Gerry Marsden, the original lead singer of Gerry & the Pacemakers, has criticised Britain’s Daily Mail over a story they published on Thursday.
According to the Daily Mail’s article, Marsden “dramatically collapsed on stage” during a show at The Riverfront in Newport, South Wales, part of his “Gerry Cross the Mersey Tour”.
The paper implied that the situation was brought on by a problem with Marsden’s heart, saying that he fell flat on his back while performing the Eagles Peaceful Easy Feeling and pointing out that Gerry had a triple bypass in 2003 and a valve replacement in 2012. This conclusion even though reports said that Marsden had gotten back up and apologised to the audience before being helped off stage.
A spokesperson for the venue later said “Unfortunately Gerry Marsden was taken ill during the second half of the stage performance at The Riverfront last night and was unable to return to the stage. The live band continued until the end of the show without him.” There was no mention that the situation was serious or that the singer was hospitalised.
On Friday (March 17), Marsden criticised the Daily Mail over their conclusions as to why he fell on stage. Marsden told the Liverpool Echo “About 40 minutes into the show my knee started playing up, I lost my balance and my PA came up, got my guitar and got me to come off the stage. It’s a pain in the a**e rather than anything serious, well really it’s a pain in the knee. I came home and now it’s strapped up and I’m resting. It was nothing serious.”
Gerry and the Pacemakers were formed in 1959 in Liverpool and played in the same venues as the Beatles as they established their career. Over the course of just under two years from March 1963 to January 1965, they had six top ten hits in Britain including number 1’s How Do You Do It?, I Like It and You’ll Never Walk Alone. In the U.S., they hit the top ten three times with Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying (1964 / #4), a reissue of How Do You Do It? (1964 / #9) and Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965 / #6).
