One of the better discoveries made while researching my Yardbirds book was Caroline Silver’s The Pop Makers: British Rock’n’ Roll, the Sound, the Scene, the Action (Scholastic Book Services, 1966). It is a trove of pop lore with chapters on the Animals, Cilla Black, The Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Alexis Korner, Manfred Mann, Rolling Stones, The Who and the Yardbirds. The latter are singled out to exemplify the daily grind of playing the pop game; as was often the case the ’Birds were given a human, fallible, face and positioned as the anti-stars of the music machine.

Silver was a British writer translating the domestic scene for an American readership while many of the photographs, and all those of the Yardbirds, are unique to this volume. Caroline’s then husband, Nathan Silver was the photographer. If you can find a copy of the book snatch it up quick . . .I’ll be putting up a separate post on The Who’s chapter.

In the dressing rooms members of the groups talked, played cards, or read books and magazines as they waited for their turn to play. Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja, who had spent the early part of the evening visiting Jim's aunt in Liverpool, signed autograph books sent in from the audience. Keith and Sam went off to explore New Brighton and did not return until just before they had to perform. Jeff sat in a corner answering questions put to him by reporters from the local newspapers. "I wish I'd paid more attention at school," he said seriously, as the last reporter left, "because I'd find it much easier to express myself now if I had. What I liked or disliked never seemed to matter at school, but now I'm made to sit up and people expect me to be kind of a radiant person, perfect in every way. And I'm not; I've got terrible faults.It's terrible being expected to be a sort of god, because you don’t know in what way.