The Other Fab Four: The Remarkable True Story of the Liverbirds, Britain’s First Female Rock Band

McGlory and Saunders debut with a jaunty if somewhat disorganized account of growing up in postwar Britain and forming the nation’s “first all-female rock band.” Inspired by a Beatles performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, McGlory, Saunders, and friends Valerie Gell and Pamela Birch founded the Liverbirds in 1962. They began playing local venues and soon became part of the thriving Liverpool music scene that gave rise to the Beatles, Herman’s Hermits, and the Kinks. Propelled by their energetic covers of songs by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley—and the novelty of being female performers at a time when “all-girl bands were as rare as UFOs”—the group’s success at home led to a residency at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, where a buzzy music scene forged bonds between English rockers and German fans (“We were a younger generation, trying to dissolve the... divisions that were a hangover from the war,” McGlory recalls). The Liverbirds later toured Europe and briefly Japan before breaking up in 1968 when marriage and childcare responsibilities interfered. Though chapters from McGlory and Saunders’s perspectives alternate in a way that can feel disjointed, and the post-band sections of the narrative tend to meander, for the most part it’s a colorful and energetic look into an electric period of rock and roll history. Classic rock fans will be charmed. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House. (Mar.)