Władziu Valentino Liberace would have been 100 years old this week.
There will be many people reading this who will not know who he is, but this flamboyant pianist, in his heyday (mid 50s – mid 70s), was the highest paid entertainer in the world. He had his own television show as well as a residency in Las Vegas. Here’s a clip from his 1969 showing how good he was with a keyboard.
It was 22 years ago this week that the UK last won the Eurovision Song Contest. Many will agree that is when we should have quit altogether, but it’s all down to personal opinion. The song was written by the Waves’ guitarist Kimberley Rew, so let’s remember our victory when Katrina & The Waves achieved the highest ever score (up to that point) of 227 points at the Point Theatre in Dublin.
John Miles is 70th this week.
He was born in Jarrow, County Durham. He formed his first band The John Miles Set, in 1971 and then went solo after signing a record contract with Decca in 1975.
He is, and always will be, remember for his 1976 hit, Music, the just under six-minute epic which reached number three in teh UK chart. It was actually his second hit following Highfly which got to number 17 in November 1975. He did have two further hits, Remember Yesterday in October 1976 and the number 10 hit Slow down in 1977.
From 1987 he has been a constaant member of Tina Turner’s band playing guitar and keyboards on many of her albums as well as on tour.
Lets enjoy this wonderful live performance of Music from 11 years ago.
The legend that is Anthony Newley passed away 20 years ago this week.
Anthony was born in Hackney in London in 1931, but when his parents, who were never actually married, split up he was unofficially adopted by an aunt and uncle who brought him up.
He became a child actor with his first role being Dusty Bates in The Adventures of Dusty Bates in 1947 and then as the Artful Dodger in Oliver the following year.
He could sing, write music, act, arrange and had his own TV series. His more famous film roles included Idle on Parade which was about a singer who was called up for National Service and Doctor Doolittle in 1967. As a songwriter he penned Feeling Good, Candy Man, Goldfinger and Gonna Build A Mountain alongside Leslie Bricusse.
Between 1963 and 1970, he was married to the actress Joan Collins. He died of kidney cancer.
In 1960, he starred in and co-directed the six-episode television series called The Strange World of Gurney Slade. The name is taken from a real place in Somerset which Newley had visited a few weeks before. Each episode followed the life of Gurney (Newley) who seemed to live a mundane life. Most of the dialogue was Newley narrating his thoughts. The cast was limited but one episode featured Una Stubbs and another with Only Fools and Horses actor Roger Lloyd-Pack’s father Charles Lloyd Pack as Tinker. It was always deemed to be a bit strange, but I finally got a DVD copy about a year ago and loved it. It certainly lent something to The Prisoner which came seven years later.
Here’s a rare YouTube click of episode 1. Enjoy.
