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Dickie Pride
Dickie Pride (born Richard Charles Kneller; 21 October 1941 – 26 March 1969) was an English singer. He was one of Larry Parnes' stable of pop music stars, who didn't achieve the same successful career as some of his contemporaries. Early life Pride was born on 21 October 1941, at 74 Parchmore Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey, now in Croydon. He attended John Newnham Secondary School in Addington before visiting the Royal School of Church Music in Croydon, where a career as an opera singer was suggested. Later on, Pride was a member of a skiffle group, the Semi-Tones. When Pride was 15 years old, his father died. He took on several menial jobs to help support the family. Including working in a stonemason's yard that specialised in making gravestones, eventually Pride was fired for being too cheerful and singing at work. Career Discovery and early start In late 1958, Russ Conway heard him performing at the Castle Public House in Tooting, South London. Conway recommended him to Lar ...
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Thornton Heath
Thornton Heath is a district of Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is around north of the town of Croydon, and south of Charing Cross. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, Thornton Heath was in the County Borough of Croydon. History Until the arrival of the railway in 1862, Thornton Heath was focused on an area in the parish of Croydon St John the Baptist, south west of the Whitehorse manor house (now a school), at the locality on the main London–Sussex road known as Thornton Heath Pond. Between the manor house and pond was an isolated farmhouse. Eventually it became the site for the railway station and the main expansion hub. In the 50-year period from 1861 to 1911, Thornton Heath saw a complete transformation from isolated rural outpost to integrated metropolitan suburb. In its infancy, a new railway station in the eastern farmlands enabled the immediate area to evolve around a central point. In the late 19th century, the weste ...
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Pop Music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. ''Rock'' and ''pop'' music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which ''pop'' became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much pop music also borrows elements from other styles ...
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Norrie Paramor
Norman William Paramor (15 May 1914 – 9 September 1979), known professionally as Norrie Paramor, was a British record producer, composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader, and orchestral conductor. He is best known for his work with Cliff Richard and the Shadows, both together and separately, steering their early careers and producing and arranging most of their material from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Paramor was a composer of studio albums, theatrical productions, and film scores. Producer Although the term "producer" was not in circulation at the time Paramor started producing records (the usual term being Artiste and Repertoire Manager, or A&R man), he effectively began this role in 1952 when he became Recording Director for EMI's Columbia Records. As well as being producer for Cliff Richard and the Shadows, he produced records for Ruby Murray, Eddie Calvert, Michael Holliday, Helen Shapiro, Frank Ifield, Frankie Vaughan, the Mudlarks, the Avons, and Ricky Val ...
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Record Mirror
''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Record Mirror'' in 1956, and during the 1980s it was the only consumer music paper to carry the official UK singles and UK albums charts used by the BBC for Radio 1 and ''Top of the Pops'', as well as the US ''Billboard'' charts. The title ceased to be a stand-alone publication in April 1991 when United Newspapers closed or sold most of their consumer magazines, including ''Record Mirror'' and its sister music magazine ''Sounds'', to concentrate on trade papers like ''Music Week''. In 2010 Giovanni di Stefano bought the name ''Record Mirror'' and relaunched it as an online music gossip website in 2011. The website became inactive in 2013 following di Stefano's jailing for fraud. Early years, 1954–1963 ''Record Mirror'' was founded by for ...
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Kilburn, London
Kilburn is an area of north west London, England, which spans the boundary of three London Boroughs: London Borough of Camden, Camden to the east, City of Westminster, London Borough of Brent, Brent to the west. There is also an area in the City of Westminster, known as West Kilburn and sometimes treated as a distinct locality. Kilburn High Road railway station lies 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-west of Charing Cross. Kilburn developed from a linear hamlet that grew up on ancient Watling Street (the modern A5 Road), the hamlet took its name from Kilburn Priory, which was built on the banks of Kilburn Brook. Watling Street forms the contemporary boundary between the boroughs of Brent and Camden. The area has London's highest Irish people, Irish population, as well as a sizable British Afro-Caribbean community, Afro-Caribbean population. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Geographic and administrative context Kilburn has never ...
