All-girl Blackpool rock band The Missfits from the 1960s are on new Girls With Guitars compilation album

Back in 1963, three teenage schoolgirls from Blackpool formed a band called The Missfits.

It was a rarity for girls to set up a rock band that didn’t deter Elmslie Girl School pupils Pauline Moran, (bass guitar) and Janet Baily (drums), along with their pal from The Collegiate, Andrea Hine on guitar.

They advertised for a rhythm guitarist and 14-year-old Carola Daish replied.

One day in early 1964 she left a Missfits’ business card in the sugar bowl at a local café.

Liz Hall from Belfast moved to Blackpool having seen a photo of The Missfits on the front page of the Daily Mirror.

By chance, she picked up the card and contacted them and in March 1964 became their lead guitarist.

They were so young they had to be chaperoned at gigs.

In April 1964 they won a recording test in a talent contest held at Pontins Squires Gate and travelled to London in July to record it.

The tape was thought lost for nearly 60 years but Janet had kept it safe.

When Mick Patrick of Ace Records heard about it he listened and pronounced it good enough for release in his ‘Girls with Guitars’ series of compilation CDs of female rock bands of the 1960s.

Three tracks have been included in the latest compilation ‘Girls with Guitars Gonna Shake’, which was released on August 26.

So the group’s recordings of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Dimples’, Bo Diddley’s ‘You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover’ and Chuck Berry’s ‘I’m Talking About You’ were finally to be heard.

Pauline, 75, who eventually trained at RADA in London and is now well-known as Miss Lemon in the long-running TV series ‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’, said: “It was unusual for girls to be in a band but we loved rhythm and blues and we weren’t content with just watching the boys do it!

"At first we only had acoustic guitars and Janet had no drums and had to play on cushions!

"But when our parents realised how serious we were , they bought us the instruments and equipment we needed.

"We really worked hard at it and once we got good we were really busy – we played at working men’s clubs, ballrooms and even appeared at the Oasis Club in Manchester.”

After a busy three years the band folded in December 1965.

Andrea, Janet and Liz started full-time work and Carola was concentrating on her studies.

In 1966 Pauline joined the all-girl She Trinity on bass guitar and Janet followed later when She Trinity briefly expanded their numbers for a German tour before finally disbanding in 1970.

Today the ladies live all across Britain and further afield – Janet and Liz still live in Blackpool, Pauline lives in London, Andrea is in Wisbech in Cambridgeshire and Carola is even further away, now residing in Seattle in America.

Back in 2011 the Gazette reported on a band reunion.

Pauline said the recordings of the band ended up on the compilation album by chance, as Carola’s brother-in-law, Lucas Campbell, is a rock historian who is a friend of record boss Mick Patrick.

She added: “We don’t sound like a bunch of schoolgirls!”

Check out the tracks at: https://acerecords.co.uk/girls-with-guitars-gonna-shak