Jimmy Stevens (2)

Jimmy Stevens was born on 5 August 1942 at 27 Moss Street, Garston, Liverpool, UK and began his education at St Francis Assisi School and then went to John Almond Secondary Modern School. Jimmy was spotted singing in the Shipperies pub by the manager of The Beathovens, and was occasionally asked to sing with the band (after their singer Gerry Bach left to form and front Gerry De Ville And The City Kings) together with Keith Dodd - lead guitar; Graham Beasley - bass guitar; Rod Long - rhythm guitar and Charlie Evans on drums. They began playing at venues such at the Cavern and Blue Angel, performing mainly Buddy Holly numbers. His solo single on Fontana was ‘I Love You’ c/w ‘Wharf 130’, both sides written by Jimmy. The family moved to New Brighton in 1967 where he was in a trio with Brian Griffiths, former member of the Big Three, and was also in a group called Fiddlestone and another called the Trends. In New Brighton he became Jimmy Summertime and played all over Wallasey and Birkenhead. A few years later Jimmy performed a number of his own songs in the CAM Recording Studio in Moorfield. Two representatives from the Robert Stigwood Organisation were in attendance for a meeting and were impressed by Jimmy’s performance and original material and he was signed up and moved down to London. He toured with Emerson Lake and Palmer, but was much happier touring with The Bee Gees. His recording career was then assigned to Moby Productions, which was a new production company owned by Maurice Gibb and Lulu’s brother Billy Lawrie. They initially recorded Jimmy on his own compositions in October 1971 followed by two further albums recorded in Britain and America. Maurice Gibb was among other musicians accompanying Jimmy including John Bonham and Peter Frampton. John Peel once described Stevens as "the excellent writer/singer Jimmy Stevens, whose Don't Freak Me Out LP on Atlantic you have almost certainly ignored—to your cost".