Michael Emile Telford Miller (16 October 1937 – 11 April 2016), known professionally as Emile Ford, was a musician and singer born in Saint Lucia,

British Windward Islands The British Windward Islands was an administrative grouping of British colonies in the Windward Islands of the West Indies, existing from 1833 until 31 December 1959 and consisting of the islands of Grenada, St Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Gren ...

. He was popular in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the leader of Emile Ford & the Checkmates, who had a number one hit in late 1959 with "

What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For? "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" is a song written by Joseph McCarthy, Howard Johnson and James V. Monaco in 1916 for the Broadway production ''Follow Me'', in which it was performed by Henry Lewis. Early recordings Lewis' versio ...

", which was the

Christmas number one In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...

that year. He was also a pioneering

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproductio ...

Life and career

Emile Ford was born in Castries, Saint Lucia, in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. He was the son of Barbadian politician, Frederick Edward Miller, and Madge Murray, a singer and musical theatre director whose father had founded and conducted the St. Lucia Philharmonic Band. His mother married again, taking the name of Sweetnam; some sources erroneously give Emile Ford's birth name as Sweetnam or Sweetman. He was educated at St Mary’s College, Castries. He moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with his mother and family in the mid-1950s, partly motivated by his desire to explore improved sound reproduction technology, and studied at the Paddington Technical College in London. It was during this time that he taught himself to play a number of musical instruments, including guitar, piano, violin, bass guitar and drums. Using an abbreviated form of his name, as Emile Ford, he first entered show business at the age of 20, and made his first public performance at The Buttery, Kensington. His first appearance with a backing group was at the Athenaeum Ballroom in

Muswell Hill Muswell Hill is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The hill, which reaches over above sea level, is situated north of Charing Cross. Neighbouring areas include Highgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, East Fi ...

. His TV appearances in 1958 included outings on ''The Music Shop'', the '' Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson Show'', '' Oh Boy!'' and ''

Six-Five Special ''Six-Five Special'' is a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain. Description ''Six-Five Special'' was the BBC's first attempt at a rock-and-roll programme. ...

''. He teamed up in January 1959 with his half-brother, bassist George Sweetnam-Ford (born 1 January 1940, Castries, St. Lucia, British West Indies), electric lead guitarist Ken Street (27 June 1942 – 2 June 1990), sax player Dave Sweetnam-Ford (b. David Sweetnam-Ford, 1939, Castries, St. Lucia, British West Indies) and drummer John Cuffley (born 1939) to form Emile Ford & the Checkmates. The band appeared on the TV programme ''Sunday Serenade'', which ran for six weeks. They won the Soho Fair talent contest in July 1959, but turned down a recording contract with

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

because the company would not allow Ford to produce their records, and instead agreed to a deal with

Pye Records Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherho ...

. Their first self-produced recording, "

", a song originally recorded by

Ada Jones Ada Jane Jones (June 1, 1873 – May 2, 1922) was an English-American popular singer who made her first recordings in 1893 on Edison cylinders. She is among the earliest female singers to be recorded. Biography She was born in Lancashire, UK, ...

and Billy Murray in 1917, went to

number one Number One most commonly refers to: * 1 (number) Number One, No. 1, or #1 may also refer to: Music Albums * ''Number 1'' (Big Bang album), and the title song * ''No. 1'' (BoA album), and the title song * ''No.1'' (EP), by CLC * ''n.1 ...

in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

at the end of 1959 and stayed there for six weeks. Ford was the first Black British artist to sell one million copies of a single. In January 1960, Ford signed a two-year employment management contract with

Leslie Grade Leslie Grade (3 June 1916 – 15 October 1979), born Laszlo (or Lazarus) Winogradsky, was a British theatrical talent agent. In 1943, he co-founded the Grade Organisation (also known as Lew and Leslie Grade Ltd) with his elder brother, the impres ...

. He had several more hits in the UK, and also scored a number one EP in 1960. The readers of the British music magazine '' New Musical Express'' voted Emile Ford & the Checkmates as the "Best New Act" in 1960. Ford's debut album was made up of covers. He made several albums, but his last studio recordings were in 1963.Biography by Bruce Eder at Allmusic.com
Retrieved 30 January 2013 His half-brothers George and Dave Sweetnam-Ford were later members of the Ferris Wheel. ''Counting Teardrops'', an anthology including all of Ford's recordings with

, was released in 2001.

Interpretation of sound

Ford, like Jimi Hendrix, had synaesthesia, a condition where the person who can associate certain colours, or even see certain colours in relation to the sound they are hearing. An article about Emile Ford appears in the November 2004 issue of the ''

UK Synaesthesia Association The UK Synaesthesia Association was originally conceived by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen (born 15 August 1958) is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University o ...

Newsletter''.Web-Fi Sound
UK ''Synaesthesia Association Newsletter'', Volume 1, Issue 2 – November 2004
/ref> He once said that he was gifted with the ability to see and hear sound differently from others and that gift allowed him to make first-class recordings.

Backing

The female singers that backed him were originally called The Fordettes. They consisted of Margot Quantrell, Eleanor Russell, Vicki Haseman and Betty Prescott. They spent a year on the road with Ford in 1960, playing one-nighters. Back in London they left Ford to sing backup for Joe Brown who Vicki Haseman was engaged to. They were then known as

The Breakaways The Breakaways were an English female vocal trio, formed in 1962. Britain's premier session vocalists throughout the 1960s, The Breakaways also recorded a handful of little-known girl group singles. Career The original members were Vicki Has ...

Audio engineering

As a sound engineer, Ford was responsible for creating a

backing track A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live musi ...

system for stage shows, first used in 1960, which provided a basis for what became known as

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music i ...

. In 1969, he set up a recording studio in Barbados with the help of his father, before moving to Sweden. While there, he further developed a new open-air playback system for stage shows, patented as the Liveoteque Sound Frequency Feedback Injection System.

Death

Emile Ford died in London on 11 April 2016. "Emile Ford, legendary St Lucian artiste, dies in London"
''

Los Angeles Sentinel The ''Los Angeles Sentinel'' is a weekly African-American owned newspaper published in Los Angeles, California. The paper boasts of reaching 125,000 readers , making it one of the oldest, largest and most influential African-American newspapers ...

'', 21 April 2016

Discography

References

External links

Emile Ford & the Checkmates story at the 45-rpm Website

Website including 2002 radio interview and excerpt from interview with Norman Joplin

Emile Ford obituary
at theguardian.com
Emile Ford, singer – obituary
at telegraph.co.uk
Web-Fi Sound: A website with a info about Emile Ford

Video of Ford live in Sweden in later years
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Emile 1937 births 2016 deaths Male pop singers Saint Lucian male singers Saint Lucian emigrants to the United Kingdom 20th-century Black British male singers British rock and roll musicians Saint Lucian people of Barbadian descent People from Castries Quarter