Alvin Stardust
(born Bernard William Jewry
, 27 September 1942, Muswell Hill, North London) is an English pop singer and stage actor.
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ALVIN STARDUST TICKETS
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Career
Moving to
Mansfield,
Nottinghamshire at a young age, he attended the Southwell Minster Collegiate Grammar School (now
Southwell Minster School) as a boarder. He made his stage debut in
pantomime at the age of four.
In the early 1960s, Shane Fenton and The Fentones were an unknown teenage band who recorded a demo tape and mailed it in to a
BBC programme with the hope of being picked to appear on
TV. While awaiting a reply from the BBC, the band's 17 year old singer Shane Fenton (born Johnny Theakstone) died as a result of the rheumatic fever he had suffered in childhood. The rest of the band decided to break up, but then unexpectedly received a letter from the BBC inviting them to come to London to audition in person for the programme. Theakstone's mother asked the band to stay together, and to keep its name, in honour of her son's memory. Jewry, who was a roadie with the group at the time, was asked to become the new Shane Fenton. The combo had a handful of hits in the
UK Singles Chart,
basing their sound on that of
The Shadows. Jewry later also appeared in
Billy Fury's
movie,
Play It Cool.
Jewry disappeared from the spotlight for a decade after the break-up of The Fentones, working in music management and performing at small venues with his wife Iris Caldwell, the sister of
Rory Storm. During the early 1970s, however, Jewry acquired a new persona, Alvin Stardust, as he successfully cashed in on the
glam rock bandwagon. His name was given to him by Michael Levy (later
Lord Levy) who owned his record label. Magnet Records. His debut
hit was "
My Coo-Ca-Choo" in 1973. Stardust had other
chart successes with the hits - "
Jealous Mind" (UK
No. 1), "You, You, You", "Red Dress" and "Good Love Can Never Die". In total, he amassed seven
Top Ten entries, in a chart span lasting almost 25 years.
Stardust was part of the
Green Cross Code road safety campaign
Children's Heroes
(1976) with his famous tagline of "You must be out of your tiny minds" directing children to look both ways before they cross the road.
In 1985, Stardust participated in
A Song for Europe, the UK qualifying heat of the
Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "The Clock on the Wall". He finished in third place behind
Vikki and Kerri Wells.
In 1986, Stardust performed the duet "I Hope and I Pray" with
Sheila Walsh on her album
Shadowlands
, which was released as a single to Christian radio.
Moving into
musical theatre, Stardust starred in the
UK tour of
Godspell
; and played
Uriah Heep in
David Copperfield - The Musical
; and Sir
Billy Butlin in
The Butlin Story
at the
London Palladium. In 2005 Stardust starred as the Child Catcher in
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
, also at the London Palladium.
Stardust has numerous
television appearances to his credit, and continues to tour as a performer and singer.
In spite of all his success in Great Britain, as of December of 2008, Stardust remained little known in the United States.
Discography
Shane Fenton & The Fentones
- "I'm A Moody Guy" - 1961 - UK Singles Chart high - No. 22
- "Walk Away" - 1962 - No. 38
- "It's All Over Now" - 1962 - No. 29
- "Cindy's Birthday" - 1962 - No. 19
[1]
Alvin Stardust
- "My Coo-Ca-Choo" - 1973 - No. 2
- "Jealous Mind" - 1974 - No. 1
- "Red Dress" - 1974 - No. 7
- "You You You" - 1974 - No. 6
- "Tell Me Why" - 1974 - No. 16
- "Good Love Can Never Die" - 1975 - No. 11
- "Sweet Cheatin' Rita" - 1975 - No. 37
- "Pretend" - 1981 - No. 4
- "A Wonderful Time Up There - 1981 - No. 56
- "I Feel Like Buddy Holly" - 1984 - No. 7
- "I Won't Run Away" - 1984 - No. 7
- "So Near to Christmas" - 1984 - No. 29
- "Got a Little Heartache" - 1985 - No. 55
[2]
Personal life
Stardust has been married three times: firstly to Iris Caldwell (sister of
Rory Storm), who was an ex-girlfriend of both
George Harrison and
Paul McCartney, having grown up with them in
Liverpool;
[3] and secondly to
actress,
Liza Goddard. He is now married to the actress Julie Paton.
His son Shaun Fenton became
head teacher at
Pate's Grammar School in 2006; previously he was the head teacher at
Sir John Lawes School.
[4] His other son, Adam, is a
drum and bass producer and
DJ, known as
Adam F. Stardust's third child Sophie Jewry, from his marriage to Liza Goddard, runs her own
graphic design and printing business and lives in
Norfolk with her partner and daughter. Stardust's fourth child, Millie Margaret May, was born in December 2000. The
christening was covered by
OK!
magazine, with Sir
Cliff Richard as one of the
godparents. As Julie hailed from
Swansea, a
Welsh flavour was provided by a
harpist and Welsh
male voice choir, the
Gwalia Singers from Swansea.
[5]
References
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- Tripod.com - accessed July 2009
- telegraph.co.uk 9 Sep 2006: Alvin Stardust's son swaps glam for grammar
- OK! Issue 261, April 27 2001, page 46