The Undertakers
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The Undertakers were a British rock group, contemporaries of the Beatles and a leading group in the Merseybeat music scene of the early 1960s. Their best known line-up was Jackie Lomax (lead vocals, bass), Chris Huston (lead guitar, vocals), Geoff Nugent (rhythm guitar, vocals), Brian Jones (saxophone, vocals), and Bugs Pemberton (drums).
The Undertakers were originally the Vegas Five, a group led by drummer Bob Evans which was one of the first rock and roll groups in the Liverpool area. When they were booked to play a dance, they discovered that the local newspaper had inadvertently transposed their name with the word "Undertakers" from the adjacent column. The promoter persuaded them to develop this as a gimmick, by playing the "Death March" to start their show, and to change their name. In 1961, Evans’ group merged with another group, Dee and the Dynamites, based in Wallasey, and Evans left to be replaced by Pemberton.
The Undertakers developed a major local following for their live performances, due to the quality of Lomax's singing, the customisation of the band’s instruments and amplification by Huston, and the fact that, unlike most Merseybeat groups, they were boosted by a saxophone which enabled them to play a wider range of R&B songs including more obscure material.
They played at Hamburg’s Star Club during 1962. However, on their return, they rejected a management offer from Brian Epstein, and signed a contract with Pye Records with Tony Hatch as their producer. The records they made with Pye were disappointingly weak both in terms of their sound and their commercial success, although their third single, "Just A Little Bit", managed one week on the Top 50 in the UK in 1964. The failure of their records meant that the group’s potential was never fully realised.
The Undertakers split up after a tour of the USA in 1965, with Lomax and Huston both remaining in the country and developing their own careers in the music industry.
