Meeting the Stars

This is an area where I am looking out all the interviews I have made over the years interviewing stars with a true pedigree. I have many gathering dust which is totally wrong because I have enjoyed meeting all these celebrities.

The Wonderful Albert Lee May 2007

Back in 2007 when I was working with Onda Cero Radio here in Spain I decided to contact the wonderful Albert Lee who had been acknowledged to be one of the best players in the world by Eric Clapton. Albert has great playing speed and he explained to me where his influences came from

Poetry in Motion ............Meeting Johnny Tillotson

Johnny Tillotson was born on April 20, 1938 and is an American singer-songwriter.He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country, and adult contemporary Billboard charts, including "Poetry in Motion" and the self-penned "It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'" and "Without You". This legendary singer joined me on the line from his home in Los Angeles. It was a real pleasure to talk with Johnny about his fabulous career and we put the broadcast out on 25th February 2008 

Meeting Actress Jean Alexander aka Hilda Ogden from Coronation Street

The actress, Jean Alexander, who played the part of Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street was Vince´s special guest on Thursday 7th August 2008 

Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to television viewers for her long running role of Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and also as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010. For her role in Coronation Street, she won the 1985 Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance, and received a 1988 BAFTA TV Award 

Meeting Tony Christie -Is this the way to Amarillo?

 Tony had three great hits in 1971, beginning with "Las Vegas" which reached number 21 in the UK, and went on to have two Top Twenty hits in the UK Singles Chart with "I Did What I Did for Maria", which reached number two, and "Is This the Way to Amarillo", which reached number 18, all in 1971. Subsequently, he had a minor hit with "Avenues and Alleyways" which reached number 37, and was the theme to the television series The Protectors. Tony tells us a great story about Amarillo.

Meeting Charlie Landsborough

July 2006: Singer-Songwriter Charlie Landsborough is making an impact worldwide. Vince and Charlie discovered they had quite a lot in common as they both come from Birkenhead. They both played football in Birkenhead, both played guitar around the town's pubs and both trained late at teacher training colleges.

Meeting Bruce Belland of the Four Preps

The Four Preps are an American popular music male quartet. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the group amassed eight gold singles and three gold albums.Their million-selling signature tunes included "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)", "Big Man", "Lazy Summer Night", and "Down by the Station".The current incarnation of the Four Preps features co-founder and original lead singer Bruce Belland, Bob Duncan (formerly with the Diamonds and the Crew Cuts), Michael Redman (of the Crew Cuts), and Jim Armstrong. Their shows are currently an amalgamation of singing everything from doo-wop to Tin Pan Alley standards and comedy. 

Paul Carrack

Paul has had a brilliant career and it was nice to talk with the guy who created some of my favourite hits including HOW LONG by his band ACE 

Here's Paul's career in brief.................. The 1970s: From Warm Dust to Ace to Roxy Music Carrack's recording career began with the progressive rock band Warm Dust, who released 3 albums of original material between 1970 and 1972. Carrack was the keyboard player for Warm Dust, and occasionally played other instruments as well, but he was not the band's lead vocalist. The lead vocalist was Les Walker. After Warm Dust broke up, Carrack and Warm Dust bassist Tex Comer helped to found the pub rock band Ace. Carrack wrote and sang "How Long", Ace's debut single and a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1975. However, no further Ace recordings caught on. In 1977 Ace disbanded and Carrack began working as a backing musician for Frankie Miller. This was followed by a turn as a member of Roxy Music.........

The Legend Len Barry Mr 1-2-3

Len Barry had those great hits 1-2-3 and Like a Baby and he kindly joined Vince on the
line from his home on 1st September 2008 . OCI radio didn't have a budget for these activities so I looked for artistes whose work I had enjoyed and worked hard to set up the interviews. Len Barry had some very important things to tell us about prejudice and racism in this podcast.

Tommy James and the Shondells

In 1958, when Tommy was eleven, his family moved to Niles, Michigan. In 1959, when he was twelve, James formed his first band called Tom and the Tornadoes. In 1963, the band changed their name to The Shondells. By 1964, a local DJ at WNIL radio station in Niles formed his own record label, Snap Records. The Shondells were one of the local bands the DJ recorded at WNIL studios. One of the songs was the Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich ditty "Hanky Panky," which was recorded as The Raindrops. The song was a hit locally, but the label had no resources to promote it nationally and was soon forgotten.  

In 1965, a DJ in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found a copy of "Hanky Panky" and played it as a station "exclusive." Listener response was positive, with many wanting to know where they could get a copy of the "new" single. Another DJ started playing the song at local dance parties. Meeting the demand, a local bootlegger taped the song off the radio and began pressing copies of it. Eventual sales of the bootleg were estimated at 80,000. Pittsburgh DJ "Mad Mike" Metro tracked down Tommy James and informed him that his record was number one in the city. James almost hung up on the DJ, but was convinced to come to Pennsylvania and make appearances promoting the no-longer-forgotten single. Soon, James was in New York, selling the original master of "Hanky Panky" to Roulette Records. By the late summer of 1966, it was the top-selling single in the nation.

 
The Shondells had long since broken up, and did not wish to reform in order to travel to Pittsburgh. James flew there solo, and hired a local band named The Raconteurs to become the replacement Shondells. The group needed a follow-up and selected a song called "Say I Am (What I Am)". Although not as successful as "Hanky Panky", it reached #21 on the charts later in the same year.

Roulette assigned songwriters Richie Cordell and Bo Gentry the task of writing songs for Tommy James & The Shondells. From 1967 to 1969, the group turned out hit after hit on the Roulette label, including six more that made it to the top ten: "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage", "Mony Mony", "Crimson and Clover" (the group's second and final U.S. #1 hit), "Sweet Cherry Wine", and "Crystal Blue Persuasion".

This is not a podcast but a link to a radio interview I found when I interviewed Annie Haslem from the band Renaissance