Chapter 3 1973 – 1977
In 1974, I started a new harmony group called “Flair” with Stephanie, Ken Goodfellow and Chris Alexander from the Cherry-Tones. Stephanie moved down to the West Country so we held auditions, and chose a girl singer called Josie Andrews. Ken stopped coming to rehearsals so we carried on with just me, Chris and Josie. You can hear the Flair sound under Harmony Examples, including Send In The Clowns. My song Handle Me With Care features Josie’s voice (albeit with a cold).
“Flair,” were seen by Tony Hatch at a showcase in a large pub in Walthamstow, and this performance got us on to ITV’s New Faces – where we sang Listen To The Wind. I wrote the song in 1969, and in 1976 I improved the lyrics and got a good ending for it, just in time for the broadcast. Tony Hatch was one of the judges, and though he gave us only 6 out of 10 for the song, Shaw Taylor gave it 9, and in September 1976 we became “New Faces Winners”.
When we were choosing a song for the All-Winners Show, Josie voted for Tearaway. This choice of song is a co-incidence, because I had written Tearaway with Linda Clarke in mind ten years earlier, when she was “Torn away” from my previous group, “The Highlights.” It was another co-incidence that Linda Clarke was singing at the same pub where Flair were spotted by Tony Hatch (and at the same time as she was recording Doctor Kiss-Kiss).
The recording of the All-Winners Show was disrupted by the TV technicians, who went on strike, so we had to stay an extra night in the hotel and record the show the next day.
After 2 years of talent contests in pubs and clubs and cabaret spots at masonics, we were now billed as New Faces winners, and after that I wanted to improve our harmony sound by stepping down as a singer to concentrate on and listen to the balance of voices. I was aiming to sound as good as Manhattan Transfer or the Anita Kerr Singers. We auditioned for a singer to take my place in the line-up. I preferred Arthur, but was outvoted by the other two who were very impressed, even bowled over, by Terry, because of his contacts and experience with harmony groups. Terry restarted his previous group incorporating my 2 singers Chris and Josie in his line-up. The group was called Co-Co and they went on to represent the UK in Eurovision, 1978. Chris had left Co-Co by then. Cheryl Baker was in the line-up, but Josie was chosen as lead singer for the intro.
Meanwhile, I had to find some other singers to restart Flair, and I got Dave Bird who was good on guitar (he plays on I Don’t Wanna Dance Any More), Jonathan, who also played guitar, and Jan, who had a good voice a bit like Karen Carpenter but tended to go out of tune.
To continue reading, please select the next chapter at the bottom of the page.
Contents 