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Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–69), Petula Clark (1957–71), The Searchers (1963–67), The Kinks (1964–71), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971) and Brotherhood of Man (1975–79). The label changed its name in 1980, but was briefly reactivated in 2006.

History[link]

The Pye Company originally manufactured televisions and radios. Its main plant was situated off what used to be Haig Road, in Cambridge, and it entered the record business when it bought Nixa Records in 1953. In 1955, the company acquired Polygon Records, a label that had been established by Petula Clark's father to control distribution of her recordings, and merged it with Nixa Records to form Pye Nixa Records.

Expansion[link]

In 1958, Pye International Records was started. The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels for the UK market, including Chess, A&M, Kama Sutra, Colpix, Warner Bros., Buddah, 20th Century, and King. It also released recordings from British artist Labi Siffre which were produced outside the company.

In 1959, Pye Nixa became Pye Records and ATV acquired 50% of the label.^[1] ATV bought the other half of the business in 1966. The company entered the budget-priced album market in 1957, reissuing older Pye material on Pye Golden Guinea Records, priced at a guinea (one pound and one shilling). This was closed in the seventies and eventually replaced by Marble Arch Records, selling at an even lower price.

Piccadilly and Dawn labels[link]

Another, full-price, subsidiary, Piccadilly Records, was for new pop acts, including Joe Brown & the Bruvvers, Clinton Ford, the Rockin' Berries, Sounds Orchestral, Al Saxon, the Sorrows and, later on, the Ivy League (who metamorphosed into the Flower Pot Men, famous for their Summer of Love anthem "Let's Go to San Francisco" on Deram Records). In 1969, Pye launched a less mainstream label for folk, jazz, blues and progressive acts, Dawn Records, the most successful Dawn act being Mungo Jerry.

As PRT Records[link]

When the rights to the name Pye expired in 1980, the label changed its name to PRT, which stood for Precision Records and Tapes. At that time, it had sublabels such as Fanfare Records, a late 80's/early 90's UK-based Hi-NRG label issuing records by Sinitta; R&B Records, an 80s disco/electro label featuring Imagination; and Splash Records, which featured Jigsaw and the Richard Hewson Orchestra. PRT ceased operations in 1989.

Brief revival[link]

In July 2006, Pye Records was reactivated by Sanctuary Records as an indie and alternative label, featuring artists such as Scottish alternative rock group Idlewild. However, plans for continued usage of the Pye name were abandoned when Universal Music Group bought Sanctuary in 2007. Pye Reccords was a subsidiary to ATV Music Publishing which was bought by Michael Jackson in 1985. Ten years late, Jackson merged ATV Music Publishing with Sony and it was renamed Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The company became the second largest music publisher in the world.

Pye international divisions[link]

Pye in the U.S.[link]

Starting with the "British Invasion" of 1964, Pye placed their artists in the U.S. mostly on labels that they distributed in the UK: The Searchers to Mercury Records, Liberty Records, and finally Kapp Records, The Kinks to Cameo Records and then to Reprise Records, David Bowie, The Sorrows and Petula Clark to Warner Bros. Records, Donovan to Hickory Records, and Status Quo to Chess Records (which issued their records on their newly created Cadet Concept Records label).

From 1969 to 1971, Pye was a co-owner with GRT (General Recorded Tape) of Janus Records, which at the outset served as the U.S. label for such Pye acts as Jefferson, Sounds Orchestral, Pickettywitch, Mungo Jerry and Status Quo, and also re-issued the early (pre-1966) recordings of Donovan. Pye sold its share of Janus back to GRT in 1971.

In 1972, Bell Records set up a short-lived Pye label, featuring Michel Pagliaro, a Canadian artist whose first English-language album was issued on UK Pye (largely recorded in England), and Jackie McAuley, whose lone solo album was originally issued on UK Dawn. The label only lasted a very short time.

