Brothers Martin and Adrian Welham started playing folk music with their friend Dez (Derek) Allenby while still schoolboys in Grimsby (Lincolnshire). Moving to the tiny village of Walesby near Market Rasen in the mid-60s, they initially named themselves The Foresters…

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Jimmy Webb’s debut album Words and Music (1970) was a formative exercise in multi-tracking and overdubbing, with almost every sound on the LP made by Webb or his studio cohort, Fred Tackett. But its pioneering thunder was largely stolen by…

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Anthony Peter Hatch was born in Pinner, North London, in 1939. Growing up in the 1940s, he took up the piano at the age of four and was in the school choir by the age of ten, discovering Mantovani at…

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These days the late Rosemary Clooney is probably most famous for being George Clooney’s auntie. But in the 1950s, she was briefly one of the most popular female vocalists in the world. One of her hits – Mambo Italiano (#1…

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Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel wrote intensely poetic songs about love and friendship, but also about his homeland, death, misogyny and the bourgeoisie. He refused to write in English and only ever gave two performances to the English-speaking world, and it…

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Like The Crew Cuts, whose career they so closely followed, The Diamonds also came from Canada, where Ted Kowalski (tenor), Phil Levitt (baritone) and Bill Reed (bass) attended the University of Toronto. In 1954, they auditioned for CBC-TV’s Now Is…

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Sandra Alfred showed a talent for entertaining at an early age and by the age of ten, she was enrolled in the Aida Foster stage school. During the 1950s she appeared on the British radio programme Educating Archie, on television…

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Formed in 1962, female vocal trio The Breakaways became Britain’s premiere session vocalists throughout the 1960s, also recording a handful of little-known girl group singles. The original members were Vicki Haseman (who later married Joe Brown), Margot Quantrell, Barbara Moore (who was…

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One of the premier groups from the mid-60s Merseybeat explosion. Having previously backed Liverpool singer Johnny Sandon, they broke away and took their new name from the 1956 John Ford western. In 1962, they appeared in Hamburg, and after sending a demo tape, they…

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Born John Bertram Lynton in Shepperton, Middlesex on 27 February 1940, Jackie first began singing in the choir at Shepperton Church School. As a teenager, he was persuaded by club proprietor Dennis Cordet to enter a talent competition. He won…

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Originally known as The Vampires, The Sheffields formed in Sheffield, Yorkshire (where else?) in 1963 and won a ‘battle of the bands’ contest at the City Hall in September of that year. Signing to Pye Records, they released three Tony…

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Vivien Foreman was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, on 12 July 1946 and relocated as a small child to Cape Town (South Africa) with her family. The family eventually returned to England after four-and-a-half years, where she attended the Italia Conti…

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Formed in Wolverhampton (England) in 1964, The Montanas never found significant success in their home country but had one moderate hit in the United States. Signing to Pye Records – with several of their early releases written by Tony Hatch…

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Born on 18 January 1941 in Marianna, Florida, Bobby Goldsboro studied business administration at college before playing the guitar with a band that performed for fraternity and sorority parties. Dropping out of college, he turned to music full-time, signing a…

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17-year-old Joanna Sorrin (South African actress Geneviève Waïte), a wide-eyed and fanciful country girl, goes to London for a fashion design course. There, she dresses in chic fashions, comes into contact with the capital’s young jet set, indulges in the…

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Before the diminutive one preferred people to draw rather than spell his name, he made this 1984 film which is essentially an extended music video. Its soundtrack album sold a million copies in the first week of release, and it…

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Paul Schrader’s 1987 movie starred ‘Girl Elvis’ Joan Jett as Patti Rasnick, an ambitious young rock chick who is determined to make her rock band, The Barbusters, succeed. Michael J Fox co-starred as her rocking brother, Joe, who sings the self-penned…

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Director Michael Curtiz was originally slated to make this film with James Dean in the title role. Inheriting Elvis Presley instead, he told the King to cut his hair and lose weight, hoping to provoke a tantrum which would lead…

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The Neil Diamond/Laurence Olivier version of The Jazz Singer isn’t actually about a jazz singer at all, but about a sensitive Jewish singer/songwriter who performs a few half-decent songs (including Love On The Rocks) and manages not to wince whenever…

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During the early 1960s, the most prevalent image in London was of the Union Jack, which found its way onto every kind of accessory, from mugs to badges to shopping bags. A group of Surbiton typists began it all in…

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For eight years, if you were into Northern Soul, there was only one place you wanted to go: Wigan Casino. At 2.00 am on Sunday 23 September 1973, the doors of the Wigan Casino opened to the Northern Soul all-nighter…

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In 1973, West German journalist Gerd Heidemann bought Hermann Göring’s yacht, the Carin II, after being assigned to write a story about it by Stern magazine. During the course of its restoration, he had a brief affair with Göring’s daughter…

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There is one group who were omnipresent and pivotal during the poppiest years of the 1970s in Britain. One group who were always there, who never missed a beat. One group who were always on Top Of The Pops. One…

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The main job of British movie dolly birds in the 60s and 70s was to be passive objects for the likes of Sid James or Robin Askwith to “phwooaar” all over or to scream helplessly and faint when Christopher Lee…

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Wendy Emerton – later to take the stage name Richard – was born in Middlesbrough on 20 July 1943. Later, her parents moved to London to manage a Mayfair pub, and she attended St George’s school in Mount Street. Her…

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Maurice Harold Macmillan was half-American by parentage, the son of a publisher who had raised the family from a humble background. Chelsea-born, he was educated at Eton and later at Balliol College, Oxford, where he excelled. He was wounded three…

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Smash Hits was a pop music magazine aimed at teenagers and young adults, featuring lyrics, photographs, interviews and news related to music acts in the UK (Later offshoots arrived in the US and Australia). Ex-NME editor Nick Logan came up with…

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The Australian TV Week King of Pop awards began in 1967 as an extension of the Go-Set Awards, named after the weekly pop newspaper of the day. When Normie Rowe was voted most popular performer by Go-Set’s readers in 1967,…

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January 01 – In Australia, the Bogle/Chandler case mystifies police who believe poison may have been used to kill the couple. 02 – UPI reports that 30 Americans have died in Vietnam combat to date. 10 – Premier of Cliff…

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January 01 – Brunei becomes independent of Britain. The Sultan of Brunei appoints himself Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Home Affairs Minister. 01 – After a bloodless coup, Major General Buhari becomes ruler of Nigeria. 01 – Alexis Korner, godfather…

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This British strike against pit closures – arguably the most bitter industrial dispute in British history – lasted almost a year from April 1984. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), led by its Marxist president, Arthur Scargill (pictured), called the…

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January 02 – 22 die as hurricane winds rock Britain. 05 – The Khmer Rouge drafts a new constitution in Cambodia, renaming it Democratic Kampuchea. 05 – Former Beatles road manager Mal Evans is shot dead by Los Angeles police investigating a domestic…

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January 01 – The Maldive Islands become a republic. 01 – Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris is knighted in the New Year Honours list. 01 – Hank Williams dies. 02 – The RAFs first supersonic fighters, 400 US-designed Sabres, arrive at RAF…

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January 02 – A New York accountant finally claims his $3 million lottery jackpot, which he won 45 years earlier. He waited until the New Year to save about $15,000 in taxes. 04 – Karni Bheel, who boasted the longest moustache…

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January 01 – Fidel Castro completes 30 years in power in Cuba. 02 – The US and Canada sign a comprehensive free trade agreement which eliminates tariffs and other barriers to trade and investment. 04 – Two US Navy jets…

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