Paddy Breen

Under Appreciated

PADDY BREEN
 
 

The Cavern Club had been revived (again), and the Klubs put in an appearance in their old stomping grounds on May 27, 2000; even though singer Paddy Breen had a bad head cold, and guitarist Trevor Griffiths couldn’t be there because of a broken leg. 

 

*       *       *

 

 

 

The Klubs formed at the Birkenhead Institute for Boys, located in a borough called Wirral, which is across the Mersey River from Liverpool.  Originally a band by the name of the Klubs was put together in just two days so that they could enter an R&B contest on the Isle of Man in September 1965 – and they actually won the contest. 

 

By the end of the year, the line-up had settled into a sextet:  Paddy Breen (vocals), Alan Walker (vocals, harmonica), Trevor Griffiths (lead guitar), John Reid (rhythm guitar), Norris Easterbrook (bass) and Kenny Marshall (drums).  In the early years, they were a hard-driving rhythm and blues band that performed a lot of covers of Rolling Stones and Pretty Things songs. 

 

*       *       *

 

The first single by the Klubs was a demo made in March 1967 for Chart Records called “Livin’ Today” that oddly featured the horn section from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.  They appeared the following month on a television show called First Timers with a performance of another original song called “Only John Tring”; an acoustical treatment of the song that was recorded in Paddy Breen’s bedroom survives and appears on the compilation LP (Midnight Love Cycle) and CD (Midnight Love Cycleshown earlier,  Scratchy and muddy though it might be, this recording proves beyond doubt that the Klubs were wild men from the beginning. 

 

*       *       *

 

 

 

Although still Cavern Club favorites who were known as “the wild, wild Klubs”, the true Liverpool bands (and later the audiences) began to resent the popularity of the Klubs who actually hailed from the other side of the Mersey River in Birkenhead.  Not least among the reasons for this is that the Klubs began to let their hair grow halfway down their backs and started appearing on stage in dresses that they borrowed from their girlfriends and sisters.  The above photo is how singer Paddy Breen looked back then.  David Bowie had a hard enough time pulling off the androgynous pose, but at least he was based in London.  The Klubs were being even more overtly provocative the year before Bowie’s first big hit, “Space Oddity” was released – and in a much rougher town. 

 

*       *       *

 

The Klubs’ popularity had begun to decline by 1969, and the band eventually trimmed down to a power trio:  John Reid (vocals, guitar), Paddy Breen (vocals, bass) and Peter Sinclair-Tidy (drums).  They recorded two songs that year, a stripped-down version of “Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?” plus the Stripper; neither was released, however.  Both are also included on the Midnight Love Cycle CD and are quite good, though they suffer from production issues.  Briefly called the Klubbs, they later performed as WarhogNorris Easterbrook now calls the latter group “a heavy metal dirge band”. 

 

*       *       *

 

 

 

(left to right:  Trevor GriffithsPete Tidy, John ReidPaddy BreenNorris Easterbrook

 

Anyway, word’s out now about the Klubs, even if no one has gotten around to putting anything in Wikipedia or Allmusic about them.  The band has a website – www.theklubs.com/ – and they also have a listing on the online British Music Archive:  www.britishmusicarchive.com/K/339-the-klubs 

 

(July 2013)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021