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Been reading up a bit on Alvin Stardust (as you do); it’s amazing nobody’s ever done even a cheapie TV biopic of his life because it is the most BIZARRE story. Not only did he have two entirely separate pop careers in different decades with different names & personas…
… but in BOTH instances he inherited those names & personas from someone else.
Pretty much everyone my age & older knows that before he was a 70s glam star called Alvin Stardust, Bernard Jewry had been an early 60s Oh Boy-era rock n’ roller called Shane Fenton...
Pretty much everyone my age & older knows that before he was a 70s glam star called Alvin Stardust, Bernard Jewry had been an early 60s Oh Boy-era rock n’ roller called Shane Fenton...
What I didn’t learn until quite recently was that Bernard Jewry was neither the original Alvin Stardust NOR indeed the original Shane Fenton.
He was roadying for “Shane Fenton & the Fentones” in 1960 when they sent an audition tape to the BBC. But by the time the BBC invited…
He was roadying for “Shane Fenton & the Fentones” in 1960 when they sent an audition tape to the BBC. But by the time the BBC invited…
… them to perform, “Shane Fenton” (Johnny Theakston) had died aged 17.
Rather than miss their slot, the band (with the approval of Johnny’s family) promoted Bernard the roadie to be the new Shane and went on to have a brief but decent pre-Beatles britrock career.
Rather than miss their slot, the band (with the approval of Johnny’s family) promoted Bernard the roadie to be the new Shane and went on to have a brief but decent pre-Beatles britrock career.
The crazy thing is that in 1973 with Bernard having been out of the limelight for ten years, it happened again: Peter Shelley (the Love Me Love My Dog guy, not the Buzzcocks one) released a spoof-glam novelty song called My Coo Ca Choo under the spoof-glam name Alvin Stardust…
... even performing it once on TV as “Alvin” (in a clown suit), before discovering to his annoyance that it had charted and “Alvin” had been invited on to Top Of The Pops. With Shelley having no intention of actually BECOMING Alvin Stardust, the now 32 year old Bernard…
… was offered the gig and accepted.
The thing is, while Alvin was someone else’s idea, what Bernard did NEXT was pure genius and gave him a new career which lasted until his death.
Perhaps to distinguish himself as far as possible from Shelley’s multicoloured Alvin…
The thing is, while Alvin was someone else’s idea, what Bernard did NEXT was pure genius and gave him a new career which lasted until his death.
Perhaps to distinguish himself as far as possible from Shelley’s multicoloured Alvin…
… Bernard’s Alvin is sleek, black and frankly sinister. Alvin said in later years that he based the look on Jack Palance’s black-clad gunslinger in Shane, so having been “Shane” in the 60s he was now the Anti-Shane in the 70s. Some bits were serendipitous;
… apparently the black gloves were to disguise the fact that in hurriedly dyeing his red hair black he’d dyed his fingers black too.
But in three minutes and having had a week’s notice he created a startling new persona, which made such an impact he got 40 years out of him.
But in three minutes and having had a week’s notice he created a startling new persona, which made such an impact he got 40 years out of him.
Here you go folks; this is what seizing the moment looks like. The song voice wasn’t his, the voice wasn’t him (it was on all the other Alvin records) but everything else - the stillness, the weird elbow-up mic grip, the clutching gestures - was Bernard
