The Official Website of the Singer & Songwriter

John Curtis

PART ONE : ANCIENT HISTORY

For this we must go way back to the late 1960s and a
 town , then in Kent now part of Greater London,
called Beckenham. Born in 1952 I was in my late
schooldays by then & part of my daily journey to &
from College was to cycle to a local railway station.
My route took me down Shortlands Road which led
 to Shortlands Station & therefore past a very
special house. I was lucky to live in a pleasant
area & there were many houses, not least the one
 I lived in, that were on quite a grand scale. This
house really stood out & was very desirable indeed.
Situated on a corner & built diagonally across it, this house seemed huge. It always looked immaculate as did the large front garden with two large gates & a roadway for cars to get in & out. A long length of fencing & trees indicated a substantial back garden too. It was something else, however, that always held my attention as I cycled past. In my late teens I had long been an avid follower of pop music & had recently become a guitarist & singer in a group at school which further fuelled my energy . I did not know it at the time but music would always & forever be a huge part of my life. One morning it was raining very heavily & my father kindly took a detour from his usual route to work to drop me at the station. As we passed the house I commented on its virtues & he said that a very special couple lived there. When I asked him who they were he told me it was Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch. They would have only recently married & this I think must have been their first home together. Already their nickname (to the general public & not just show business circles) was Mr & Mrs Music. The house that I had been admiring was commensurate with a successful couple who would also need to be close to London & its airports as well as have a comfortable home to which to retreat for peace & quiet. I could not have been more than 16 but my interest in pop music told me all I needed to know. Tony Hatch was the composer/producer famous for his collaborations with Petula Clark & Jackie was the girl with the incredibly powerful voice who sang Where Are You Now My Love & who had co-written many of those famous songs with her new husband. I already loved her voice & music & thus my interest in that house , & now its occupants too , quadrupled. Making the journey twice a day , six days a week, for two years I must have passed Jackie’s house hundreds of times always ,as much as my safety would allow, keeping my eyes on the front door in the faint hope that I would catch a glimpse of her. The vast majority would have been on my bicycle & often I would linger to improve my chances . As I went by I even fantasised that I would somehow get to meet her & that something incredible would flow from this & she would catapult me into a career in show business. This was never to happen ,of course, but you have to imagine the dreams of a teenager who could sing quite well, played the guitar a bit & also one who seldom missed a news item that had any connection to the pop scene.

Sadly the fantasy remained just that as I never got to meet the illustrious Miss Trent. Reality brought me down to earth with a hard jolt & in the summer of 1970, at 18 years old, I left school. I was not university material & 1970 saw me start work in the Insurance world based in the City Of London an occupation that was to be the cornerstone of my income for the following 30 years. I will happily gloss over those times! Until I married & moved away a few years later I remained in Beckenham & from time to time I would go by Jackie’s house but by then I had no idea whether she still lived there. Suffice it say the intervening years whizzed by like summer lightning & I think it’s true to say that when any of us look back on our lives the overriding feeling is that it all happened so quickly & suddenly we are no longer young & where did all those years go?!

Jackie’s life , of course, has been run at a particularly frantic pace & I was aware that the fates had taken her first of all to Ireland & then for many years she & Tony Hatch had made their home & life in Australia. In the mid- nineties , when I frequently visited my widowed mother who ironically had gone to live in semi-sheltered accommodation just round the corner from Jackie’s old house , I was surprised to read that Jackie & Tony had parted after 30 years together. Sad news for her of course but I also read that it meant she would be returning to a more active role of performing in the future which was good news for the rest of us.

PART TWO: PRESENT TIMES

This article is not about me. It is by me & it is
really about Jackie. The reader must allow me,
however, a few lines here to explain ,briefly, the
amazing turn in my life that at last took me to a
piece of the entertainment world & finally to
meeting & becoming friends with Jackie Trent
& the equally wonderful Colin. In 1996 I married
 for a second time & among the virtues my
new wife June thought she saw in me was
 that I could sing. Prompted by June I became
 a part time singer/entertainer in my late forties
 & this led , incredibly, to a chance to kiss the
rat-race good bye which we willingly did. Since
the turn of the millennium we have made a
new life together on the Costa Blanca in Spain where I sing for our supper. A few years later another unexpected opportunity came my way & I became a radio presenter on an English speaking station in Spain. For me this was already a dream coming true but then better yet I was given the chance to PRODUCE & present a show on Sunday afternoons that was dedicated to the music of the 1960s & 70s. Jackie’s big hit would come round regularly as did Scott Walker’s Joanna & , of course, all the wonderful songs made famous by Petula Clark. So there back in my ears & my soul was Jackie’s wonderful voice & those fabulous songs & I could play them when I liked! Soon I began to cast around for live guests & found out , to my delight, how friendly & accommodating some of the “old” (I hate that word!) stars could be. Websites were now everywhere on the Internet & the owners frequently had “Contact Me” facilities which actually worked! I started to flex my muscles & with surprisingly good results began to have star guests on my programme.

