbelievable lines 'The Ghost of overdoses replaces the ghosts of tuburculosis',a song equating the heroin scurge with the great famine.
   I was in,the door opened and I ran in.
   'It's all good' was next and it contained the best coda in musical history.'Love yourself today,it's ok,it's ok'.Next he name checked Christy Moore.Who was he? Little did I know but my life was changing and I didn't even know it.
   I went to the pub to see everyone,it was Friday after all.I couldn't settle though.That music was on my mind.One pint and I snuck off home.I played the album over and over until 4 in the morning.Stone cold sober.

   
   A few weeks later at an afternoon private promo show in London with my dear friend Lainey I was introduced to Damo by Janice Long.Janice is a huge supporter and we like nothing better than to be down the front at a Damo show singing for all we're worth.

   We've had a good few drinks with the big fella since,notably in London,New York,Dublin and Wolverhampton.Wolves was best though as a sing song broke out back at the hotel.The guitars got passed round,I did Does this train stop on Merseyside?,Milo did Size of a cow and Damien did Negative vibe (I'd love it now!).I'll never forget hitting him over the head in time to the chorus,I'm lucky he didn't batter me,he's a big bastard.

   He also played 'Ghost of overdoses' and the 7 or 8 people in the room all reacted in the same way,by burying there heads in their hands to try and stop the tears.It was a truly beatiful moment.
   You can't call Damo 'talented',you call some one like Damen Alburn talented.Damien Dempsey is beyond that.Something comes rushing up out of the deep dark gaelic past and flashes through him before heading off into an uncertain future.Thats the only way I can explain his music.

   I know there's only a few tickets left at the New Picket so you might still get lucky.After all this eulogizing I might warn you though about his attempts at a Scouse accent.It's rubbish.

Love always,

Ian

The Ghost of Branwell Bronte

The Ghost of Branwell Bronte came last night and sorrow filled the room.
He implored 'Take destruction with me here,this glass,this tincture,this spoon.'

'Oh wild apparition' I vaulted and shouted 'begone'.I'll not walk those roads you deem,you were only 31!'

He said 'They have sent me to you for you're one of our star', 'We saw the brandy and the behaviour near the blue Ford car....'

'I know how you feel,just look at me now.My sisters don't care and Mrs Robinson was a cow!'
'The Apocathery is closing,the Black Bull is shut.A man will do owt to stop the pain on his gut.'

Then the thing lurched and tore like a dog at its chest, fell through my guitars,my computer
and my photo of Che in his vest.

'Drink! drink! drink!' it growled 'decend with the madness of us'.'Women are all demons who hide their lust!'

'Just fuck off!' I sobbed 'leave the end of my bed,Go back to whence you came and send me my Emiline instead!!'

:-)

Ian Prowse.

October 2008.Liverpool.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7679157.stm

It actually doesn't get any better than that.

Ian

X

     Yesterday afternoon I found myself in the world famous Grapes pub on Mathew Street.A 30 second walk from where we live.

     My mate was doing a radio interview up the St.Johns tower and needed a drink to get the nerve up to ascend the damn thing.

   Alan Williams was in there.Alan was the Beatles first manager.A small Welsh man with a shock of grey hair and a classic alcoholic demeanour.He lost them on the cusp of fame to Brian Epstein.

    I see him all of the time and I never ever fail to let onto him.He looks at me every single time like we've never met,much to my amusement.There is tragedy surrounding Alan and I often have to wipe away a tear as I see him lying on the floor,drunk as a badger by 4 in the afternoon.

    This man is what we historians call a 'Primary source'.He was there,he saw it.The complete and utter glory of it all.The inception of the greatest cultural phenomenon this world will ever see.The Beatles.

   Yesterday Alan was fairly lucid.He talked to us about his life and his own children and those boys he looked after back in the day.He commented that he felt like a millionaire... 'I have a millionaires worth of beautiful memories and experiences I use to keep me warm now I'm coming to the end of it all' he said.

   He's 78,of good Celtic stock and he's burned the candle at several ends.Every time I see him I think of his death and the era that will end with it.I hope to god somebody has sat him down a recorded every last word he has to say on what happened during those magnificent times.

   I told him I'd put him in a song called 'Does this train stop on Merseyside?' and he visibly brightened and barked back at me 'No you didn't,Amsterdam did!!'

   Speaking of which,this coming weekend will be one of profound joy for me.The uncrowned king of all Ireland is coming to play here in Liverpool and he will be singing my song.Christy Moore is playing at the Philharmonic hall,always a show never to be missed.

    He does it beautifully and I don't know who I'll be sitting with but they better have strong hands and a deep open heart to cope with me.It's funny hearing one of your own songs re-interpreted but to hear it done by a genuine master is breathtaking.I need to see him this weekend and listen to his music as a man as well.He heals me.

   One day (when Im a dad myself )I hope I can have half the verve,grace and joy of existence that these two men have had.

   Hope your all OK out there in these troubled times,a new day is breaking.It'll be OK.

Love always,

Ian

'Another great Amsterdam record' 

Elvis Costello
 
'Big hearted pop from Liverpool next big thing'

Mojo

'Scouse heartache at it's very best'

Word Magazine

'Soaring melodic music'

Q Magazine

'A reminder of how good this band really is'

Liverpool Echo
 

Amsterdam take to the road in November for their first headline tour in over two years.
 

2008 has been a good year for the Liverpool six piece. The band duetted with old friend and collaborator, Elvis Costello, covering The Searchers hit 'Don't Throw Your Love Away,' as part of the EMI released Liverpool Number 1's album and performed the song to a packed out 10,000 strong crowd, at the new Liverpool Echo Arena.

Amsterdam's second album 'Arm in Arm' was released in March this year. Opening track 'Home' was a favourite on BBC Radio 2 and Amsterdam have recorded no less than four live sessions for the Janice Long show.    

The album includes a beautiful contribution from celebrated Irish folk singer Christy Moore, who is due to release his own version of the Amsterdam classic (and John Peels second favourite ever song) 'Does This Train Stop On Merseyside?'

Incidentally, Amsterdam frontman and avid Tranmere Rovers fan, Ian Prowse, was taken out to the now legendary 2005 European Champions League final in Istanbul by Liverpool Football club to sing the song to the fans before the game!

Amsterdam provided Glastonbury '08 with one of the best performances of the festival (and probably the best show of the bands career according to Ian).