Steve Laine
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Steve Laine (born March 19th.1940) is lead singerand song writer with The Liverpool Five. He was born in London, England.
Steve started music playing washboard in a skiffle group the Streamliners, and was later lead singer with the Zodiacs.
Semi-professional music was fun, but Steve always wanted a band of his own and when rhythm and blues became his major music of choice, by the early sixties he put together a group with that focus and called it the Steve Laine Combo and went professional. In addition to Steve usually singing lead, the band comprised Ken Cox on guitar, Dave Burgess on bass, Ron Henley on keyboards and sax and Jimmy May on drums. Many of their songs featured all five singing. Dave and Jimmy also sang lead.
The Steve Laine Combo became very popular around central London, playing clubs like the Flamingo in Soho and caught the eye of the owners there the Gunnell brothers, Rik and Johnny. On a tour of Germany arranged by the Gunnells in early 1964, the band was signed to a management contract by the famous German impressario Karl Buchmann who included them in a package tour of the largest venues in Germany and Austria. Following that tour, at Buchmann's suggestion, the group changed its name to The Liverpool Five, to capitalize on the international popularity of the Beatles, and flew to Japan as the official rock and roll representatives for the 1964 Summer Olympics. Every night the LP5 played to an audience of 10,000 frantic fans in the Korakuen Arena in Tokyo. Many American teenagers whose fathers were in the military there came to see them. Prior to leaving Germany, the LP5 recorded an album on CBS for European release entitled "Tokio International".
Following an extensive tour of the Far East (the first English R&R band to do so) the LP5 came to the USA in March 1965. Originally based in Spokane, Washington and later in Los Angeles, the group became resident aliens and spent the next three years touring the United States, releasing a number of singles and a couple of albums on RCA Victor. All of their recordings in digital format are currently available from Rock-in Beat Records and on the Internet. "The Best of Liverpool Five" featuring 18 of their finest RCA Victor recordings completely re-mastered is released in April 2008 by Sundazed Records. In addition, many of their original recordings can still be found at premium prices on eBay.