THE LATE Dean Martin is a legend, an absolute all- time great comedian, singer and actor. He was born and named Dino Paul Crocetti on June 17, 1917, in Ohio, USA to Italian immigrant parents. At the age of 17, he started singing and enjoyed doing it very much. In the late 1930s, after singing for about four years under his real...
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‘A BEAUTIFUL NOISE’ is a lavish new production celebrating the life and music of Neil Diamond, and the show is about to tour the UK and Eire throughout October and November. This joyful celebration will be delivered with an assured virtuosity by the award-winning singer Fisher Stevens. The music of Neil Diamond has been with us for...
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By Pat Murphy This is the fourth in a series marking Cliff’s 60th anniversary in the music business. The first three looked at the international dimension of his career and his live performances in the UK, but the focus this time is on the various TV dimensions. FROM the late 1950s through to the 1980s, Cliff was a regular,...
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By John Firminger RESPONSIBLE for creating the hits – with probably just as many misses – one of the most important, if not THE most important, person in the recording industry is the record producer. Some of them, like George Martin, (top)Norrie Paramor, and even Joe Meek, (centre) have become equally as famous as the artists...
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EVERY DEEP PURPLE true lover knows how much their magic and powerful style is the result of many different influences brought in by the single members, all merging into the powerful sound loved by millions of rock fans. Ian Gillan’s love for American soul and R&B, as well as skiffle and early rock and roll, has been well...
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Tommy, the rock ‘n’ roller who became Britain’s premier song and dance man By Pat Murphy When Tommy Steele steps onto the stage of the London Coliseum this July, it’ll be almost 60 years since he debuted there in a lavish production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. And it isn’t fanciful to regard that long ago event as...
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‘Group relationship grows stronger’Emerson’ A massive nerve- straining European tour over, Emerson, Lake and Palmer are safely back home rehearsing and recording again in preparation for another American stint and their fifth album. Parts of the European tour were recorded, and if, when they’ve heard the tapes,...
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THE NEW SEEKERS release 1974 albums on CD for the first time, Together/Farewell, on April 20 The New Seekers recording catalogue has been vastly overlooked on CD, considering just how enormous this mixed vocal group were between 1970 and the group’s split in 1974. In addition to their many hits which included I’d Like...
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By Pat Murphy THE early Grammys didn’t care for rock ‘n’ roll. The Grammys were invented in the late 1950s to give the American music industry its own version of Hollywood’s Oscars. Ostensibly, “artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence” would be the watchword. And right from the get-go, the works honoured...
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At the height of the Punk Rock explosion in the late seventies, a song by a relatively unknown American singer-songwriter drifted into the charts. Dean Friedman’s Lucky Stars followed his first chart entry, Woman Of Mine, which got to No.52 in the early summer of 1978. In September, Lucky Stars climbed to No.3 and has since become...
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FROM the music halls of Stoke-on-Trent to topping the charts with Frank Sinatra and Petula Clark, singer-songwriter Jackie Trent finally shares her colourful life in her fascinating new autobiography. “[Their songs] changed my life. They changed the whole course of my career.” Petula Clark ‘Being Me’ charts, for the first time, the...
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ORIGINAL founder-members of the 1968 successful pop recording group Cupid’s Inspiration have reformed. Cupid’s Inspiration had big hits in 1968 that topped the British charts – Yesterday Has Gone and My World followed by Dream, including best album in 1969. The band has reformed under the name Cupid’s with the original voice of...
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WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN – a Tribute to Shakin’ Stevens’ is live at theatres in the UK. The 80s Welsh answer to Elvis finally has his own tribute show with all the hits, including ‘This Ol’ House’, ‘Green Door’, ‘Oh Julie’. The rags to riches story is based on his 40 hits,...
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Wreckless Eric chats about many things including Tom Petty, secrets, and plynths. REMEMBER that legendary song The Whole Wide World? Of course you do. Written by singer/songwriter/musician Wreckless Eric, it has been covered by many artists including The Monkees, Elvis Costello, Marilyn Manson, The Proclaimers, Amanda Palmer, Will...
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Looking back: 60s pop star Steve Ellis, Love Affair Legend! There I’ve said it. From a No.1 single in 1968 with the iconic tune ‘Everlasting Love’, singing with his then band, Love Affair, to other Top Twenty hits like ‘Rainbow Valley’ and ‘Bringing on Back the Good Times’. In one form or the other, Steve Ellis has continued to...
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It’s been a couple of years since The Beat magazine interviewed the rockin’ ‘n’ rollin’ singer/actor Rebel Dean, and boy has he been busy since then! He is the performer who the mighty Darrel Higham was quoted as saying: “Rebel Dean – probably the most successful male Rock n’ Roll...
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Dame Vera Lynn, 100 years old, in conversation with David Parker Dame Vera: you were not even a teenager at the start your singing career? Would you say you were fortunate to have become a famous singer at such a young age? Yes, I was a great deal younger when I first began singing – seven years old! I think it’s a wonderful...
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Why was Tom Jones on a beach in Cornwall to begin his 2017 tour, widely thought to be his last stage show live appearances. Tom was in Perranporth, Cornwall, a venue very different to the world’s biggest stadiums where he is more likely to be billed. The show was part of the summer’s Bands In The Sands series of gigs on...
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It is almost 20 years since 54-year-old Jane McDonald made a splash with the BBC TV docu-soap The Cruise. This month, she returned to the town that brought her to the public’s attention with a show called Making Memories. Since cruising out of Southampton waters in the 1990s, Jane McDonald has built a career of live shows and album...
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Newly-honoured Tony Crane MBE in conversation with David Parker Tony: you were a teenager at the start your singing career, would you say you were walking into good fortune on stage in front of paying fans? We were lucky being in Liverpool at the time. There were lots of great bands around, but at the very start ,we sang and played...
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