Another Liverpool Invasion

From syracuse.com
Mark Bialczak, Staff writer :: 3/2/04

A sk Terry Sylvester whether there's a rebirth in the music tied to the 1960s period lovingly called The British Invasion, and he bristles. Just a bit.

"There was never a down time for me," says the guy who left a group called The Swinging Blue Jeans in 1968 to replace Graham Nash in The Hollies.

Ask Joey Molland the same question, and he gets wistful. Just a bit.

"Not so I could notice. I wish I could say yeah," says the singer and guitarist from Badfinger.

Ask Paul Davie, and he bubbles over.

After all, Davie plays bass and sings in the Syracuse band that calls itself The Fab Five. Gary Frenay, Arty Lenin, Dave Novak, Dave Miller and Davie have put out a disc of some of their favorite songs from 1964 to 1966. They regularly play shows around Central New York, covering the music of The Beatles and way more.

Friday night, The Fab Five opens a show at the Holiday Inn Convention Center titled "From Liverpool UK to Liverpool USA." After their set, they'll serve as the house band for separate sets by Sylvester and Molland.

"This is a different dream come true," says Davie. "These are two of our heroes. They're both from Liverpool, England. They were there when it was happening. They helped form the British Invasion."

Sylvester and The Hollies gave the world pop hits that included "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," "Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)" and "The Air That I Breathe."

Molland and Badfinger scored big on the Billboard charts with "Come and Get It," "No Matter What," "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue."

Those songs still get played on oldies stations today.

"I suppose the music is good fundamentally," reasons Molland. "Good songs, and we did them as good as we could. It's as much of a surprise to me as anybody else that the songs have hung in. The records are on the radio all over the world. And I really don't know why."

To Sylvester, it's been a magical and less mysterious tour.

"When I was with (his first group) The Escorts, we never had success on vinyl. In 1966, I joined The Swinging Blue Jeans. They had hits. In '68, I joined The Hollies. We never had a down period at all. It was just go-go-go for the best part of 13 years.

"That five-year blast from 1964 to 1969 gave you such a good blast of music," Sylvester says. "Those songs still stand up today. I think the songwriting has a lot to do with it. I think the bulk of the population being from the Baby Boom-era has something to do with it, too."

Eventually, Sylvester and Molland moved to North America. Molland lives in Minneapolis, and Sylvester resides in Port Credit, Ontario, just outside Toronto.

"I met a girl. Married her. Traveled the world. In 1984, we decided to move to Minneapolis and raise the children. I got a little house in 1986 and have been here ever since," says Molland.

He loves the music scene there. He has his own band and says he's got eight or 10 shows scheduled for early this year.

Living in Minneapolis, Molland also keeps in touch with many of his old musical cronies when they come to the Twin Cities to play.

"The last show I went to see was The Who tour. I went to the (Paul) McCartney show. All the (Pink) Floyd shows. All that kind of stuff. Some of them are even nice enough to leave me tickets," Molland says, and you can hear the smile in his voice.

Sylvester moved to Canada in 1987.

"There's only thing that would make you do that. Love," he says. "I was on tour with Gerry and the Pacemakers, and I met the lady that I'm with now."

He says he loves his house, which is by Lake Ontario, in an area "surrounded by golf courses."

"I like the pace," Sylvester says. "It's not the pace of London, where I lived for 30 years. It's a bit more laid-back."

He, too, has his own band. But Sylvester and Molland say they're happy to be backed up by Syracuse musicians who love their music.

"Gary and Arty and I have all their records," Davie says. "We were offering to do songs onstage that Terry didn't think anybody knows."

The immersion in the British Invasion will get deeper in August for The Fab Five.

In August, the band will be one of seven from the United States invited to play at International Beatle Week in Liverpool, England.

The Syracuse band will play a one-hour set in the famed Cavern Club as well as two other theater performances.

Davie scored the invitation by e-mailing a copy of The Fab Five playing "This Boy" to Bill Heckle, marketing manager for The Cavern Club.

"He e-mailed me back saying, 'You guys are fantastic. We want you over here for (this) year's festival,' " Davie says. "It didn't hurt that we have a suburb here called Liverpool."