Jackie Trent News

A TRIBUTE

LILY BURGESS – MUM
22 April 1910 - 8 July 2010

‘The Wind Beneath My Wings’

Lily was a strong-minded Lady and her job in life was her family.
Quite simply, that was her role in life.
My Great Grandmothers both reached their late 90’s, but Mum was determined to
receive Her Majesty, The Queen’s 100th Birthday Greetings.
And so she did, on 22 April this year…..

With their constant Love and Support, Les and Lily Burgess stood by me always, in good times and bad, facing life together as I earned my way in life. One of my proudest moments, ever, was to see my Dad surrounded by booking agents and plied with pints of beer after my very first professional performance, age 11. We three celebrated that night in 1951…..

Dad passed away some 30 years ago and, in time, Mum would stand back-stage as I toured the world’s theatres, sharing love and laughter that rings in my head today.
Now the wind has taken her away, to re-join my beloved father: finally together again, young at heart and at rest.

With All My Love, FOREVER
Your JACKIE
xxxxxx

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JACKIE with ‘THE GRESH’

The Gresh

DJ and Showman extraordinaire Carl Gresham – ‘The Gresh’ – on Menorca.
In High Society with Jackie, Lucia & husband at Baihia restaurant, Cala Torret.
Gresh flew in to spend a few days in the sun, working on his latest projects.
‘Let’s meet up for lunch and share some Trentquility’ says Carl.
So there we are – all Afternoon and into the Evening. Great researching, Carl!
Carl gave me a copy of his new book – A Lifetime in ShowBiz.
Look him up on www.carlgresham.co.uk.

SHIPS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT........

There we were, taking supper in The Plaza buffet on board P & O’s Oceana just a few weeks ago, when I spotted:

Bobby Crush and JT

BOBBY CRUSH AND HIS FASCINATING FRIENDS

Bobby had been headlining in the Starlight Theatre on board Oceana and tells me he even featured a medley of Hatch/Trent songs for his audience. We missed that, after a Norovirus had us cabin-bound. Oh! I can just picture the look on his face if I had walked on-stage to do a couple of numbers with him. Another time..........

Bobby Crush

On 13 April I made that appointment in Stoke with Signal 2FM Radio.
Mr & Mrs Music in London had organised a special re-write of ‘We’ll Be With You’, courtesy of my brother Les Burgess and Tony Hatch.
PAUL FAIRCLOUGH and his Team turned 2 plain sheets of music into a work of art,
with the whole ’72 Stoke FC Team inset on the reverse side. PAUL surprised us all by inviting JOHN MARSH, DENIS SMITH and TERRY CONROY along to sign the wedding music in person for the lucky couple – Emma Ellis and Richard Walton.

Signal 2

‘WE’LL BE WITH YOU’ - The Presentation

Left –to-right
Pete Conway – John Marsh – Richard – Terry Conroy – Me – Emma – Denis Smith - Paul

RE-UNITED (or The Force Was With Me.....)

Early Bio

PC Roger Owen - on right of photo - stealing a quick cuddle on crowd control duty outside Stoke City FC ground.

Signal 2

Together again – with Roger Owen ......and PETE CONWAY again!
And JOHN PYE, author of ‘The Force Was With Me’.

Roger and John read ‘Were You There?’ on my web site and contacted me to help with bio research in the Stoke area.

National Staffordshire Oatcake Day

Did you know – all the supermarkets carry Staffs oatcakes now? I stock up every time I visit UK. The last traditional bakery – The Hole in The Wall in Hanley - is under threat of demolition, so JOHN PYE took me along to meet the owner, GLENN FOWLER. That’s me, stood inside the shop with Glenn, Roger and...guess who? PETE CONWAY yet again.....

Oatcakes

PAUL FAIRCLOUGH and Signal 2FM Radio have joined the campaign for a National Oatcake Day on 8 August. So have I. Come and join us..................

FINALLY - PETE CONWAY

Pete Conway

Pete and I are looking at putting a little show together: ‘An Evening With......’
With music and laughter, anecdotes and a little musical history to entertain our audience. More of that another time.....

AnZac Day 25th April Each and Every Year

‘to reflect on the futility of War and to remember those who fought and lost their lives for their countries.’