In 1974, Pye established an American version of its record label. The label was not a success, however, and closed its U.S. operations in 1976. The head of the U.S. division, Marvin Schlachter, then started Prelude Records, named after one of Pye's acts of the time, Prelude; its initial LP and 45 catalogue series were carried over from the ill-fated U.S. Pye label (with the catalogue prefix changed from PYE- to PRL-), and Prelude had a string of disco and dance music hits into the early 1980s.

Pye in Canada[link]

Whilst Pye did not have its own operations in Canada, it arranged with Canadian record companies to issue Pye recordings on the Pye label in Canada. Before then, Quality Records issued Pye recordings on the Quality label. Their earliest Pye Canada releases such as Lonnie Donegan's "My Old Man's A Dustman" were distributed by Astral Music Sales. Around 1963, distribution shifted to Allied Record Corporation. In 1968 distribution shifted to Phonodisc.^[2]

Artists on Pye Records[link]

(including the U.S. labels that issued records by the artists during the time they were on Pye)

• The Bachelors
• Sounds Orchestral (issued in U.S. on Parkway)
• Long John Baldry (issued in U.S. on Warner Bros.)
• Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen (issued in U.S. on Kapp)
• Trader Horne
• Acker Bilk
• Chris Barber's Jazzband (issued in U.S. on Laurie)
• David Bowie (1965–1966; issued in U.S. on Warner Bros.)
• The Brook Brothers (1961–64)
• Brotherhood of Man (1975–1979)
• Max Bygraves made a successful series of singalong albums for Pye
• Petula Clark (1957–1971: in addition to dozens of singles, her output for Pye included seventeen albums. Issued in U.S. on Laurie and then on Warner Bros.)
• Clem Curtis
• Joe Dolan
• Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969; issued in U.S. on Mercury, Atlantic, then Dot)
• Donovan (1965–1971; issued in U.S. on Hickory and then Epic)
• Carl Douglas
• The Enid
• Episode Six (issued in U.S. on Elektra for 1 single only)
• The Flying Machine (1969; issued in U.S. on Congress and then Janus)
• Emile Ford and the Checkmates
• The Foundations (issued in the U.S. on Uni)
• Brian Joseph Friel (issued in the U.S. on ATV Records)
• Benny Hill (1961–1965)
• The Honeycombs (1964–1966; issued in the U.S. on Interphon and then Warner Bros.)
• Idlewild (2006)
• The Ivy League (1965–1966; issued in the U.S. on Cameo)
• Tony Jackson and the Vibrations (1964–1966)
• Jimmy James & The Vagabonds
• The Kinks (1964–1971; issued in the U.S. on Cameo and then Reprise)
• Vera Lynn (1979–1981)
• David MacBeth
• Man
• Gerald Masters (1977–1980)
• Mungo Jerry (1970–1974; issued in the U.S. on Janus and then Bell)
• Olivia Newton-John (Olivia, Festival, Australia, 1972)
• Maxine Nightingale
• The Migil 5 (1964–1965)
• Des O'Connor
• Lennie Peters (1966)
• The Real Thing (1976–1979)
• Joan Regan (1960–1961)
• The Remo Four
• The Searchers (1963–1967; issued in the U.S. on Mercury Liberty and then Kapp)
• Sandie Shaw (1964–1972; issued in the U.S. on Reprise)
• Labi Siffre (1970–1973, Pye International)
• Hurricane Smith (1976–1977)
• The Sorrows (1964–1966; issued in the U.S. on Warner Bros.)
• Status Quo (1968–1971; issued in the U.S. on Cadet Concept and then Janus)
• Graduate (1979)
• Tommy Steele
• Frankie Vaughan (1973–1978)
• Velvett Fogg (1969)
• Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band (issued in the U.S. on Kapp)
• Mark Wynter (1962–1968)

See also[link]

• Category: Pye Records (albums, singles, artists)
• List of record labels
• Nixa Records

External links[link]

• http://www.discogs.com/label/Pye+Records
• Marble Arch Discography
• Official Yahoo! Group for Pye Records

References[link]

Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002^[1]) was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s.^[2][3] The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums states Donegan was "Britain's most successful and influential recording artist before The Beatles. He chalked up 24 successive Top 30 hits, and was the first UK male to score two U.S. Top 10s".^[1]

Early life and trad jazz[link]

Born as Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra, he moved with his family in 1933 to East Ham, Essex (now in Greater London).^[4]

Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in World War II, and he attended St Ambrose College, initially at the school's original site in Dunham Road, Altrincham.

