Rory Blackwell
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Rory Blackwell (22 June 1933 – 19 December 2019) was an English
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
musician,
bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...
of The Blackjacks,
singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...
,
drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...
and
songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...
.


Biography

Blackwell was born in
Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...
,
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. He founded the first British rock and roll band, and put on rock and roll at Studio 51 in September 1956. At
The 2i's Coffee Bar The 2i's Coffee Bar was a coffeehouse at 59 Old Compton Street in Soho, London, that was open from 1956 to 1970. It played a formative role in the emergence of Britain's skiffle and rock and roll music culture in the late 1950s, and several m ...
on 24 January 1957, he gave
Terry Dene Terry Dene (born Terence Williams, 20 December 1938) is a British rock music singer popular in the late 1950s and early 60s. He had three Top Twenty hits between June 1957 and May 1958. Career Dene was born in Lancaster Street, Elephant & Cas ...
, then known as Terry Williams, his first job. Blackwell fronted him at the Razzle Dazzle Club, in which Dene was billed as "the new singing sensation Terry Williams". Blackwell and his Blackjacks starred in the 1957 film ''
Rock You Sinners ''Rock You Sinners'' is a 1957 British second feature black and white musical film directed by Denis Kavanagh and featuring early British rock and roll artistes, including Art Baxter and His Rock 'n' Roll Sinners, known for their song "Rock You S ...
''. Dean was a member of the Basil Kirchin Band as the vocalist. An acquaintance of his,
Dean Webb Dean Webb (born Michael Eaton in 1940) is an English rock and roll singer, actor, and composer. Background Webb was born in Portsmouth as Michael Eaton. A short time later the family moved to Reading. He was educated at St. Annes Roman Catholic ...
went along to see him one night. After the show Blackwell told him he was leaving to go solo. He recommended Webb as a replacement saying that he was a good beat singer. Webb got the job and stayed with the Basil Kirchin band for a year. In 1959, Blackwell spotted the 16-year-old pianist Clive Powell (
Georgie Fame Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only B ...
) in a summer holiday camp in Wales, where he offered him a job as a
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
player with The Blackjacks. After the season ended, Powell left, as new opportunities arose. His group recorded " Bye Bye Love", later covered by
The Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close-harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, ...
. Blackwell also performed "
Bony Moronie "Bony Moronie" was the third single by Larry Williams, released in 1957. Williams' original peaked at No. 14 on the ''Billboard'' Best Sellers in Stores chart and No. 4 on the U.S. R&B chart. Since then the song has been covered many times. C ...
", "Red Roses", "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast", "
Great Balls of Fire "Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie '' Jamboree''. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 reco ...
", and "Rory's Rock", then toured Europe and the UK with stars from the US. In 1968, ''Rory Blackwell's 1968 Rock'n'roll Show Live'' (
EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
/
Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...
) was released, with the tracks "Let's Have a Party", "
Rock Around the Clock "Rock Around the Clock" is a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was reco ...
", "
Great Balls of Fire "Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie '' Jamboree''. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 reco ...
", " Be Bop a Lula", "
Shake Rattle and Roll "Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a song written in 1954 by Jesse Stone (usually credited as "''Charles Calhoun''", his songwriting name) and first recorded that year by Big Joe Turner, whose version ranked No. 127 on the ''Rolling Stone'' magazine li ...
", " Hound Dog", "
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (sometimes rendered "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On") is a song written by Dave "Curlee" Williams and sometimes also credited to James Faye "Roy" Hall. The song was first recorded by Big Maybelle, though the best-k ...
", "Bony Moronie", "
Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being g ...
" and "Rory's Rock". After the launching of the
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...
in 1969, Blackwell wrote and released the orchestral piece ''Apollo 11 : Sea of Tranquility'' (EMI/Parlophone). In 1978, another Blackwell album was released, called ''The Two Sides of Rory Blackwell'' (Ellie Jay Records). Tracks included "Bony Moronie", "Amarillo", "Teddy Bear", "Beatles Medley" and " Wipe Out". He appeared in many television programmes, such as ''
Six-Five Special ''Six-Five Special'' is a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain. Description ''Six-Five Special'' was the BBC's first attempt at a rock-and-roll programme. ...
'', '' Cool For Cats'', and '' Oh Boy!'', in which he appeared with
Lord Rockingham's XI Lord Rockingham's XI was a group of British session musicians, led by Harry Robinson (1932–1996), who had a No. 1 hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1958 with " Hoots Mon". The group was created to perform as the resident band on the pop ...
. Later, Blackwell toured with the
Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...
. During the 1960s, Blackwell worked with the young bassist
Nick Simper Nicholas John Simper (born 3 November 1945) is an English bass guitarist, who was a co-founding member of Deep Purple and Warhorse. In the 1960s, he began his professional career in bands such as Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, The Flower Pot M ...
, who later joined Johnny Kidd's band and went on to become one of the founding members of
Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...
. He attempted many world records for charity, mainly involving feats of longevity or speed on musical instruments. Many of these appeared in ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...
'' editions, but musical feats are no longer featured in the same quantity as they were previously. In the 1980s, Blackwell worked as the Entertainments Manager at the Welcome Family Holiday Park,
Dawlish Warren Dawlish Warren is a seaside resort near to the town of Dawlish, in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon, England. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 1,190. Dawlish Warren consists almost entirely of holiday accommodation and facil ...
,
Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
, where he continued pleasing the crowds and breaking drumming records. According to a 2008 local news report, Blackwell was retired and living in
South Devon South Devon is the southern part of Devon, England. Because Devon has its major population centres on its two coasts, the county is divided informally into North Devon and South Devon.For exampleNorth DevonanSouth Devonnews sites. In a narrower s ...
. He died, aged 86, on 19 December 2019.


References


Sources

*Andrews, Lindy
"From pithead sirens to jazz stage"
''
Hawkes Bay Today ''Hawke's Bay Today'' is a daily compact newspaper published in Hastings, New Zealand and serving Hastings, Napier and the Hawke's Bay region. It is owned by NZME. The ''Hawke's Bay Today'' is New Zealand's youngest newspaper, founded on 3 May ...
'' 3 February 2007 *'' Herald Express''
"The original rock 'n' roll star"
25 November 2008 *''
Spokane Chronicle The ''Spokane Daily Chronicle'' is a daily digital newspaper in Spokane, Washington. It was founded as a weekly paper in 1881 and grew into an afternoon daily, competing with '' The Spokesman-Review'', which was formed from the merger of two c ...
''
"Ex-Beach Boy Makes Waves With Musical World Record"
29 May 1985 {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackwell, Rory 1933 births 2019 deaths English rock drummers English rock singers English male singers English male songwriters Musicians from the London Borough of Wandsworth Singers from the London Borough of Wandsworth People from Battersea Kirchin Band members