Biography
Born on 24 April 1940 in London, England, the red-headed pop singer from London’s East End had already performed as a youngster in the local underground station during air raids before serving as private secretary to the Mayor of Stepney. Entry into the music business arrived when she took Marion Ryan’s place in the popular Ray Ellington Quartet. Her debut disc, ‘Ding Dong’, appeared on Fontana Records in 1958, and her first television exposure came on the Hughie Green Show. In 1959 she was granted her own series on Radio Luxembourg that lasted more than two years. The sole chart entry occurred in 1960 with her sixth Fontana single, a version of the European song ‘Banjo Boy’—the same number that supplied beloved singer/comedian George Formby with his final hit. She represented Britain in the European (not Eurovision) Song Contest in Belgium in 1960, an engagement that brought subsequent work in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. Further recordings were made for HMV Records in 1963, Columbia Records in 1964, Polydor Records in 1966 and once more on Columbia in 1969, though none returned her to the charts.