In the early 1940s he mostly listened to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar.^[4] Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen in 1945.^[4] From listening to BBC radio broadcasts in the following years he began learning songs such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Puttin' On the Style", and "The House of the Rising Sun".^[4] By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.^[5]

The first band he played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his band. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and tried to bluff his way through the audition. More on personality than playing, he was brought into Barber's band.^[4] His stint with the band was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but his military service in Vienna gave him contact with American troops, and access to records as well as the opportunity to listen to the American Forces Network radio station.^[5]

In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall.^[4] Donegan was a fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.^[6]

In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer, enjoying hero status for having spent time in a New Orleans jail (due to a visa problem), returned to England and, when invited to play with Chris Barber's band, became a moving figure within it. With the new name, Ken Colyer's Jazzmen, the group, with Donegan, made its initial public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen. The following day, Chris Albertson recorded the group (as well as a Monty Sunshine Trio, with Donegan and Barber) for Storyville Records. These were Donegan's first commercially released recordings.^{[citation needed]}

Skiffle[link]

While playing in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played both guitar and banjo as part of their Dixieland jazz set. He also began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what was called on their posters a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after recalling the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s.^[4] In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.^[5]

With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie.^[4] This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side.^[4] It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money from this recording beyond his original session fee. (Nevertheless, Donegan received considerable music publishing royalties from "Rock Island" simply by claiming the British copyright on an unregistered song which was considered to be in the Public Domain. This led to the peculiar situation that any "cover" version of "Rock Island Line" which was released on record in Britain from 1956 showed the song composition credited to Lonnie Donegan.) It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and reached the Top Ten in the United States.^[4] His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.^[4] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band by then, and by the spring of 1955, Donegan signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.^[4]

He travelled to the United States, where he appeared on television on both the Perry Como Show and the Paul Winchell Show.^[4] Returning to the UK, Donegan recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in the summer of 1956, which featured songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands.^[4] The popular skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" single was number one on the UK chart in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.^[1]

Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)", his biggest hit song in the U.S., released on Dot.^[4] He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett - later Steve Jones - on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby and Mark Goodwin - on drums or percussion and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.^[4]

He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music.^[4]

Later career[link]

Donegan recorded sporadically during the 1960s, including some sessions at Hickory Records in Nashville, Tennessee with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer and The Jordanaires. After 1964, he was primarily occupied as a record producer for most of the decade at Pye Records. Among those he worked with during this period was Justin Hayward.^[4]

Donegan was unfashionable and generally ignored through the late 1960s and 1970s (although he wrote "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for Tom Jones in 1967), and he began to play on the American cabaret circuit. A notable departure from his normal style was an a cappella recording of "The Party's Over". There was a reunion concert with the original Chris Barber band in Croydon in June 1975 - notable for a bomb scare, meaning that the recording had to be finished in the studio, though patrons were treated to an impromptu concert in the car park.^{[citation needed]} The resultant release was entitled The Great Re-Union Album.^[4]

He suffered his first heart attack in 1976 while in the United States and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to the public's attention in 1978, when he made a record of his early songs with such figures as Rory Gallagher, Ringo Starr, Elton John and Brian May called Putting on the Style.^[4] A follow-up album featuring Albert Lee saw Donegan working in a less familiar country and western vein. By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and another album with Barber followed. In 1983 Donegan toured with Billie Jo Spears, and in 1984, he made his theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr. Cinders. More concert tours followed, along with a move from Florida to Spain. In 1992 Donegan underwent further bypass surgery following another heart attack.^[4]

In 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years, with a tour with both bands. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retained until July 2008). The reunion concert and the tour were recorded on CD and DVD.

