Alvin Stardust
| Alvin Stardust | |
|---|---|
Alvin Stardust in 1974
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bernard William Jewry |
| Also known as | Shane Fenton |
| Born |
27 September 1942 Muswell Hill, North London, England |
| Died | 23 October 2014 (aged 72) Ifold, West Sussex, England |
| Genres | Glam rock, rock and roll, pop |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1960–2014 |
| Website | Alvinstardust.com |
Bernard William Jewry (27 September 1942 – 23 October 2014), known professionally as Shane Fenton and later as Alvin Stardust, was an English rock singer and stage actor. Performing first as Shane Fenton in the 1960s, Jewry had a moderately successful career in the pre-Beatles era, hitting the UK top 40 with four singles in 1961-62. However, he became better known for singles released in the 1970s and 1980s as Alvin Stardust, including the UK Singles Chart-topper "Jealous Mind", as well as later hits such as "Pretend" and "I Feel Like Buddy Holly".
Bernard William Jewry was born 27 September 1942 in Muswell Hill, North London. Moving to Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, at a young age where his mother ran a boarding house frequented by musicians and entertainers appearing locally, Jewry attended the Southwell Minster Collegiate Grammar School (now Southwell Minster School) in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, near Newark-upon-Trent, 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 television. While awaiting a reply from the BBC, the band's 17-year-old singer Shane Fenton (whose real name was Johnny Theakstone) died as a result of the rheumatic fever he had suffered in childhood.
The rest of the band (guitarists Jerry Wilcock and Mick Eyre, bassist Graham George Squires and drummer Tony Hinchcliffe) 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 them at the time, was asked to join the band and to use Shane Fenton as a pseudonym. The combo had a handful of hits in the UK Singles Chart: "I'm A Moody Guy", "Walk Away", "It's All Over Now" and their biggest hit, "Cindy's Birthday". These and their subsequent misses were all on Parlophone Records.
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