With under 2 weeks to go until my Golden Jubilee Concert at the Swansea Arena it was time to announce my final special guest to my band. One by one I phoned the members of the Jacks and told them who it was, and everyone had the same question…How do you know him? The answer was even more out of the blue when I said …I don’t!!!
It made me think about so many of the strange ways I have made connections in this strange business I’ve been involved in for 50 years.
Coming from a family of teachers whose lives revolved around a little Gospel Hall in Manselton I really did start out knowing absolutely nobody in show business. In fact outside the world of church and school I didn’t know anyone. If I was going to follow my dreams I had to make contacts.
I think it was television, radio and my brother’s record player that opened up a whole world of dreams and possibilities. TV shows like ‘Blue Peter’ gave a glimpse of some of the new innovations in the world of science and entertainment. ‘Adventure Weekly’ was a show about kids who started their own newspaper, breaking stories that changed their world. After that I wanted to buy a printing press. ‘Opportunity Knocks’ was the Monday night talent show that made me think that you could come from anywhere and be an overnight star.
I’m trying to think back to my first realisations that people from my town could follow their dreams.
The first was meeting the child actor Michael Audreson. Michael’s grandmother lived on Llangyfelach Road and was friendly with my Grandmother. We had heard rumours that he had been involved in a number of films as a child actor, but we had never seen any of them. Suddenly he hit the big time. He had been cast as ‘Brains’ in the TV show ‘The Double Deckers’, a series built around a group of unlikely friends who would meet in an old Bus Station. A disused bus was their club house. After that I wanted to buy a double decker bus!
Mam, my grandmother, bumped into Michael’s grandmother on Brynhyfryd Square and was told Michael was popping down for a short holiday in between filming commitments. I pestered Mam for days to take me and my brother Gareth up the road to meet the TV star. I still remember being ushered into his presence in that small terraced house.
My brother and I sat there in awe as he told us stories of scripts and co-stars. He even had a part in a new film called ‘Chitty, Chitty Bang, Bang’ where he got to spend the day throwing custard pies at the bad guy. We walked home with a signed photo and I think I was hooked.
Ivor Emmanuel in Zulu.
Surprisingly it was my father that had some real show business connections. He had been brought up in that Showbiz village, Pontrhydyfen. My dad would later say the village was famous for 3 stars, Richard Burton, Ivor Emmanuel and Stan Pope. My dad didn’t know Burton, but he had grown up with Ivor. He became very especially friendly with Ivor after a number of his family had been killed by a bomb dropped by a lone Luftwaffe plane emptying their bomb bay after an aborted raid on Swansea.
As soon as I learned about Ivor I realised that this was a stepping stone to stardom. I don’t remember exactly what I said in my letter, but I would have mentioned my dad, that I was 11 years old and was writing my own songs. I then sent the letter to Harlech Television in Pontcanna Cardiff and waited. Now I’m not really sure if it was down to Ivor or not but a few weeks later, much to my parents surprise I was offered an audition.
Fair play to my parents. At this stage they could have squashed any ambition I had to be a musician. Going to Cardiff on a school night would have been quite something but armed with my songs and a guitar my dad and I took the first steps to Hollywood via Cardiff.
The audition didn’t go well. A week later I got a letter suggesting I went to guitar lessons.
Having decided to completely disregard the advice given to me by Eric Weatherall, the HTV Musical Director, my letter writing grew at quite a pace. Soon I was either applying for an audition for Opportunity Knocks or sending Cliff Richard a tape of my songs. At that stage I didn’t hear from Cliff, but I was summoned to another Cardiff based audition.
We arrived at the hotel early. I waited in the ‘holding pen’ flanked by Comedians and Magicians. I could feel the excitement. No matter what HTV had said this was it, I was going to be a star. At the end of my song I was told I would be informed by letter if I had been successful. After 2 weeks of rushing down to check the post every morning I realised that it wasn’t meant to be. Opportunity wouldn’t be knocking for me.
I suppose my circle of supporters was growing locally but I still needed a break. The letter that really changed my life was probably one of many I sent that week. I had recorded a batch of tapes and sent them to everyone I could think of, but it was the reply from John Peel’s producer at Radio One that finally brought the breakthrough.
And so over the years I have met people either on the way up or on the way down. People who worked on my early radio or TV shows are now producers and directors. Jason Mohammad was a student in Swansea University when he started doing work experience on my BBC Radio show. I’m not saying that’s the only reason he plays my records on Radio 2 but hopefully the experience was good enough not to make him hate me.
Then there’s the musicians I’ve connected with over the years that have become the Jacks. I had heard about the bass player Andrew ‘Wal’ Coughlan from another school friend, a drummer from Cecil Street named Tony Kiley. Before long all three of us were rehearsing in my dad’s garage.
Nigel the keyboard player from Fforestfach was a legend as a teenager. He could play anything on the piano and he even had a synthesiser. We had to get him in the band. We spotted Ryan the drummer playing in a ‘Battle of the Bands’ show in Bridgend. Andrew Griffiths, the brass player started out on work experience in our studios in Treboeth.
So back to my show at the Arena. Ria Jones and Steve Balsamo are Swansea legends I’ve known for 30 years. I can’t remember how or where we met but we did and became lifelong friends. Wal the bass player gave Elio Pace one of our tapes 20 years ago when they were performing at the BBC in London. I only met Elio face to face earlier this year at the Wales Millennium Centre. That connection led to me singing a duet with him in London and now we chat almost every week.
I have known about Scottish singer Owen Paul for a long time. His hit ‘My Favourite Waste of Time’ is one of those classic songs that transports you back to a simpler time when the sun always shone. Owen is a regular on the Mike Read Heritage Chart and through that we have liked each songs and each other’s posts on social media. 2 weeks ago he replied to one of my posts about the Arena concert and said he was free on the 3rd Oct, adding a smiley face emoji.
Of course I sent a DM inviting him to join the cast and he said yes. I have never met him but he’s a new friend and collaborator. Who knows where that connection might take us all!!!