Christine McVie has recently rejoined Fleetwood Mac, and here’s a little post about her. The story of that band is like the quintessential story of a rock band, it’s got everything – early different band line up, fortuitous meetings, relationships, break-ups, drugs, fall outs, huge success and longevity against the odds. Plus, some damn good songs.
This is from the Pelham Pop Annual of 1970 (and the only year it was published as far as I can tell). Before Christine McVie married John McVie, she was Christine Perfect (her real name), a blues musician and member of the band Chicken Shack.
This is a lovely late 60s cool girl photo of her in a cafe, along with pics of other singers Marsha Hunt, Clodagh Rogers and Pat Arnold.
Well, I was going to post up this interview with the relatively newly-Christian Cliff Richard this week anyway, but due to recent events, he’s rather more newsworthy at the moment than I was expecting.
This is from 1970 and featured in the weight-obsessed Pelham Pop Annual (see my previous post on the subject here – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/cilla-black-likes-being-skinny/). This is a good fit for the “slimmed-down” Cliff, as he seems equally interested in dieting.
It sounds like he would be surprised to still be famous now – “…I mean, just how old can a pop singer be?”
Maurice Gibb is talent hunting, Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
From the Pelham Pop Annual in 1970, an interview with Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees on his new record company, started with his brother Barry Gibb. Their first signing was Billy Lawrie, the brother of Maurice’s new wife Lulu. This interview is mainly a call out for talent to be signed up by them, with a little look into the domestic life of Maurice and Lulu – they are trying to be a traditional couple and he even gives her housekeeping money.
He talks about the names they were thinking of for the company “Lemon” (discarded for being too similar to the Beatles’ “Apple”) or “BG” but fails to mention its chosen name – all he says is “the title you all know it as”. It took a bit of digging to find out the name, as there are very few references to this company now. It turns out it was originally called “Diamond” but changed when they realised there was a record company of that name in the US. It then became “Gee Gee” for the two Gibb brothers involved. But, unfortunately for the Pelham Pop Annual, this was already old news by 1970, with Maurice and Barry splitting up in December 1969 and the record company going by the wayside.
Interestingly, Maurice talks about their film Cucumber Castle here, except at the point of the interview it was a 13-week series. In the event, it became a one off television special. It was only released on video for a very short space of time, and was considered one of the rarest commercial releases ever. Now, though, you can see the whole thing on Youtube. It has quite a cast – as well as Maurice and Barry, there were Frankie Howerd, Vincent Price, Eleanor Bron, Ginger Baker, Lulu and Spike Milligan, to name a few. Maurice talks about the tens of thousands he’s spent on video equipment for the film, but looking at it, perhaps it needed a little more – although the songs are lovely, of course.
Maurice Gibb is talent hunting, Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Maurice Gibb is talent hunting, Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Maurice Gibb is talent hunting, Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Maurice Gibb is talent hunting, Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Maurice Gibb is talent hunting, Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
The Pelham Pop Annual of 1970 was strangely weight-obsessed. So much so, that there’d be serious Twitter outrage if this kind of thing was printed now.
It’s even the headline on a Cilla Black interview:
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Every pop profile contains the exact weight of the stars. If you want to know how heavy Dusty Springfield, The Tremeloes, The Marmalade and Fleetwood Mac were, you’ve come to the right place:
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Mick Fleetwood is apparently 6’6 and 10 stone 4. I guess he liked being skinny too, that’s a BMI of 16.6!
My favourite bits are the “Likes” and “Dislikes” sections. The Tremeloes’ Alan Blakely’s “Small noses” and “Large noses”, especially.
From the Pelham Pop Annual, 1970 – a fairly difficult Beatles quiz.
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
The Pelham Pop Annual aimed to only feature artists that would stand the test of time and, looking at their features, they mostly did well. Cliff Richard, Tom Jones, The Who are all here. Unfortunately, the annual only seemed to last for the one, 1970, edition though.
