15. The Cunard Yanks connected Liverpool with the culture and sound of America
Liverpool had long been Britain’s major port linking the United Kingdom with the United States. Though the transatlantic passenger trade had decreased significantly following World War II, trade between the English-speaking nations remained brisk. Britain remained depressed financially, while the American economy boomed. Trade between the nations was by sea, and the Cunard Yanks were the employees of the ships which traveled between the countries. The sailors visited the Canadian port of Montreal and the American port of New York, returning to Liverpool with not only music, but other aspects of American culture such as jeans, biker jackets, and ducktail haircuts.
They brought back to Britain products unavailable to all but the wealthiest, including washing machines, cameras and projectors, record players and tape recorders, suits and hats and overcoats. And they brought back musical instruments. One such young seaman, a man named Ivan Haywood, purchased a black Gretsch guitar in New York in 1957. Upon his return to Liverpool, he sold the instrument to a boy with a scouse accent named George Harrison. The British seamen who worked on the Cunard ships connecting America to England were the chief pipeline of American rock and roll to Britain until the late 1950s.
