Alan Caddy (2 February 1940 – 16 August 2000) was an English rock guitarist, arranger, record producer and

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

. He was an original member of

Johnny Kidd and the Pirates Johnny Kidd & the Pirates (known simply as The Pirates after their reunion) were an English rock band led by singer/songwriter Johnny Kidd. Their musical journey spanned the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, during which they achieved considerabl ...

and

the Tornados The Tornados were an English instrumental rock group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hits in their own right, including ...

Early life and education

Caddy was born in Chelsea; his father was a drummer in dance bands and owned a jazz club. He was educated at

Emanuel School Emanuel School is a private, co-educational day school in Battersea, south-west London. The school was founded in 1594 by Anne Sackville, Lady Dacre and Queen Elizabeth I and today occupies a 12-acre (4.9 ha) site close to Clapham Junction ...

, where he was head chorister and sang as a

boy soprano A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with a voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America too) no m ...

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

. He studied violin at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

and became

leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

of the school orchestra before switching to guitar.Alan Clayson
"Alan Caddy"
obituary, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 8 September 2000."Alan Caddy"
obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', via ''billyfury.com''.

Career

He initially worked as an

estate agent An estate agent is a person or business in the United Kingdom that arranges the selling, renting, or managing of real estate, properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a Letting agent, letting or manag ...

while playing guitar semi-professionally in the

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 ...

area, and joined a

skiffle Skiffle is a music genre, genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, Country music, country, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. ...

group called the Five Nutters, who played regularly at a club in

Willesden Willesden () is an area of north-west London, situated 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933; it has formed ...

. They became Bats Heath and the Vampires and in 1958, after being joined by the vocalist Johnny Kidd, went professional under the name

. They appeared onstage in pirate costumes, released a number of

beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

records, and appeared on an ITV programme called ''Disc Break''. Caddy played lead guitar, but not on "

Shakin' All Over "Shakin' All Over" is a song originally performed by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. It was written by leader Johnny Kidd, and his original recording reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1960. The song is sometimes credited to Frederi ...

", which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. After the band's popularity sank, in 1961 most of the members including Caddy took their costumes and went on tour to Italy as

Colin Hicks & The Cabin Boys Colin Hicks & The Cabin Boys were a British rock and roll band, led by Colin Hicks, the younger brother of singer Tommy Steele. Career In November 1957, the British music magazine ''NME'' reported that Steele's manager, Larry Parnes, had signe ...

, led by

Tommy Steele Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele recor ...

's brother, Colin Hicks. The tour was not a success; Caddy left after six weeks and with drummer

Clem Cattini Clemente Anselmo Agustino Cattini (born 20 August 1937) is an English rock and roll drummer of the late 1950s and 60s, who was a member of The Tornados before becoming well known for his work as a session musician. He is one of the most prolifi ...

was hired by

Joe Meek Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was an English record producer and songwriter considered one of the most influential sound engineers of all time, being one of the first to develop ideas such as the recording studio a ...

to form

, originally a backing band for

Billy Fury Ronald Wycherley (17 April 1940 – 28 January 1983), better known by his stage name Billy Fury, was an English musician. An early star of rock and roll, he spent 332 weeks on the UK singles chart. His hit singles include " Wondrous Place", " H ...

. Their 1962 instrumental "

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

" sold a million copies and was the first British record to reach number 1 in both the UK and the US. Meek was

tone-deaf ''Tone-Deaf'' is a 2019 American comedy horror film written and directed by Richard Bates Jr. and starring Robert Patrick and Amanda Crew with Ronnie Gene Blevins, Hayley Marie Norman, Johnny Pemberton, Kim Delaney and Ray Wise. Patrick also ...

; Caddy arranged "Telstar" and subsequent songs for the band,Jeremy Simmonds, "Alan Caddy", in: ''The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches'', Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2012,
p. 434
and was credited as composer on four tracks of their 1964 album ''Away From It All''. After ''Away From It All'', he left the group and founded Sound Venture Productions; also in 1964, he released a solo single titled "Tornado". He was subsequently a musical director and arranger for

Polydor Records Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

and for the singer Steve Rowland; after Rowland became a producer for

Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label that started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. Fontana Distribution, an independent label distributor, takes its name from the label. History Fontana began in the 1950s as a subsidi ...

, he hired Caddy to do arrangements. In the 1970s he was the arranger for Avenue Records, a budget label that issued albums of cover versions of hit singles, and released LPs with the Alan Caddy Orchestra. He also worked as a session musician. Caddy made his last public appearance at the Joe Meek Reunion Concert at

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

in 1991, with the rest of the original Tornados.

Personal life and death

Caddy and his wife had a daughter. He died on 16 August 2000, at the age of 60.

References

External links

Alan Caddy
on Discogs

at adiebarrett.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Caddy, Alan 1940 births 2000 deaths English rock guitarists English session musicians Musicians from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea People from Chelsea, London British music arrangers 20th-century English musicians 20th-century British guitarists British lead guitarists Johnny Kidd & the Pirates members People educated at Emanuel School