Bill Kenwright & Richard Roundtree RIP

The Vinyl Word says farewell to two people who have died who have musical links but who are better known in other fields. Bill Kenwright, who was 78, came to fame when he played Gordon Clegg in Coronation Street in 1968. He became a very successful theatre producer, best known for 'Blood Brothers', 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' and 'Whistle Down the Wind' among other West End shows. A lifelong Everton fan he became a director of the club in 1989 and later the largest shareholder and was club Chairman for 19 years. But before any of this Bill pursued a musical career. His first record, in 1967, with a group called the Runaways, was 'I Want To Go Back There Again', a Berry Gordy song first recorded by Chris Clark. Other 45s, for MGM and Fontana, included 'Giving Up', a Van McCoy song, 'Tiggy', 'Baby I Could Be So Good At Loving You' and 'Sugar Man'. He also tried his hand at record production, including a couple of singles by a band called Money.

Another significant death is that of actor Richard Roundtree at the age of 81. He was the first black action hero, playing the role of John Shaft in the movie 'Shaft' as well as the sequels 'Shaft's Big Score' and 'Shaft In Africa'. Many other acting roles followed over the following 50 years. The fame he achieved in his original role of 'Shaft', one of the first blaxploitation movies, was greatly helped by the highly successful soundtrack album by Isaac Hayes and 'Shaft In Africa' featured a track by the Four Tops, 'Are You Man Enough'.

2 great films - 'Summer Of Soul' and 'I Am Everything'

Here in the UK we've been treated to two superb music documentaries on Channel 4 in the last few days. Both of them in their own ways exposed the racism that existed in the US in the fifties and sixties (and still does to this day to a large extent) and how black people dealt with it. Perhaps the most surprising programme was 'Summer of Soul', an excellent film of the Harlem Cultural Festival which took place in 1969 and which featured many of the biggest black artists of the era. We've all heard of Woodstock, but few people knew of this other festival in Harlem - certainly not me until very recently. The whole thing was filmed but did not get any kind of release for over 50 years. The audience was virtually 100 per cent black. Security was provided by the Black Panthers rather than the New York Police. The concerts, held over six weeks, took place against a background of civil rights protests, the Vietnam War and the Moon landings and the film made the cultural and stylistic influences of the time clear. There was support from New York Mayor John Lindsay and strong contributions by a young Jesse Jackson. Clearly there were many superb performances, but that of Nina Simone was particularly powerful. Other performers included Stevie Wonder, who was just about to enter his superstar seventies phase, the Chambers Brothers, B B King, the 5th Dimension, David Ruffin, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips and Hugh Masakela. There was gospel from the Staple Singers (with brilliant vocals by Mavis Staples), Mahalia Jackson, Clara Walker, Voices of Harlem and the Edwin Hawkins Singers, Latin and Puerto Rican music by Mongo Santamaria and Ray Barretto and jazz from Max Roach with Abbey Lincoln and Herbie Mann. It's great that this wonderful festival was filmed and that we have at last had a chance to see it. But you have to ask why it look so long.

The second Channel 4 film was 'Little Richard - I Am Everything' which saw its first UK TV broadcast. It told the story in some detail of the rise of Little Richard from his humble beginnings in Macon, Georgia, his incredible impact on popular music with his fifties hits, his personal battle between his own sexuality and his religious beliefs, the racism he experienced and his later over the top appearances on TV shows as he fought to gain the respect his career deserved. He was truly the King of Rock and Roll - and the Queen - and was held in high regard by the UK bands that emerged in the sixties, as many of those appearing on the programme made clear. I saw him several times in his prime and he was without doubt the most exciting performer I ever saw. The show with Sam Cooke at the Tooting Granada in 1962 remains my number one music memory. I met him (and Sam) backstage and the photo below shows the autograpoh I obtained on the programme. Over the years I saw Little Richard many times and he always gave a superb performance. The hits may have been many years old but who can ever forget his 'Tutti Frutti' (the record that first showed what an impact he had), the power of 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Good Golly Miss Molly' and the amazing drumming (by Charles Connor, who contributed to the film) on 'Keep A Knockin''. When he threw away his rings on a tour of Australia and vowed never to sing rock and roll again it looked as though the 'quasar' of rock had burned himself out. But somehow he was persuaded to leave his church and tour the UK in 1962 - possibly believing that he would be singing gospel - and what a joy that was.