In 2010 ,and with all those 40+ year old memories of her lovely house in mind, I explored Jackie’s web-site & found that she invited contact. First I have to admit that I thought she still resided in Australia (VERY wrong!) so I imagined a problem there but ,& it’s most important I stress this here, I also had serious reservations about how she might be if I got to talk to her. Laughable now but,then,I thought wow! Jackie Trent……all those years in show bizz, a number one hit & loads more famous songs to her name, she is probably………………well, a bit of a diva! In other words I feared a level of arrogance & distance that come with the territory of the likes of Shirley Bassey or Diana Ross but ,& I need to stress this very clearly here, these imaginings could not have been further from the truth! I wrote and introduced myself & invited Jackie onto my show. If it’s a “No” you tend to hear nothing at all but, in a day or so, I received a charming reply from a certain Mr Colin Gregory that things were looking good & no they were not in Australia but as close to me as Menorca! A few days later Colin & I were speaking on the telephone in the most friendly of terms & ,quite informally & willingly, he brought me up to scratch with his & Jackie’s lives in recent times. Coping with the usually difficult task of being married to somebody famous when you yourself are not (NO! Colin is actually INFAMOUS!) Colin is a brilliant supporter & protector of Jackie & , observing from my superficial vantage point, they seem blissfully happy together repairing daily all of Jackie’s past heartbreaks. Anyway Colin & I are jawing away on the phone like we have known each other for years when he suddenly says “Jackie is here now, here she is!” & BANG! I am talking to the great lady! Within seconds Jackie & I have established a rapport & are joking freely together & ,yes of course, she would love to be a guest on my show. Diva? Arrogant? Difficult? Rubbish!!! Jackie Trent is just the same Jackie Trent she has always been ,except that today ,she is also Mrs Gregory. She is a naturally warm , affable & outgoing lady who is delightfully modest about her array of talents & successes. What other songwriter of her pedigree , for example, would tell you that she always carries round a notebook & pen with her so she could put her moments of inspiration quickly down on paper? Who else would add , between convulsive giggles, that these moments could easily occur during trips to the ladies loo where , at least, there would always be a supply of notepaper when needed! Stories about unrepeatable alternate titles for classic hits would follow with namedropping the likes of Frank Sinatra as if he was someone you would be likely to meet in your local supermarket. Like many people with natural gifts Jackie finds her talents hard to explain……except that she always could & still does come up with the goods. There is also a strong sense of humour in Jackie & I look forward to reading her autobiography about a lifetime of ups & downs in show business with great relish.

Before closing I would like to echo the words of the previous scribe on this page & urge you to seize any chance you get to catch a Jackie Trent show. Even in the glory days of the 60s Jackie’s talents as a performer would frequently take a backseat which is a great shame as she has always been one hell of a singer & indeed she still is. Trentquility from recent times is a great showcase for her as a contemporary SINGER. Listen to this & then go back to her “Somewhere In The World “ –which is the first song she co-wrote- from the early 60s & try & tell yourself the girl can’t sing!

After a number of guest spots (not the last I hope) on my radio show & sundry other chats on the phone , June & I finally got to meet Jackie & Colin in Alicante a little while ago. Again there were a few butterflies in my stomach beforehand (what would she be like?!) but what followed was a joyous (& very liquid!) lunch in which 4 way conversation flowed ( the “diva” did not hold court that’s not her style) & our time with them passed very quickly leaving us looking forward to our next gathering with Mr & Mrs C. Gregory. Greatly admiring her work for most of my life , I had to wait for 45 years before I finally got to meet Jackie Trent. Today, I would be greatly honoured, if she thinks of me as a friend as well as a fan.

JOHN CURTIS, Alcalali, Spain. January 2012.

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