Donegan experienced another late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Van Morrison's album The Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast 1998, a critically acclaimed album featuring Donegan sharing vocals with Van Morrison and also featuring Chris Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr. John. Donegan also played at the Glastonbury Festival, and was awarded the MBE in 2000.

Donegan's final CD was This Y'ere the Story

Family[link]

Donegan married three times. He had two daughters by his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter by his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons by his third wife, Sharon, whom he married in 1977. He was the second cousin three times removed of the Scottish Gaelic Footballer, Chris Pendergast.

Death[link]

Lonnie Donegan died in 2002, aged 71, after suffering a heart attack in Market Deeping mid-way through a UK tour and shortly before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with The Rolling Stones. He had suffered from cardiac problems since the 1970s and had several heart attacks in his last years.

Legacy[link]

Mark Knopfler released a tribute song to Donegan entitled "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album, Shangri-La, and said that he was one of his greatest musical influences.^[2] Donegan's music formed the basis for a musical starring his two sons. Lonnie D - The Musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which started the show. Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a new band that performed his father's material and has since linked up with his father's band from the last 30 years with newcomer Eddie Masters on bass. They released an album together in 2009 entitled "Here We Go Again". Donegan's eldest son, Anthony, also formed his own band, under the name Lonnie Donegan Jnr.

On his album A Beach Full of Shells, Al Stewart paid tribute to Donegan in the song "Katherine of Oregon". Additionally, in the song "Class of '58", he describes a seminal British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him.

Quotations[link]

NME - June 1956^[7]

• "In England, we were separated from our folk music tradition centuries ago and were imbued with the idea that music was for the upper classes. You had to be very clever to play music. When I came along with the old three chords, people began to think that if I could do it, so could they. It was the reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did that." — Interview, 2002.
• "He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records avidly. We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man." — Paul McCartney
• "He really was at the very cornerstone of English blues and rock." — Brian May.^[2]
• "I wanted to be Elvis Presley when I grew up, I knew that. But the man who really made me feel like I could actually go out and do it was a chap by the name of Lonnie Donegan." — Roger Daltrey
• "Remember, Lonnie Donegan started it for you." — Jack White's acceptance speech at the Brit Awards.^[8]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

