AMG Review
by Bruce Eder
This 77-minute compilation, which originally appeared on the Sequel label in England, is a decent if limited (by its restriction to the library of a single label) crash course in what the Liverpool sound was like, beyond the ranks of the Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, etc. Of the dozen acts featured here, only one -- the Searchers -- ever saw success that lasted more than one or two chart entries, if that; the CD is a bit of a cheat, since the Searchers are represented by six songs (although only two hits). The rest is genuinely obscure, and all material drawn from the Pye Records vaults. There's a lot of high-quality playing on this collection, especially from the Undertakers and the Trends. The Undertakers' early sound never really got too close to what was thought of as Merseybeat, being dominated by the saxophone, an instrument seldom heard in Liverpool; the Trends, on the other hand, had good guitar attack, and lead vocalist Tony Priestly sang extremely well. Their tactical error may have been to record "All My Lovin'" (which they couldn't improve over the Beatles version) as their second single, which that shows off one of the problems that most of these bands had -- a lack of repertory of their own. Most of these groups were forced to cover others' songs, and sometimes each other's, or else to write their own material, even if they weren't good enough to do it. Tommy Quickly was at the bottom of the Brian Epstein management totem-pole, though not in his personal life -- he comes off as a decent enough singer, but nothing special; his backing band, the Remo Four, play well enough but were rather predictable on these records. The notes are thorough and the sound is more than acceptable.
http://www.allmusic.com/album/some-other-guys-r254982/review