In the early ’60s, four friends from Liverpool formed a band. But this is not the ‘fab four’ story we know.

Mary, Sylvia, Valerie and Pamela – also known as The Liverbirds – were one of the world’s first all-female rock’n’roll bands. At an early gig, backstage at the Cavern Club, a young John Lennon told them that ‘girls don’t play guitars’.

But they took that as a challenge. Despite the early scepticism, they won over tough crowds, toured stadiums, recorded two hit albums, and played with the Kinks, Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry – all in the space of just five years.

Now, the two surviving members of the band tell their incredible story in full for the first time – capturing a lost era of liberation and rock’n’roll, as they thrived in the vibrant Merseybeat music scene and formed a friendship that has endured through the decades.

Lucy O’Brien is the author of Madonna: Like An Icon (2018), which was translated into 13 languages. She also wrote
She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music (published in three editions). It inspired the 2002 Radio 2 series She Bop, and two exhibitions: She Bop at the National Portrait Gallery in 2001, and She-Bop-A-Lula, at the Strand Gallery, 2012.

She collaborated with Alison Goldfrapp for the chapter: ‘Country Girl: Rural Feminism in the Performance of Alison Goldfrapp’, in Mute Records: Artists, Business, History (2018). She has also contributed to Gina Arnold and George McKay’s forthcoming essay collection on punk (due 2020), and Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music: Performance, Authority, Authenticity (2016).

Dusty, her classic biography of 60s pop legend Dusty Springfield, was recently revised and updated for a new 2019 edition. She has also written the in-depth biography Annie Lennox. She’s worked for the music press since the 1980s, starting on NME and contributing to a range of titles including Q, Mojo, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Quietus.

Lucy has acted as a consultant and guest contributor in television and radio, for example on Channel 4 News, BBC Radio 4 – Woman’s Hour, Radio London and numerous BBC 4 documentaries. She also co-produced Righteous Babes, the 1998 Channel 4 film about rock and new feminism.

She currently teaches at London College of Music, UWL, and was Course Leader for BA (Hons) Music Journalism and BA (Hons) Music Marketing & Promotion courses at UCA,

She also taught Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, University of Westminster, and Southampton Solent University. Her specialist research areas are music subcultures and scenes, feminism and popular culture, writing and publishing biography. And back in the late 70s/early 80s, Lucy played and sang in all-girl punk band The Catholic Girls.