Today’s song is ‘Ferry Across the Mersey’ (sometimes written ‘Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey’). This song was written and sung by Gerry Marsden of the band, ‘Gerry and the Pacemakers’. It was recorded and released in late 1964 in the United Kingdom and in 1965 in the United States. It was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching Number 6 in the United States and Number 8 in the United Kingdom. The song is from the film of the same name and was released on its soundtrack album. In the mid-1990s a musical theatre production also titled ‘Ferry 'Cross the Mersey’ related Gerry Marsden's Merseybeat days. It premiered in Liverpool and played in the UK, Australia, and Canada.
‘Mersey’ refers to the ‘River Mersey’ in northwest England; a river that flows into the ‘Irish Sea’ at Liverpool. The ‘Mersey Ferry’ runs between Liverpool and Birkenhead and Seacombe on the Wirral. In May 1989, a charity version of ‘Ferry Across the Mersey’ was released in aid of those affected by the ‘Hillsborough Disaster', which claimed the lives of 95 Liverpool fans the previous month. The song was recorded by Liverpool artists ‘The Christians’, ‘Holly Johnson’. ‘Paul McCartney’, ‘Gerry Marsden’ and ‘Stock Aitken Waterman’. The single held the Number 1 spot in the UK chart for three weeks and the Irish chart for two weeks.
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This song was recorded during a time when I lived in Canada. It was a period in musical history when Liverpool was the musical capital of the world and all the artists coming out of Liverpool spawned a generation of musical success, the like of which hadn’t been seen outside Detroit’s Motown Music scene.
Liverpool and its dock had always been important to the Irish immigrants coming to England to start a new life. My parents and their first three children of seven made that crossing during the 1940s. Indeed, whenever we went back to Ireland for holiday breaks in our growing up years, we would always catch the cheapest ferry out of Liverpool. This was colloquially known as the ‘Cattle Boat’ (because it often carried a cargo of live cattle on the bottom deck) with the paying passengers on the upper deck.
The cheapest ferry across the Irish Sea always set off at midnight. It was always crammed to the rafters, and any stowaways would have to sleep with the cattle below deck. The ferry would be overfilled with patriotic passengers who quickly lost their English intonations and slang one minute after stepping onto the ferry, falling back into the daily idioms of their mother tongue and expressing themselves in the Irish brogue of a Belfast banshee. Passengers would drink wildly and sing loudly in celebration of the land they all claimed to love with their dying breath, but which they couldn’t get out of quick enough years earlier once they got word of the better life to be had across the sea in England. The journey would take 8 hours to reach Dublin and the sleeping quarters were on top of a few suitcases or on the crowded floor laid on an old coat among too many drunks to count. I recall when I saw the film, ‘Titanic’ and the migrants travelling to America from Ireland on the lower deck, it reminded me of my passage on the ‘Cattle Boat’ crossing from Liverpool to Dublin as a young boy.
At the beginning of ‘The New Millennium,’ I recall seeing a performance by ‘Gerry and the Pacemakers’ in a night club called ‘The Ritz’ in Brighouse. We danced away to all their popular songs. I have to say that despite the advancement of years, apart from having lost a bit of hair here and there, Gerry hadn’t lost that distinctive voice of his I’d grown up listening to. It was a voice that made Liverpudlians as proud as punch and it also left Doddy and all the Knotty Ash people tickled to the end of their days. Long live Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Love and peace Bill xxx
‘Mersey’ refers to the ‘River Mersey’ in northwest England; a river that flows into the ‘Irish Sea’ at Liverpool. The ‘Mersey Ferry’ runs between Liverpool and Birkenhead and Seacombe on the Wirral. In May 1989, a charity version of ‘Ferry Across the Mersey’ was released in aid of those affected by the ‘Hillsborough Disaster', which claimed the lives of 95 Liverpool fans the previous month. The song was recorded by Liverpool artists ‘The Christians’, ‘Holly Johnson’. ‘Paul McCartney’, ‘Gerry Marsden’ and ‘Stock Aitken Waterman’. The single held the Number 1 spot in the UK chart for three weeks and the Irish chart for two weeks.
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This song was recorded during a time when I lived in Canada. It was a period in musical history when Liverpool was the musical capital of the world and all the artists coming out of Liverpool spawned a generation of musical success, the like of which hadn’t been seen outside Detroit’s Motown Music scene.
Liverpool and its dock had always been important to the Irish immigrants coming to England to start a new life. My parents and their first three children of seven made that crossing during the 1940s. Indeed, whenever we went back to Ireland for holiday breaks in our growing up years, we would always catch the cheapest ferry out of Liverpool. This was colloquially known as the ‘Cattle Boat’ (because it often carried a cargo of live cattle on the bottom deck) with the paying passengers on the upper deck.
The cheapest ferry across the Irish Sea always set off at midnight. It was always crammed to the rafters, and any stowaways would have to sleep with the cattle below deck. The ferry would be overfilled with patriotic passengers who quickly lost their English intonations and slang one minute after stepping onto the ferry, falling back into the daily idioms of their mother tongue and expressing themselves in the Irish brogue of a Belfast banshee. Passengers would drink wildly and sing loudly in celebration of the land they all claimed to love with their dying breath, but which they couldn’t get out of quick enough years earlier once they got word of the better life to be had across the sea in England. The journey would take 8 hours to reach Dublin and the sleeping quarters were on top of a few suitcases or on the crowded floor laid on an old coat among too many drunks to count. I recall when I saw the film, ‘Titanic’ and the migrants travelling to America from Ireland on the lower deck, it reminded me of my passage on the ‘Cattle Boat’ crossing from Liverpool to Dublin as a young boy.
At the beginning of ‘The New Millennium,’ I recall seeing a performance by ‘Gerry and the Pacemakers’ in a night club called ‘The Ritz’ in Brighouse. We danced away to all their popular songs. I have to say that despite the advancement of years, apart from having lost a bit of hair here and there, Gerry hadn’t lost that distinctive voice of his I’d grown up listening to. It was a voice that made Liverpudlians as proud as punch and it also left Doddy and all the Knotty Ash people tickled to the end of their days. Long live Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Love and peace Bill xxx
