The Beat Chics, a presumably British All-Girl Group with all members in their twenties were active in the years 1963 – 1967.
The Beat Chics, London 1964
We’ve had everything else, it seems. Now it’s the girls’ turn. The turn of The Beat-Chics – six girl graduates of the Ivy Benson Band.All are professional musicians, who can read, write and score music and, judging by this picture, do all their own portering.They are to appear at The Cabaret Club in Manchester.Left to right: Moira Page, 23, saxophonist, from Dublin; Christine Lee, 21, drummer, she’s from Colchester, Essex, Mary Cullen, 23, organist, from Limerick, Eire; Una Mellor, 23, bass guitarist, from Sevenoaks, Kent; Lesley Arden and Anne Bridgeman, 23 year old lead guitarists.
Have you ever wondered, how The Beatles would have looked like, if they were women? Well, here you go: The Liverbirds.
They were a female British Rock ‘n’ Roll band from Liverpool. The four band members Pamela Birch (vocals / guitar), Valerie Gell (vocals / guitar), Mary McGlory (vocals / bass guitar) and Sylvia Saunders (drums) have been active between 1962 and 1967. They were one of very few female bands on the Merseybeat scene and one of the first rock band, which consisted only of female members.
Valerie Gell, Sylvia Saunders, singer Irene Green and guitarist Sheila McGlory founded the band in early 1962 under the name “The Debutones”. Irene Green and Sheila McGlory left the band very early on and joined other bands. They were replaced by Mary McGlory – the sister of Sheila McGlory – and Pamela Birch.
The band’s name derived from the fictional figure of the Liver Bird, the Tower of the Liver Building, which is the symbol of their native Liverpool.
The Liverbirds achieved more commercial success in Germany than in their homeland. Early in their career, they followed in the footsteps of colleagues such as The Beatles and Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. In May 1964 the four girls first appeared in Hamburgs legendary “Star Club” as “the female Beatles” from Liverpool. There they were one of the top attractions and released two albums and several singles. One of these singles, a cover of Bo Diddley’s “Diddley Daddy”, climbed to number five on the German charts. In 1967, the band broke up, but still inspired lots of young rock musicians in the world for years to come.
Some band members permanently settled in Germany. Mary McGlory currently heads the Hamburg-based company “JA / NEIN Musikverlag GmbH”. She is married to a former colleague from the “Star-Club”, the German singer, songwriter, producer and vice chairman of the board of GEMA, Frank Dostal.
Pamela Birch – born Pamela Anne Burch in August 1944 in Kirkdale, Liverpool – singer and guitarist, who also stayed in Germany, died on October 27. 2009 at the age of 65 in Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).
Formed in 1962 Goldie And The Gingerbreads were the first all-female rock band signed to a major record label. The quartet of Ginger Bianco, Margo Lewis, Carol MacDonald and Goldie Zelkowitz (later known as Genya Ravan) were among the first to break into this male domain. Signed to Atlantic Records in 1964 by visionary Ahmet Ertegun, the group toured throughout Europe with The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, and The Hollies, among others. Their first single, “Can’t you Hear My Heartbeat?,” enjoyed weeks at the top of the charts in the UK in 1965 before Hermans’s Hermits recorded their version for the American market.
Goldie and The Gingerbreads blazed the trail for countless of female musicians including the Go-Gos, the Bangles, The Runaways, and Luscious Jackson. Over time, the group has been immortalized in various rock music anthologies and most recently in The Rolling Stone Book of Women In Rock (Random House, 1997). Fellar musicians and journalist gave their appreciation for these ladies that paved the way for generations to come.
“Ginger is one of the best female drummers in America!” -Teen Trend,1966
“They’re great!” -Ringo Starr
“They’re Fab!” -Brian Jones
The band broke up over the course of 1967 and 1968 mainly due to Genya Ravan’s strong personality and forceful leadership of the band, Frustration about making little profit from their record releases may also have been an issue. On November 13, 1997, the Gingerbreads performed once more to mark their 30th anniversary and to commemorate the release of The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. Accompanying Genya, Ginger and Margo was Debby Hastings on bass and Diane Scanlon on guitar. Shortly afterwards, on February 3, 1998, Goldie And The Gingerbreads were presented with a Touchstone Award from NY based Women in Music, presented to each member of the group by music legend Ahmet Ertegun.
The phenomenon All-Girl-Band might appear new to many, but in fact there have always been bands with only female musicians in it. Besides singing and dancing Girlgroups many where real rockin’ Babes, that played all instruments and wrote their own songs – covering all Rock genres.
One of these bands were The Daughters Of Eve. Thanks to other enthusiasts a pretty well-documented history is present up to this day. Formed around Christmas of 1965, the bandfaced many line-up changes. If you want to learn more, check out Debi Pomeroy’s Memories on Spectropop.
And now enjoy The Daughters Of Eve in the course of time.
Psychorizon 
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