Wayne Fontana RIP

Wayne Fontana, who has died aged 74, was one of the bigger UK pop stars of the 1960s, first with the Mindbenders and then as a solo artist. Born Glyn Ellis in Manchester, he named himself after Elvis's drummer D J Fontana rather than the record label that he spent much of his career with. Significant hits with the Mindbenders included 'Game of Love' and a cover of Major Lance's 'Um Um Um Um Um Um'. As a solo artist he was effective on Garnet Mimms' 'It Was Easier To Hurt Her' and also had success with 'Come On Home' and 'Pamela Pamela', his last hit. After his career came to an end and many years later he experienced mental health issues and bankruptcy and spent several months in prison after setting fire to a bailiff's car with the bailiff still inside it. He was criticised in his later years for his racist and extreme right wing views, including online attacks of Jews, gays, immigrants and muslims, but continued to take part in oldies package shows in the UK. According to Noah Shaffer, who bravely attended one of these shows a few years back, he still had a decent voice. He commented that 'with his trademark wide-brimmed hat (variations of which were on sale on his merch table) and long grey hair Fontana is certainly a character, and the many jokes he told between songs were as vintage as the music.'
Pictured above is his first solo album. So far as I can remember I never saw him live, not had any great desire to do so, but he was certainly a big name in his day.
Another death is that of one of the major names in the early days of British blues, the highly regarded guitarist and songwriter Peter Green, aged 73. He first recorded with a band called Peter B's (an
instrumental cover of Jimmy Soul's 'If You Want To Be Happy') before joining first Shotgun Express (with Rod Stewart) and then John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. He achieved huge success in the early days of Fleetwood Mac (originally Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) along with Mick Fleetwood and Jeremy Spencer. As well as blues covers the band had success with Green originals such as 'Albatross', 'Black Magic Woman', 'Oh Well' and 'Man Of The World'. After leaving Fleetwood Mac he recorded a solo album called 'End of the World' and, after a period of mental illness re-emerged in the late seventies and made several albums from 1991 onwards as Peter Green's Splinter Group.