• "Rock Island Line" / "John Henry" (1955) - UK #8 †
• "Diggin' My Potatoes" / "Bury My Body" (1956) †
• "Lost John" / "Stewball" (1956) - UK #2 †
• "Bring A Little Water, Sylvie" / "Dead or Alive" (1956) ‡
• "On A Christmas Day" / "Take My Hand Precious Lord" (1956) ‡
• "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" (1957) - UK #4 ‡
• "Cumberland Gap" (1957) - UK #1 ‡
• "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" (1957) - UK #1 ‡
• "My Dixie Darlin'" / "I'm Just a Rolling Stone" (1957) - UK #10 ‡
• "Jack O' Diamonds" / "Ham 'N' Eggs" (1957) - UK #14 ‡
• "The Grand Coulee Dam" / "Nobody Loves Like an Irishman" (1958) - UK #6 ‡
• "Midnight Special" / "When The Sun Goes Down" (1958) ‡
• "Sally Don't You Grieve" / "Betty, Betty, Betty" (1958) - UK #11 ‡
• "Lonesome Traveller" / "Times are Getting Hard Boys" (1958) - UK #28 ‡
• "Lonnie's Skiffle Party" / "Lonnie Skiffle Party Pt.2" (1958) - UK #23 ‡
• "Tom Dooley" / "Rock O' My Soul" (1958) - UK #3 ‡
• "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?)" / "Aunt Rhody" (1959) - UK #3 ‡
• "Fort Worth Jail" / "Whoa Buck" (1959) - UK #14 ‡
• "Fort Bewildered" / "Kevin Barry" / "It is No Secret" / "My Lagan Love Buck" (1959) ‡
• "Battle of New Orleans" / "Darling Corey" (1959) - UK #2 ‡
• "Sal's Got A Sugar Lip" / "Chesapeake Bay" (1959) - UK #13 ‡
• "Hold Back Tomorrow" - UK #26 ¶
• "San Miguel" / "Talking Guitar Blues" (1959) - UK #19 ‡
• "My Old Man's A Dustman" / "The Golden Vanity" (1960) - UK #1 ↑
• "I Wanna Go Home (Wreck Of the 'John B')" / "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy" (1960) - UK #5 ↓
• "Lorelei" / "In All My Wildest Dreams" (1960) - UK #10
• "Rockin' Alone" - UK #44 ♠
• "Lively" / "Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)" (1960) - UK #13 ↑
• "Virgin Mary" / "Beyond The Sunset" (1960) - UK #27
• "(Bury Me) Beneath The Willow" / "Leave My Woman Alone" (1961)
• "Have A Drink on Me" / "Seven Daffodils" (1961) - UK #8 ↑
• "Michael, Row the Boat" / "Lumbered" (1961) - UK #6 ↑
• "The Comancheros" / "Ramblin' Round" (1961) - UK #14
• "The Party's Over" / "Over the Rainbow" (1962) - UK #9
• "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" / "Keep on the Sunny Side" (1962)
• "Pick A Bale of Cotton" / "Steal Away" (1962) - UK #11 ↑
• "The Market Song" / "Tit-Bits" (1962)
• "Losing By A Hair" / "Trumpet Sounds" (1963)
• "It Was A Very Good Year" / "Rise Up" (1963)
• "Lemon Tree" / "I've Gotta Girl So Far" (1963)
• "500 Miles Away From Home" / "This Train" (1963)
• "Beans in My Ears" / "It's a Long Road to Travel" (1964)
• "Fisherman's Luck" / "There's A Big Wheel" (1964)
• "Get Out Of My Life" / "Won't You Tell Me" (1965)
• "Louisiana Man" / "Bound For Zion" (1965)
• "World Cup Willie" / "Where In This World are We Going" (1966)
• "I Wanna Go Home" / "Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)" (1966)
• "Aunt Maggie's Remedy" / "(Ah) My Sweet Marie" (1967)
• "Toys" / "Relax Your Mind" (1968)
• "My Lovely Juanita" / "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" (1969)
• "Speak To The Sky" / "Get Out of My Life" (1972)
• "Jump Down Turn Around (Pick a Bale of Cotton)" / "Lost John Blues" (1973 - Australia only release)

^[1]

Albums[link]

• Lonnie Donegan Showcase (December 1956) - UK # 2; UK #26 ‡
  • "Wabash Cannonball" / "How Long" / "How Long Blues" / "Nobody's Child" / "I Shall Not Be Moved" / "I'm Alabamy Bound" / "I'm a Rambling Man" / "Wreck of the Old 97" / "Frankie and Johnny"
• Lonnie (November 1957) - UK # 3
• Tops with Lonnie (September 1958)
• Lonnie Rides Again (May 1959)
• Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight) (1961)
• More! Tops with Lonnie (April 1961)
• Sing Hallelujah (December 1962)
• The Lonnie Donegan Folk Album (August 1965)
• Lonniepops - Lonnie Donegan Today (1970)
• The Great Re-Union Album (1974)
• Lonnie Donegan Meets Leinemann (1974)
• Country Roads (1976)
• Puttin' on the Style (February 1978)
  • Including guest musicians Rory Gallagher, Elton John, Brian May and Ringo Starr amongst others.
• Sundown (May 1979)
• Muleskinner Blues (January 1999)
  • The song "Lost John" was used to open the John Peel tribute album
• This Y'ere The Story (2000?)
• The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast (2000) - UK #14 †
  • Recorded November 1998 with Van Morrison, Chris Barber and others.
• The Last Tour (2006)

^[1]

Compilation albums[link]

• Golden Age of Donegan (1962) - UK #3
• Golden Age of Donegan Volume 2 (1963) - UK #15
• Putting On the Style (1978) - UK #51
• King of Skiffle (1998)
• Puttin' On the Style - The Greatest Hits (2003) - UK #45