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Gaumont State Cinema
Gaumont State Cinema is a Grade II* listed Art Deco theatre located in Kilburn, a district in northwest London. Building Designed by George Coles and commissioned and built by Phillip and Sid Hyams, the cinema opened in 1937. The ''Gaumont State'' was one of the biggest auditoria in Europe, with seating for 4,004 people. The name ''State'' is said to come from the huge tower, inspired by the Empire State Building in New York City. The exterior of the cinema is designed in an Art Deco Italian Renaissance style, covered in cream ceramic tiles. The tower, designed in the style of a 1930s New York skyscraper, can be seen for miles around, and bears the name "STATE" in large red neon letters. The interior was designed in the opulent style of cinemas of the day, and includes a Wurlitzer organ which is today one of the largest fully functioning Wurlitzer organs in Britain. It is also one of the few cinema organs remaining in their original locations. History Entertainers such as Gra ...
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South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borough of Croydon, Croydon, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Kingston, London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth, London Borough of Lewisham, Lewisham, London Borough of Merton, Merton, London Borough of Richmond, Richmond, London Borough of Southwark, Southwark, London Borough of Sutton, Sutton and London Borough of Wandsworth, Wandsworth. South London originally emerged from Southwark, first recorded as ''Suthriganaweorc'',David J. Johnson. ''Southwark and the City''. Oxford University Press, 1969. p. 7. meaning 'fort of the men of Surrey'. From Southwark, London then extended further down into northern Surrey and western Kent. Emergence and growth South London began at Southwark at the southern end o ...
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Tooting
Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre- Saxon times. The name is of Anglo-Saxon origin but the meaning is disputed. It could mean ''the people of Tota'', in which context Tota may have been a local Anglo-Saxon chieftain. Alternatively it could be derived from an old meaning of the verb ''to tout'', to look out. There may have been a watchtower here on the road to London and hence ''the people of the look-out post.'' The Romans built a road, which was later named Stane Street by the English, from London (Londinium) to Chichester (Noviomagus Regnorum), and which passed through Tooting. Tooting High Street is built on this road. In Saxon times, Tooting and Streatham (then Toting-cum-Stretham) was given to the Abbey of Chertsey. Later, Suene (Sweyn), believed to be a Viking, may have been g ...
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Russ Conway
Russ Conway, DSM (born Trevor Herbert Stanford; 2 September 1925 – 16 November 2000) was an English popular music pianist and composer. Conway had 20 piano instrumentals in the UK Singles Chart between 1957 and 1963, including two number one hits. Career Conway was born in Bristol, England.Larkin C (1997) ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', Muze UK Ltd, p. 125 He won a scholarship to Bristol Cathedral Choir School and, after leaving school at 14, was largely self-taught on piano during a three-year term in a Borstal detention centre for stealing from his employers. During the Second World War, he was conscripted into the Royal Navy and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal as signalman in a minesweeping flotilla "for distinguished service, efficiency and zeal" in clearance of mines in the Aegean and operations during the relief of Greece 1944–45. During his Navy service, he lost the tip of the third finger of his right hand while using a bread slicer. At th ...
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Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart (1 August 1930 – 3 April 1999) was a British writer and composer of pop music and musicals. He wrote Tommy Steele's "Rock with the Caveman" and was the sole creator of the musical '' Oliver!'' (1960). With ''Oliver!'' and his work alongside theatre director Joan Littlewood at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, he played an instrumental role in the 1960s birth of the British musical theatre scene after an era when American musicals had dominated the West End. Best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for ''Oliver!'', Bart was described by Andrew Lloyd Webber as "the father of the modern British musical". In 1963 he won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for ''Oliver!'', and the 1968 film version of the musical won a total of 6 Academy Awards including the Academy Award for Best Picture. Some of his other compositions include the theme song to the James Bond film '' From Russia with Love'', and the songs " Living Doll" by Cliff Richard, "Far Away" by Sh ...
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Skiffle
Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, it became extremely popular in United Kingdom in the 1950s, where it was played by such artists as Lonnie Donegan, The Vipers Skiffle Group, Ken Colyer, and Chas McDevitt. Skiffle was a major part of the early careers of some musicians who later became prominent jazz, pop, blues, folk, and rock performers, The Beatles and Rory Gallagher amongst them. It has been seen as a critical stepping stone to the second British folk revival, the British blues boom, and the British Invasion of American popular music. Origins in the United States The origins of skiffle are obscure but generally thought to lie in African-American musical culture in the early 20th century. Skiffle is often said to have developed ...
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Opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as '' Singspiel'' and '' Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of ...
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