We’d heard all the crazy stories about Lee Mavers. Always off his head on something, refusing to record on any equipment made after the end of the Sixties, churning through band members and producers, never being satisfied with any recordings and all this culminating in record label Go! Discs telling (final) producer Steve Lillywhite to piece together an album from whatever recordings he had as they had already spent so much money on it they needed to release something. It was bound to be a mess, right ?

Then sometime in the mid-90’s I picked up a cheap CD of it just to have a listen and…hell’s teeth what a bloody wonderful album this is. Yes it’s hugely influenced by the sound of 60’s Liverpool but it is unmistakably not of the ‘60’s. And oh those songs. I’m pretty sure everybody reading this will be familiar with their single “There She Goes”, and great as it is that’s not even the best thing on here !

“Timeless Melody”, for that is most certainly the greatest thing on here, is a thing of absolute beauty and wonder. I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to sit back after having written something like this but I’d be willing to give up at least one major limb to find out. The melody, the rhythms that are weaving in and around the lyrics, all of it completely transfixes me whenever I hear it. The lyric “The melody chord unwinds me, The rhythm of life unties me, Brushing the hands of time away” sums up perfectly that moment you get completely lost in the music. Ian Prowse is wont to add a little of “Timeless Melody” into the end of “Does This Train Stop On Merseyside ?” when he plays live which floored me the first time I heard it and also reinforces the position the song holds among Liverpool musicians. It is quite simply one of the greatest songs to come out of Liverpool, and it has some competition !

Elsewhere “Son Of A Gun”, “Doledrum” and particularly side 2’s opener “Feelin’” have a sound and quality to them that I’ve mentioned before. They are pieces of music that could only have come from Liverpool. There is a joy and a cockiness and a sense of rhythm about them that shouts “we’re scouse la’ !” at you. The album ends on “Looking Glass”, an almost 8 minute pop-psychedelic mantra which finishes on the lyric “The glass is smashed, The change is cast”…almost prophetic.

It took 3 years to make this record. Producers like John Porter, (Roxy Music, Killing Joke, The Smiths) John Leckie (Magazine, XTC, The Stone Roses), Mike Hedges (Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Wah!) and finally Steve Lillywhite (U2, Simple Minds, The Pogues, Kirsty MacColl) tried to capture the sound Lee Mavers heard in his head, but failed. As soon as the album was released the band (Mavers ?) disowned it and The La’s never made another record. John Power, the only other permanent member of The La’s, went on to form Cast and is still recording and touring under that name today.

If you have any sort of interest in great songwriting and somewhat 60’s influenced guitar pop and you’ve never heard this record then I’d urge you to remedy that very soon starting with clicking the link below, turning your chosen device up loud and bathing in the glory of “Timeless Melody”. I would never be so bold as to suggest that Lee Mavers was wrong in what he thought of it but, to my ears, “The La’s” is a masterpiece.

Timeless Melody - https://youtu.be/1Cveh8ycOgA?si=3XK6CBZ6ow9gD0AE