Rudolph Isley RIP

Sorry to hear of the death of Rudolph Isley (pictured right, above), one of the founding members of the Isley Brothers, at the age of 84. Together with brothers Ronald and O'Kelly, the Isley Brothers had a career that spanned six decades and Rudolph was an integral part of the group for the first 30 years before he retired to become a Christian minister. Together with a fourth brother, Vernon, who died in 1956, the Isleys began as a gospel group and subsequently recorded for a number of labels before having a huge hit in 1959 for RCA with 'Shout', one of the first 45s that carried a single song over two sides. One of their early records was the original version of 'I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door', later a hit for Eddie Hodges. Other hits during their RCA period included 'Respectable', 'How Deep Is The Ocean' and 'Tell Me Who' - all of them R and B classics. After a couple of records for Atlantic they struck gold again with 'Twist and Shout' for Wand in 1962. Like 'Shout', which became a big hit for Lulu, 'Twist and Shout' was picked up by a UK act, in this case the Beatles, who made an inferior, but very successful cover version. Other Isley tracks from this period included 'Twistin' With Linda' and 'Nobody But Me'. The brothers moved to United Artists and had some success with 'Tango' and 'Shake It With Me Baby'. From there they were signed to Motown and had a run of very successful records and albums, including'This Old Heart Of Mine', 'Take Some Time Out For Love', 'I Guess I'll Always Love You', 'Take Me In Your Arms' and 'Behind A Painted Smile', which has one of the best intros ever. After leaving Motown they recorded for T-Neck, a label they had set up some years before, and had success through to the early eighties with hits including 'Do Your Thing', 'I Turned You On', 'Was It Good To You' and 'Warpath'. UK hits during the seventies included 'That Lady', 'The Highways Of My Life' and 'Summer Breeze'. By this time two younger brothers had joined the group - Ernie and Marvin - plus brother in law Chris Jasper. Successful albums included '3 Plus 3', 'Live It Up', 'Harvest To The World' and 'Showdown'. Their success continued into the eighties but in 1983 Ernie, Marvin and Chris left the group to form Isley-Jasper-Isley. The three original brothers, including Rudolph, made an album for Warner Brothers in 1985 called ''Masterpiece' but O'Kelly died in 1986 and after releasing two albums with brother Ron - 'Smooth Sailin' and 'Spend The Night' - Rudolph retired in 1989. In March of this year Rudolph began legal action against his brother Ron claiming joint ownership of the Isley Brothers name and royalties from records made in the 1990s after he had left the band.

A selection of Isley Brothers LPs (above) and some of the many UK labels that released their 45s.

Another death is that of Ritchie Routledge who became a member of UK group the Cryin' Shames ahed 16. They had a hit in 1966 with an atmospheric version of 'Please Stay', which became Joe Meek's last hit before his death.

Another artist who is reported as having died is Liverpool born Lee Curtis, who formed a group called the Detours, later the All Stars, which included former Beatle Pete Best in the early sixties. The band played at the Star Club in Hamburg frequently and as a solo singer he recorded several 45s including several covers, including 'Little Girl', 'Let's Stomp', 'What About Me' and 'Ecstasy'. Lee appeared on the Tales From The Woods show in 2014 (pictured below) where he performed versions of 'Route 66', 'Be Bop A Lula', 'Heartbreak Hotel' and 'Jezebel' among others.

