An extremely rare live recording of the scaffold in 1968 when they were top of the charts, this album has been long deleted and never before released on CD. The Scaffold emerged from Liverpool’s early 1960s bohemian scene, the same environment that had nurtured the Beatles. The McCartney brothers linked the two, Paul’s younger brother Mike, under the pseudonym McGear, teaming up with entrepreneur John Gorman and poet Roger McGough in 1963, Britain’s most famous poet whose book of sixties beat poetry “the mersey sound” has sold an unprecedented one million copies. Their stage show, fusing softly satirical sketches with music hall bawdiness, was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival and formed the basis for several successful tours through the rest of the decade. The Scaffold enjoyed the Christmas number one in 1968 with “Lily The Pink”, perhaps the most famous of all novelty songs. They had four other hits including “Thank U Very Much” which reached number 4 on the hit parade, a live version of which is included here. The Scaffold’s versatile output during the boom years of UK pop culture stands as a testimony to the qualities of a long-vanished age.

The result of the meeting of Michael McCartney (brother of Beatle Paul), who would work as Mike McGear to avoid accusations of coat-tailing, and Post Office engineer John Gorman, the Scaffold took a blend of absurd humor and catchy songs to chart-topping glory throughout the 1960s. Their lineup filled out with Roger McGough and Adrian Henri, the group was briefly known as the Liverpool One Fat Lady All Electric Show, to the horror of everyone around them. Henri soon departed. A change of name later, they were gaining a reputation as one of the most amusing outfits on the scene, with a residency at Peter Cook's Establishment Club (where the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band also held court). The Scaffold's biggest successes were their cheerfully silly singles, starting with "Thank U Very Much" and continuing with "Lily the Pink" (a sterilized adaptation of an old rugby song, featuring Jack Bruce on bass) and the somewhat incomprehensible "Gin Gan Goolie," all of which had a knack for sticking in the mind on endless repeat without causing undue annoyance. These three songs, in particular, are well remembered even as the 1990s draw to a close.