Alan David Blakley (1 April 1942 – 1 June 1996) was a British musician and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. A member of

the Tremeloes The Tremeloes (formerly Brian Poole and The Tremeloes) are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with ...

from 1958 to 1996. He was the father of actress

Claudie Blakley Claudie Blakley (born 4 January 1974) is an English actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1998, she won the Ian Charleson Award for her performance in ''The Seagull'' at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. She ...

. As a producer, he worked on the hit song She's Gonna Win for Bilbo, and nearly all the studio albums for glam rock sensations The Rubettes. Blakley left the Tremeloes in 1975 to produce for Bilbo and Rubettes, eventually returning a few years later. Alan was forced to retire in 1996 due to cancer, which he died from not long after, aged 54.

Career

The Tremeloes

Blakley is best known as the rhythm guitarist and keyboard player with

. He was the co-writer of most of their hits until January 1972, when he started writing for other bands. Blakley formed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes (originally spelt grammatically correct as “Tremoloes”) in 1958. They initially found success in the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when Rock music, rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture became popular in the United States with sign ...

era with lead singer

Brian Poole Brian Poole (born 2 November 1941)Eder, BruceBrian Poole Biography, Allmusic. Retrieved 17 August 2014 is a singer and performer who was the lead singer of 1960s beat band Brian Poole And The Tremeloes Early life He was brought up in th ...

, scoring a UK

chart-topper A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include r ...

in 1963 with "

Do You Love Me "Do You Love Me" is a rhythm and blues song recorded by the Contours in 1962. Written and produced by Motown, Motown Records owner Berry Gordy Jr., it appeared twice on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, reaching numbers three ...

". After Poole's departure in 1966, the band achieved further success as a four-piece with 13 top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart between 1967 and 1971 including " Here Comes My Baby", "

Even the Bad Times Are Good "Even the Bad Times Are Good" is a song recorded by British group the Tremeloes, released as a single in July 1967. It became their third consecutive top-ten hit in the UK and continued their international success. Release and reception "Even ...

", "

(Call Me) Number One "(Call Me) Number One" is a song by British group the Tremeloes, released as a single in October 1969. It peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Background and release The Tremeloes had success in the early/mid 1960s with beat songs su ...

", "

Me and My Life "Me and My Life" is a song by British band the Tremeloes, released as a single in August 1970 from their album ''Master''. It peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the Tremeloes' final top-ten hit. Reception Reviewing for ''Recor ...

" and their most successful single, " Silence Is Golden" (1967).

Songwriting and producing

Blakley left the Tremeloes in 1972. His credits include co-writing (with

Len Hawkes Leonard Donald Stanley "Chip" Hawkes (born 2 November 1945) is an English musician. He is best known for being a member of the Tremeloes and for being the father of Chesney Hawkes. Early life Leonard Donald Stanley Hawkes was born on 2 Novemb ...

) various hits for the Tremeloes, co-producing the UK No. 42 hit " She's Gonna Win", with Bilbo, and co-producing singles and albums by

Mungo Jerry Mungo Jerry (formerly known as Mungo Jerry Blues Band) are a British rock band formed by Ray Dorset in Ashford, Middlesex, in 1970. Experiencing their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing line-up always fronted by Dorset, the ...

with the group's leader,

Ray Dorset Raymond Edward Dorset (born 21 March 1946) is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, and founder of Mungo Jerry. He composed most of the songs for the band, including the hit record, hit single (music), singles "In the Summertime", "Baby Ju ...

. He subsequently rejoined the Tremeloes in 1979 until forced to retire for health reasons. Blakley is known for co-producing many albums by The Rubettes. He co-produced all the Rubettes albums from" Rubettes" (1975), onwards, which also includes: " Sign of the Times" (1976), " Baby I Know" (1977), " Sometime In Oldchurch" (1978), and " Shangri'la" (recorded 1979, released 1992),

Personal life

Alan David Blakley was born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in 1942. Blakley married actress

Lin Blakley Linda E. Blakley (née Stevens; born 1 July 1947) is an English actress, known for her roles as Pam Coker in the BBC One, BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' and as Georgia Sharma in the ITV (TV network), ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. Career In 2004, ...

, and they had two daughters:

and Kirsten Blakley. Claudie (born 1974) is an actor, who won the Ian Charleson Award for her performance in ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' () is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 in literature, 1895 and first produced in 1896 in literature#Drama, 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramati ...

'' at the

West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1990 in the Quarry Hill area of the city as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, successor to the original Leeds Playhouse, and was rebranded in June 2018 ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in 1998. His brother Mike Blakley was also a musician, and a drummer in the band Christie, who in 1970 had a hit with "

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

", a song written by Christie frontman Jeff Christie, originally intended for the Tremeloes, who turned it down but Alan gave the song to Mike's band "The Epics", who then became "Christie" under Jeff's lead. Blakley died in

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 ...

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in June 1996, aged 54.

Discography

(See The Tremeloes discography)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blakley, Alan 1942 births 1996 deaths Deaths from cancer in England English pop guitarists English male guitarists English male songwriters English record producers Musicians from Kent Musicians from the London Borough of Bromley People from Bromley 20th-century English male musicians 20th-century British guitarists 20th-century English songwriters 20th-century British businesspeople British male songwriters

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * ...

The Tremeloes members