Pregled posta

Marketing

Biography

Born Trevor Herbert Stanford, 2 September 1925, Bedminster, Bristol, Avon, England, d. 15 November 2000, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England. Conway not only played the piano as a young boy, but won a scholarship to join the choir at the Bristol Cathedral School.

He was conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1942 and, during a varied career, was awarded the DSM (Distinguished Service Medal) for service during campaigns in the Mediterranean and Aegean sea and lost part of a finger while using a bread slicer. A spell in the post-war Merchant Navy was finally ended by a recurrent stomach ulcer, after which Conway began playing piano in nightclubs.

His big break came when he started working as rehearsal pianist for choreographer Irving Davies and audition pianist for Columbia Records (UK) record producer Norman Newell. He later served as accompanist for star singers such as Dennis Lotis, Gracie Fields and Joan Regan.

Signed to Columbia Records, his first hit, "Party Pops", in 1957, was an instrumental medley of standard songs. It was the first of 20 UK chart entries featuring his catchy piano-playing through to 1963, including two number 1 singles, "Side Saddle" and "Roulette", and Top 10 entries "China Tea", "Snowcoach", "More And More Party Pops", and "Toy Balloons" all of which were his own compositions.

He headlined several times at the London Palladium, had his own television show (Russ Conway And A Few Friends) and regularly guested on others, including the Billy Cotton Band Show on BBC television where his cross-talk and vocal duets with the host revealed a genuine flair for comedy and an acceptable light baritone voice.

During the 60s his career was marred by ill health; a nervous breakdown while on stage and a mild stroke that prevented him from working during 1968-1971. In subsequent decades, still an anachronism, his combination of lively tunes, light classical themes and shy smile consistently proved a big draw abroad and in the UK, where he promoted his own nostalgia package shows and charity concerts.

After fighting stomach cancer for five years, in June 1994 Conway was told by doctors that he was in good health. Two years earlier he had been awarded the Lord Mayor of Bristol's Medal for his contributions to popular music and the cancer fund he set up after learning that he had the disease.

Despite trapping his thumb in the door of his Rolls Royce car in 1995, Conway remained active until finally succumbing to cancer in November 2000.

Image reproduced with kind permission of Peter Ashford @ Collection.

Hello all,

So here we are another run of 7 Days and it is apparently summer. Over here in the UK the weather has been toying with us a bit. Some days we get lovely sunshine and summer temperatures and the next day it can be raining from the ground up. So a typical British summer really!

This run I am back at home and the PC is fully operational so I will be back to the D80 rather than the iPhone which I used for all of the Spring run.

Looking forward to the week ahead and wondering how long it will take for me to totally fall behind on the comment love!

Have a great week guys and gals!

Russ