^[1]

EPs[link]

• Skiffle Session (EP) (1956) - UK #20 †
  • "Railroad Bill" / "Stockalee" / "Ballad of Jesse James" / "Ol' Riley"

Billing[link]

Most of the above records were accredited to Lonnie Donegan; except, as follows:
† Billed as the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group
‡ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group
¶ Billed as Lonnie Donegan meets Miki & Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group
↑ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Group
↓ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and Wally Stott's Orchestra
♠ Billed as Miki and Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group

^[1]

See also[link]

• List of honorific titles in popular music

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Lonnie Donegan Discussion Forum
• Go Lonnie go – article by Billy Bragg for The Guardian
• My Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs
• Lonnie Donegan biography and discography
• Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group
• His Old Man’s the Guv’nor – article by Alan Franks
• My twenty-year love affair with the joy of skiffle, article by Mark Kermode The Observer, 1 June 2008

Wayne Gibson was the stage name of Edward William "Bill" Allen (b. 15 December 1942). He was a British pop singer who had two hits on the UK singles chart, "Kelly" in 1964 and "Under My Thumb" in 1974.

Career[link]

In the early 1960s, he was lead singer in a South London-based band called the Tornadoes (unrelated to the instrumental group, The Tornados), who then changed their name to Wayne Gibson & the Dynamic Sounds.^[1] Other band members included Mick Todman (lead guitar), Ray Rogers (bass), Pete Gillies (rhythm guitar) and Larry Cole (drums). In 1961-62, they performed at The Top Ten Club in Hamburg, Germany.

In 1963 they won a recording deal with Decca Records, where their records were produced by American-born Shel Talmy, at that time the producer of The Bachelors (and later of The Kinks and The Who, among others). However, the group's first two singles, cover versions of Ray Sharpe's "Linda Lu" and Ritchie Valens' "Come On Let's Go", were not successful, and they moved on to the Pye label. Their next record, a version of Del Shannon's "Kelly" which featured session musician Jimmy Page on guitar,^[2] reached # 48 on the UK chart in March 1964,^[3] but the follow-up, "Portland Town", was not a hit. The group moved on again, to the Columbia label and then Parlophone, where they released a version of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.^[4] In 1964-65, they also appeared regularly as the house band on the BBC TV programme The Beat Room.^[1][5]

Gibson's later recordings were as a solo singer. In May 1966 he released a version of The Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb", produced by Terry King. Again, however, it was not immediately a hit, and nor was his next record, a version of The Beatles' "For No One".^[4] However, "For No One" was reportedly then picked up for release in the US by Motown Records, Gibson becoming the first British singer to be issued by that label.^[2][3]

Gibson did not record after 1966 and seems to have left the professional entertainment business at that time. However, in 1972, the small Kingdom label reissued "For No One" in the UK. By 1974, "Under My Thumb" had become well known on the Northern soul club scene, and it was reissued on the Pye Disco Demand label.^[4] It rose to # 17 on the chart in late 1974,^[3] and Gibson briefly re-emerged to promote it on Top of the Pops.^[6]

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2010)

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Max Bygraves OBE (born Walter William Bygraves on 16 October 1922) is an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, sometimes performing comedy sketches between songs. Shows he presented included the gameshow Family Fortunes.

Early life[link]

Max Bygraves was born the son of poor parents in Rotherhithe, southeast London docklands. His father was a professional boxer known as Battling Tom Smith, and a casual dockworker.^[1]

Career[link]

He protrayed Charley Moon in the film of the same name.

Personal life[link]

Bygraves married WAAF sergeant Gladys (known as Blossom) Murray in 1942.^[2] The couple have three children: Christine, Anthony, and Maxine.^[2] Bygraves also has three other children: John Rice, Beverly Mayhew-Sass, and Stephen Rose.^[2]

Bygraves and his wife moved from Bournemouth to Queensland, Australia, in 2008.^[2] She died there in 2011, aged 88.

