Music. The mystery of ‘lost’ rock genius Lee Mavers

Just over 30 years ago, band The La’s released their sole LP – a masterpiece that shaped guitar music. But its brilliant frontman has been elusive ever since, writes Shaun Curran.

Lee Mavers is the frontman, songwriter, and creative force of The La’s, a British band from the northern city of Liverpool. The La’s only made one album, enjoyed just one hit single and haven’t released a note of new music since 1990. Yet the band’s legacy and place in rock history supersedes their slim output. That single, There She Goes, remains as perfect a slice of guitar pop as anything since their Liverpool forebears The Beatles and is the crown jewel in a treasured canon that has become a touchstone for generations of bands. The La’s helped to usher in the 90s Britpop era in British guitar music, led by the likes of Oasis and Blur – Noel Gallagher once declared that « Oasis want to finish what The La’s started » – while their influence has stretched beyond that to bands from The Libertines to Arctic Monkeys and Fontaines DC.

« It’s like The Velvet Underground, » says former La’s guitarist Barry Sutton. « Maybe not everyone knows about The La’s, but everyone who did went out and formed a band or was touched by [the music] in a really deep way ». 

It says everything about the scale of Mavers’ talent that his reputation as a genius is based on such little recorded material. But his beautifully succinct songs, covered by artists ranging from Robbie Williams to Pearl Jam, have placed him in the lineage of classic songwriters, winning a devoted following and the admiration of music legends. In 1991, Eric Clapton told Rolling Stone that « the only thing I’ve really liked (recently) is a guy called Lee Mavers… he’s got a stance and a style that I think is tremendous », while in 2013 The Smiths’ former guitarist Johnny Marr told Q magazine that Mavers « is as good as everyone thinks he is ».

Yet Mavers is now considered by many to be one of pop’s great « lost » figures. Over the last three decades, he has steadfastly refused to release any of the songs he’s written. Since 1991, Mavers has played just 20 official concerts, the last of which was nearly 10 years ago. His public appearances are so scarce that for some journalists, tracking him down became a holy grail: Matthew Macefield wrote an entire book, 2003’s A Secret Liverpool: In Search of The La’s, dedicated to his four-year quest to get an audience with Mavers, which he eventually did at his Liverpool home.

His enigmatic nature is one reason why, with rock music currently lacking truly maverick figures, Mavers still holds the imagination of not just fans, but the press and industry at large: despite years of inactivity, his status is such that as recently as 2015, he was rumoured to be working on music with Liam Gallagher.

Recently celebrating its 30th anniversary, the La’s self-titled debut is a cult album in the truest sense. It only reached number 30 in the charts and sold relatively few copies on release. Influenced by The Beatles, The Who, Love and Pink Floyd, its acoustic rhythms, 1960s sensibility and pure melodicism were at odds with the era’s prevailing scenes of Madchester, grunge and shoegaze. But it is precisely that ageless quality that has weathered so well. Songs like Timeless Melody and the epic Looking Glass display a rare gift for songwriting that continues to endure.

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