How the world's first all-girl rock band the Liverbirds proved John Lennon wrong

ITV News' Andy Bonner spoke to the cast of Girls Can't Play With Guitars, along with the real-life members of The Liverbirds.

A musical telling the story of how the world's first all-girl rock and roll band found fame and proved John Lennon wrong has returned to their hometown.

'Girls Can't Play Guitars' tells the story of The Liverbirds, a rock quartet from Liverpool who took inspiration from The Beatles and started their own band.

They formed after seeing the Beatles at the Cavern Club, thinking there should be an all-girl band. When the club's compere introduced them, it just inspired them even more.

Band member Mary Dostal-McGlory said: "John Lennon just looked at us and said: 'Girls don't play guitars'.

"But we're going to prove them wrong aren't we? That's it. We're going to prove it. We're going to we're going to do it."

Along the way, Mary McGlory, Sylvia Wiggins, Val Gell and Pam Birch turned down the Fab Four’s manager Brian Epstein, hung out with Jimi Hendrix and the Kinks, and drove Chuck Berry wild.

The four members of the band eventually settled down, but when a musical first told their story in 2019 they were thrusted back into the limelight.

Girls Don’t Play Guitars captures the culture of Liverpool at the height of Merseybeat and the draw of Hamburg as it captured Merseyside’s top bands.

Mary said: "Our children and our grandchildren were all there for the opening night and they were crying.

"They just said they couldn't believe it. I mean they knew about us but actually seeing that about us was just fantastic."

Ian Salmon wrote the play after he was approached with the task of telling The Liverbirds' story.

He said: "It's a story about four girls making their lives in the sixties, doing things that they were told they weren't supposed to do.

"Things they were told they weren't supposed to by John Lennon, who famously said, girls don't play guitars.

"If somebody tells you there's this untold Merseybeat story, it's the best thing you've ever had and no one's written about it . Do you fancy writing? Then you go yeah, now!"

Five years on, the musical has returned to the Royal Court in Liverpool.

Alice McKenna plays Mary in the show, and thinks The Liverbirds are still an inspiration to female musicians today.

She said: "It's one of the most like rock 'n' roll, remarkable stories I've heard. They were in a man's world. The reasons that they stopped was because they had children, they got married.

"Their story kind of disappeared. And I don't know, being four girls who are into rock 'n' roll music, the fact that we hadn't heard it shows just how kind of almost forgotten it was, which seems absolutely mental when you hear the story."

Sarah Workman, who plays fellow band-member Sylvia, added: "It was just so incredible.

"They defied the odds because nobody, no women, in 1965/66 were doing what they were doing. And so they really, really broke the mould."

The two surviving Liverbirds, Mary Dostal-McGlory and Sylvia Wiggins, helped develop the show, and have been known to get up on stage and perform during the encore.

Mary said: "People were shouting 'go on Mary! Go on Sylvia! Show 'em girls!"

Sylvia added: "They're all just dancing and everything. It's just absolutely great to be back on that stage again after so many years, it's just fantastic."

Since the musical's debut, Sylvia and Mary have written a book about their adventures in Hamburg and a Hollywood movie based on their lives has entered production.

Lisa Wright, who plays fellow band member Pam, said: "They are so deserving of this time in this moment. They were deserving of it back then, all four of them, but even more so now.

"It's just, you know, you couldn't be more proud of them."

The musical is on at the Royal Court in Liverpool until 26 October.

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