“Charlie Watts said, ‘We wonder what happened to them fantastic girls. We never heard of them again in England’”: They were one of the world's first “all-female” rock bands – then they disappeared. But the Rolling Stones and the Beatles never forgot them

L-R Mary McGlory, Pamela Birch, Sylvia Saunders and Valerie Gell of Liverpool band The Liverbirds pose for a group portrait outside the Star Club c 1963 in Hamburg, Germany.

Back in the ’60s, guitarists Valerie Gell and Pamela Birch, bassist Pamela Birch, and drummer Sylvia Saunders – known collectively as the Liverbirds – rivaled peers such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones with their unique brand of Merseybeat and rock ’n’ roll.

“We were the very first all-female band to play at The Cavern [the legendary venue in Liverpool],” McGlory told Guitar World in a 2024 interview.