Jimmy Savile - The Reckoning

I was gripped last night by the first episode of 'The Reckoning' - a drama documentary about Jimmy Savile's life and very shady career. Steve Coogan (pictured above) was brillant in the part of the DJ and TV personality who began life as a miner and a wrestler (not mentioned as far as I can tell) and went on to be a knight of the realm and an infamous paedophile. OK, there were faults in episode one (why did they invent records that didn't exist for example) but the central character of Savile, his slimy, arrogant, vicious manner underpinned by his Catholic faith, charity work and devotion to his mother, the Duchess, was superbly portrayed in all its insidiousness. It was brave of the BBC to broadcast this (made by ITV Studios by the way) as it showed the Beeb to be spineless and prepared to overlook Savile's activities despite plenty of evidence. But at least they can take comfort from the fact that he fooled plenty of others, from Margaret Thatcher to Prince Charles, and even the Pope, and won himself an MBE and later a knighthood for his charity work. Yet all the time, in plain sight (as he made no secret of it) he was seducing and assaulting young girls and young men in his camper van and at various places which he frequented, including his late mother's house in Scarborough, Leeds Infirmary, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Broadmoor.

He fooled me too, although I always thought there was something fishy about him. When he died in 2011 I wrote on The Vinyl Word the following: 'Now then, now then. As it happens, the Vinyl Word lifts a glass to Sir Jimmy Savile, who has died at his home in Leeds at the age of 84. It's hard to exaggerate the importance of Jimmy in the world of pop music in the sixties. I was one of the earliest members of Radio Luxembourg's Teen and Twenty Disc Club (the TTDC) back in around 1961, when Jimmy was a DJ on 208. I had a membership card with a low membership number, but I've no idea what happened to it. Around that time he attempted a pop career with an unsuccessful cover of Ray Stevens' Ahab the Arab. But it was as a radio presenter and, even more so, as a TV presenter that Jimmy really shone, with his catchphrases, northern affability, dyed hair and track suits. He was, notably, the first presenter of Top of the Pops in 1964 (and also the last when it ended in 2006), a big name on Radio One from 1968 onwards and presenter of the rather naff, but very popular Jim'll Fix It. A former miner and professional wrestler, he was awarded his knighthood for services to charity, especially money raised through his long distance walks and marathons. I remember in 1972 when I was a local newspaper reporter in Lancashire I met Jimmy, who was one of a number of nutty people who took part in a non-stop walking competition around the motor racing circuit at Aintree. This mad event took places for days - perhaps even weeks - and Jimmy was one of the last to give up. I also recall that on the night Elvis died I tuned into Radio Luxembourg - and there was Jimmy on the line reminiscing about his meetings with The King. Jimmy was always a strange fish. He doted on his mother - The Duchess - and never married. With his huge cigars, white Rolls Royce and constant cheeriness he came across as somehow rather a lonely person. But he was a big personality in his day and a leading figure in the pop music of the day.'

Yet only a few months later, after his predatory nature had been revealed to the world I wrote: 'I said on the blog when he died last October, that Jimmy Savile was a strange fish. Just how strange a fish he was, neither I nor the general public knew. The revelations of sex with under age girls have been shocking, and the rubbishing of his reputation has been total, with his name being removed from a road named after him in Scarborough and his gravestone being taken away (no doubt to stop it being defaced). His charity efforts, which were considerable, have been forgotten in this avalanche of oppobrium. Of course, it's all a bit pointless, as it's far too late to have the accusations challenged in court. But it's a reminder of just how fleeting fame can be. Now he is not famous - just imfamous. How about that then Jimmy.' The 'Reckoning' for Jimmy Savile came too late for any of his victims to have any satisfaction or reparations. But he did change public attitudes to claims by victims of sexual abuse by public figures. Just ask Russell Brand, or Philip Schofield, Max Clifford, Huw Edwards or Rolf Harris. Who will be next in the firing line I wonder.