{"id":308284,"date":"2025-08-01T04:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T04:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/308284\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T04:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T04:03:12","slug":"gerry-marsdens-emotional-final-gift-to-the-city-of-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/308284\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerry Marsden’s ’emotional’ final gift to the city of Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Merseybeat legend died at the age of 78 in 2021Dan Haygarth<\/strong><\/a> Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter<\/p>\n

04:00, 01 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

\"GerryGerry Marsden pictured on the Pier Head in 2019(Image: Mirrorpix)<\/p>\n

The final song recorded by Gerry Marsden has been suggested as an ‘anthem’ for the Liverpool City Region. Toxteth-born Gerry recorded ‘On Merseyside – The Pool of Life\u2019 shortly before his death at the age of 78 in January 2021<\/a>. The song, written by Gary Murphy, was recorded at Glass Studios, Birkenhead<\/a>. Now, Liverpool City Region<\/a> Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram<\/a> is among those who are calling for the Merseybeat legend’s final track to be adopted as the region\u2019s official anthem.<\/p>\n

The Mayor, who was a close friend of Gerry\u2019s for many years, said: “If any city in the world deserves its own anthem, it’s Liverpool. Who better to sing that song than the late, great Gerry Marsden<\/a>. His last recording is another song about Liverpool and it’s called ‘On Merseyside – The Pool of Life’.”<\/p>\n

The singer recorded the track, also produced by Gary Murphy, shortly before he died four years ago. A video to promote the song has been produced by Alan Lewis of Glass Studios.<\/p>\n

Gary said: “Gerry loved the song because it was all about the city he loved. It highlights all the great things we have here.<\/p>\n

\"GerryGerry Marsden with his MBE in 2003(Image: Matthew Fearn\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

“It turned out to be quite emotional for me, because at the time we didn’t know it would be the last time Gerry would record an original song. He added: “I hope you like Gerry Marsden’s<\/a> final farewell.”<\/p>\n

Former ECHO<\/a> journalist Arthur Johnson, who is promoting the idea of the song as an anthem, said: “It reflects the city\u2019s culture taking in music, humour, sport and architecture.<\/p>\n

“We hope it will be used both at home and abroad to promote the region and attract tourists.”<\/p>\n

Gerry, who was born in Toxteth<\/a> in September 1942, rose to fame as the leader of Gerry and the Pacemakers.<\/p>\n

Their first three recordings topped the British charts – they were the first band to achieve this feat.<\/p>\n

‘How Do You Do It’, which was initially given to The Beatles<\/a>, was the first hit. It was followed by ‘I Like It’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ – which then became Liverpool FC’s anthem.<\/p>\n

A collection of the region’s music and entertainment legends gathered to listen to ‘On Merseyside – The Pool of Life’ at the Cavern Club in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘On Merseyside – The Pool of Life’ is available to stream online, along with the film of Gerry Marsden’s final live concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, a performance which Arthur described as “really emotional.”<\/p>\n

The video promoting the song can be found here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Merseybeat legend died at the age of 78 in 2021Dan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,77,112985,4884,179,1835,8892,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-308284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gerry-marsden","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-liverpool-combined-authority","15":"tag-steve-rotheram","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114951527442173728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}