Alan Leslie Barton (16 September 1953 – 23 March 1995) was a British singer and member of the hit-making duo

Black Lace Black Lace are a British pop band, best known for novelty party records, including their biggest hit, "Agadoo". The band first came to the public eye after being selected to represent the UK in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, in which they f ...

. Their hits included "

Agadoo "Agadoo" is a novelty song recorded by the British band Black Lace in 1984. "Agadoo" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart,E ...

", "

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

" and their

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Eurovision Song Contest 1979 The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Jerusalem, Israel, following the country's victory at the with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta. Organised by the Euro ...

seventh-place finisher " Mary Ann" in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Career

Born in

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, Barton replaced

Chris Norman Christopher Ward Norman (born 25 October 1950) is an English soft rock singer. Norman was the original lead singer of the English rock band Smokie (band), Smokie (1964–1986), which found success in Europe in the 1970s. "Stumblin' In", a 1978 ...

in Smokie in 1986,

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

six

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s with them, and touring extensively as their

lead vocalist The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

and

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

ist. He was the lead singer on Smokie's revival of their hit, "

Living Next Door to Alice "Living Next Door to Alice" is a song co-written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Originally released by Australian pop band New World in 1972, the song charted at No. 35 on the Australian chart. The song later became a worldwide hit for British ...

", recorded with comedian

Roy 'Chubby' Brown Royston Vasey (born 3 February 1945), better known professionally as Roy Chubby Brown, is an English comedian. His act consists of offensive humour, high profanity and outspoken disdain for political correctness. Early life Roy Chubby Brown ...

, as "Living Next Door to Alice (Who the F**k Is Alice)". In the early 1990s, he released his only solo album, ''Precious'' (1991) and two accompanying singles: "July 69" (1990) and "Carry Your Heart" (with Kristine Pettersen) (1991). Barton died in March 1995, at the age of 41, from injuries incurred when Smokie's tour bus crashed during a hailstorm in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Germany. He is buried at

Liversedge Liversedge is an industrial town in the Kirklees district, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Liversedge lies between Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike. The Kirklees ward is now called Liversedge and ...

cemetery, West Yorkshire. Alan-barton

References

External links

Smokie.co.uk - feature articles about Smokie

barton.adc.kz - official homepage about Alan Barton and his son Dean Barton
1953 births 1995 deaths English male singers English rock guitarists English pop guitarists English male guitarists British soft rock musicians Musicians from Barnsley Road incident deaths in Germany 20th-century English singers 20th-century British guitarists 20th-century British male singers {{UK-musician-stub