Television[link]

• "Whack-O!" (1960)
• "The Royal Variety Performance" (1963)
• "It's Sad About Eddie (1964)
• "Max" (1969–1974)
• "Family Fortunes" (1983–1985)
• "The Mind Of David Berglas (1986)
• "Call Up The Stars" (1995)

Selected filmography[link]

• The Nitwits on Parade (1949)
• Bless 'Em All (1949)
• Skimpy in the Navy (1949)
• Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951)
• Charley Moon (1956)
• A Cry from the Streets (1958)
• Bobbikins (1959)
• Spare the Rod (1961)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Max Bygraves at the Internet Movie Database
• Max Bygraves - official website

Jackie Trent (born Yvonne Burgess,^[1] 6 September 1940, Newcastle-under-Lyme) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress.

Career[link]

Trent's first stage appearance was as a ten-year-old ingenue in the pantomime Babes In The Wood, but her primary interest was a career in pop music. Her first single, "Pick Up the Pieces," was released in 1962, but it was not until two record labels and three years later that she scored her first hit, "Where Are You Now" which was featured in the popular TV series The Inspector Rose Mysteries and was written by Tony Hatch, who at that time was involved in a successful professional collaboration with Petula Clark. "Where Are You Now" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in May 1965, topping the chart for one week.^[1]

With Clark's 1966 hit, "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" inspired by the ongoing affair between Trent and Hatch, they went public with their relationship. A year later, they were married in Kensington, London.

Although she recorded several singles and albums, both as a solo artist and in tandem with her husband, Trent was more successful as a songwriter rather than a singer.^[2] In addition to their compositions for Clark, over the years she and Hatch wrote a wealth of material for other artists, including Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones, Nancy Wilson, Des O'Connor, Val Doonican, Shirley Bassey, Vikki Carr, and Dean Martin.

In the late 1960s, Trent returned to the stage with a UK tour of the musical Nell with Hermione Baddeley. In 1970 Trent recorded the Les Vandyke composed, "I'll Be Near You". In March that year she appeared on the cover of the British music magazine, NME.

The 1970s saw Hatch and Trent diversify into the world of musical theatre. The first of their projects, The Card, based on Arnold Bennett's novel, with book by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, ran in London's West End with Jim Dale and Millicent Martin in the starring roles. (Coincidentally, Clark had starred in the 1952 film version with Alec Guinness). An original cast album was released in 1975. A rewritten version of the show, starring Peter Duncan and Hayley Mills, played the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in the 1990s and spawned a new cast album. The second Hatch/Trent musical was Rock Nativity, with book and lyrics by David Wood. Initiated and produced by Cameron Mackintosh, it first played in Newcastle upon Tyne. An updated version of the show toured nationally in 1976, and was broadcast nationally by Scottish TV. A full-length concert version was also recorded at the Cork Opera House for transmission by RTÉ.

In 1972 the couple wrote the song "We'll Be With You", a celebration of Trent's home town football club Stoke City reaching the final of the Football League Cup. It was released under the name The Potters (the club's nickname), and reached number 34 on the UK chart.^[3] Stoke beat Chelsea F.C. 2-1 in the final. The track is still played at Stoke's home games to this day.

In August 1978, Trent appeared on the BBC Television programme, Seaside Special. Later the same year, the couple left the UK for a four-year residency in Dublin, where they hosted their own TV series Words And Music and It's A Musical World, before moving to Australia in 1982. It was while down under that the couple wrote what might be their most famous composition, the theme tune for the TV soap, Neighbours.

Trent and Hatch separated in 1995, and divorced in 2002.

Following the couple's initial separation, Trent made a successful return to the British stage, touring the country in the musical High Society. After spending several years in semi-retirement, she toured Australia with a series of concerts in April and May 2004.

On 24 November 2005, Trent married Colin Gregory.

In 2008, Trent collaborated with the record producer, Ted Carfrae, to work on her latest album entitled Trentquility.^[4]

See also[link]

• List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
• List of performers on Top of the Pops

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website