THE MERSEY MONSTERS: ARE THEY HUMAN?

Between the years 1962 and 1965, the Monster Craze was a Big Deal, attaching itself to the very fabric of American popular culture like a pair of hungry fangs. It just so happened that another big deal was raging across the planet, an English band of mop heads called The Beatles. The heady mix of pop and rock 'n roll was a potent combination that had been brewing since the late 1950s when folk music and beatnik bongos just didn't seem to do it for more adventuresome listeners. They wanted something to move to and The Beatles gave it to them, especially the tens of thousands of teen-age girls (and younger) who swarmed to their shows and screamed themselves into a stupor.

In England, a musical movement known as the Mersey Beat sprang up around Liverpool near the Mersey River. The genre mixed elements of rock n' roll, rhythm and blues and skiffle (a cross section of American blues, jazz, folk and jug-band music originating in the Deep South). It was here that the two pop culture phenomena, monsters and music collided.

One of the results was the formation of an English band who called themselves The Mersey Monsters. A precursor to later monster costume bands like The Misfits and Kiss, the quartet apparently was kept quite busy with gigs, mostly at the famed Cavern Club in Liverpool opening for nascent rock stars like The Rolling Stones and yes, The Beatles. They were managed by a bloke by the name of Tony Rueben of Pop Inn Enterprises. Precious little remains of their recorded music today, but two rare examples can be heard below. The following article provides a little more information about them.

What inspired this post was remembering a photo I'd seen of the group in LIFE magazine during their active period. If I'm not mistaken, it's the color shot seen at the top.

And let's not forget the stateside sensation of Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt Kickers from the same period with their hit, "Monster Mash". The "group" never performed together as the music was played by studio session musicians, one of which was Leon Russell who played on the B-side of the "Monster Mash" 45rpm single!

Shock, horror, and The Beatles: The story of The Mersey Monsters

By Ben Forrest | October 31, 2025 | faroutmagazine.co.uk

Horror has always been in vogue, from the gothic fiction of the Victorian age to the slasher flicks of the 1980s, and the music industry hasn’t always been immune to the influences of ghouls, ghosts, and Halloween spirits, either.

Back in the 1960s, for instance, The Mersey Monsters offered a blood-splattered, spine-chilling alternative to the fresh-faced Merseybeat sounds of The Beatles. 

Of all the many things that The Beatles have to answer for within the pages of musical history, the emergence of Merseybeat is probably one of the most important. Liverpool was always integral to the sound of the Fab Four, and performing at now-legendary venues like the Cavern Club was essential in carving out their sound during those early years.

However, the unparalleled success witnessed by those ‘Mop Tops’ quickly led countless other Liverpudlian lads to start bands, and within that increasingly saturated scene, it would take something pretty special to stand out. Enter The Mersey Monsters. 

The Mersey Monsters business card.

Equipped with copious amounts of face paint and, most probably, an unhealthy obsession with Hammer horror films, The Mersey Monsters emerged from the crypt (Bootle) in around 1963, rebranding from their original name, JJ And The Hi-Lites.

Although little recorded material from the short-lived outfit was ever released, the band adopted the same kind of blues-led rock and roll that had made so many of their Merseyside contemporaries a household name. The key difference, however, was that they presented themselves as creatures of the night.

In one of the only surviving films featuring the group, they can be seen performing a dark cover of Bobby Parker’s earworm track ‘Watch Your Step’ in a corner of St James’ Cemetery, with frontman Alan Grundy carrying a pitchfork and wearing a top hat while his backing band are bedecked in black shawls with Arthur Brown-esque facepaint.

In terms of production value, it is about as good as you can expect for a short-lived, no-budget, mid-1960s garage band, and there doesn’t appear to be much of a narrative behind the band other than unspecified spookiness.

Still, The Mersey Monsters were pioneers in their field, becoming one of the first true shock-rock outfits to grace British soil, coinciding with the rise of Screaming Lord Sutch at around the same time. Clearly, the group took a core part of their influence from the similarly spooky output of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins the decade prior, but listening to a track like ‘Watch Your Step’, the band seem to have predicted the later rise of shock rock psychedelia and even the horror-punk stylings of groups like Misfits, too.

Despite what the band’s B-movie-esque costumes and questionable face paint would have you believe, though, The Mersey Monsters made quite a name for themselves in their native Liverpool. On the orders of their manager, Tony Reuben, the ghoulish garage rockers performed tirelessly over the course of two years, sharing bills with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, among others, and putting on some of the most unique – and presumably bizarre – shows ever seen at the Cavern Club, before ultimately disbanding in 1965.

Today, The Mersey Monsters aren’t often afforded the same notoriety as their Merseyside contemporaries, or even their shock rock comrades like Lord Sutch, and it is easy to see why – namely, a lack of existing material. Still, the band remain one of the intriguing footnotes in the history of Merseybeat, and their haunting version of ‘Watch Your Step’ is well worth revisiting, particularly if you’re in the midst of creating a Halloween playlist.

BOLD! BRUTAL! BARBARIC!

Here's another sleazy batch of posters that are prime examples of exploitation films. Included are a few from the major Hollywood studios who couldn't keep their minds out of the gutter for a few bucks. I've also dished up some blaxploitation pictures that you may not be familiar with. Then there's a couple of transgender films that were quite scandalous for their time: I LED TWO LIVES (1970) tells the fictionalized bio of Christine Jorgensen, a real "trans" person and LET ME DIE A WOMAN (1978) is by the infamous Queen of Exploitation, Doris Wishman. It still amazes me that movies like these ever got made.

THE TRAGIC LIFE OF COLIN CLIVE

Heralded in his day as a gifted performer, Colin Clive was nevertheless plagued with enough personal demons for several people. He was pathologically insecure and suffered from severe stage fright. As a result, he turned to alcohol to deal with his fears. He was also in mortal fear of losing a bad leg due to several injuries.

As the years went on, his alcoholism became worse. He would often be seen sleeping on the set between takes and more than once needed to be held up to deliver his lines. He finally succumbed to alcoholism and tuberculosis on June 25, 1937 at the age of 37.

Mae Clarke remembered him fondly:

Colin Clive was the dearest, kindest (in the real meaning of the word 'kind') man, who gave you importance. He was so wonderful, so clever. When he started acting in a scene, I wanted to stop and just watch... I'd think, 'Here I am, playing scenes with this marvelous actor!' (James) Whale would say, 'Colin's voice is like a pipe organ... I just pull out the stops, and he produces the music.' Colin was electric. I was mesmerized by him; so much so that I hoped it didn't show! When he looked at me, I'd flush. He had a wife back in England, and I had my young man . In fact, I was glad my fiancé was at the premiere that night, to be my good anchor against my stormy waves of fancy for Colin. He was the handsomest man I ever saw, and also the saddest. Colin's sadness was elusive; the sadness you see if you contemplate many of the master painters' and sculptors' conceptions of the face of Christ, the ultimate source in my view of all sadness."

From a book of United Artists actors bios.

Picture Play, July 1935.