In Australia alone - with a population of less than 5 Million - 300,000 volunteered for the front in WW1
Of those, 60,000+ died and 156,000 were wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.

Command Post – ‘It does matter A Fanny to us.........

JT & CG

‘Neighbours’ 25th Anniversary - 18th March 2010

25 years ago, Neighbours first took to the air - a cousin of ‘Crossroads’, the UK soap opera.

Tony Hatch wrote the Crossroads theme music and was asked to do the same for ‘Ramsey Street’? Tony wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics - over just a few hours.

But hey!
The story was about people living in Ramsey Street – neighbours?
So our suggestion was taken on board and Neighbours was born.
Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan were in the original cast.

Billy Fury

I’m just listening to a Billy Fury song being played on ‘Sounds of the 60’s’; something never released, according to Brian Matthew.
I remember, in 1962, Billy collecting me from my hotel to cook Sunday roasts for a whole group of us at his home. We were working together in a Summer season at Great Yarmouth that year..........

A Little News

On 14 April 2010 I will be at Signal 2 FM, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire to work with DJ Paul Fairclough on a few things.
And, to make a presentation of a very special copy of ‘We’ll Be With You’ - The Stoke City FC Anthem – to a young couple of Stokie avids, to be played at their wedding later this year. More of that later. Tony Hatch and I wrote ‘Well Be With You’ back in 1972, specially for the Cup-winning Stoke team. And do I have some stories about that, behind the scenes! (For the bio) Have a listen to Signal 2 FM – great music.

Thank You...........to all of you out there for finding so much material for my bio. We hit UK in a couple of weeks’ time and will be meeting up with fans and fellow musso’s to gather info for the book.

Harry Goodwin – ‘TOP of THE ‘POPographers’

I want to share a special friend of mine with you all:

HARRY GOODWIN – A Man of Manchester

Harry beat me to the gun by writing kindly of me in my Guestbook a short while ago. Never mind, I can still have my say, although he’s now saved me writing an intro......

To those of us on-stage HARRY GOODWIN became a legend in his own time, working behind the scenes with his camera, capturing the Stars of Pop, Comedy, Beauty Queens and Boxing for posterity. Oh Yes! Harry was also an Inspector for the British Boxing Board of Control and stood no nonsense with anyone; yet he made firm friendships with almost everyone he met.

In December 2009 at a Civic Ceremony, the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Alison Firth, presented Harry with a Lifetime Award for his work. In her words ‘He is phenomenally successful as a photographer and is a true gentleman, representing Manchester wonderfully well wherever he goes. He is thoroughly deserving of this honour as one of our truly great Mancunians.’

And there’s more.......... at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
My generation – the glory years of british rock is an exhibition of Harry’s work
that opens on 30 April and runs until 24 October 2010.
And I’ll be there on opening night to cheer on my old mate Harry............
Jackie T

HAPPY XMAS to everyone and A FAB NEW YEAR

Hi Everyone - It's Me!

In the Coming Year....

My Autobiography

In September 1995 I was expected to write my memoirs: to spill the beans on 30-plus years of life with Tony Hatch after he dumped me right in front of my whole family on the dance floor at El Picadero restaurant on Menorca at a dinner celebrating my 55th birthday. Mr Hatch had just persuaded me to return to Europe and to leave the home I loved in Sydney; many of our possessions were still in packing cases. Was that the reason to sell up in Australia?

Over the years there had been ‘other moments’ and *‘Just trust me’ held special irony in our home, but pride kept me silent and malice is no part of me. After ‘the big scene’ a reporter came straight over to Menorca, spoke with people and wrote an astute piece of journalism around the main characters and their lives, but I said nothing.

Why? Because Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent had always been the ‘Mr & Mrs’ of Show Business. We had written over 250 songs together; pioneered colour television broadcasts on at least two major stations, world-wide; all in a marriage and working partnership spanning more than 30 years. I’m still proud of the music that we brought to so many millions of fans around the world. That’s the part of me that people know something of.
The Real Me started long before.............

In 1951 to be exact, age 11 when I stood on stage in school uniform competing in a major talent competition – the fore runner to ‘X Factor’ . I won the competition and the chance to stand in for two comedians double-booked at a local working men’s club. I did the booking – a lovely tale – and sang at all the major clubs and dance halls every weekend until 1955 – still a schoolgirl and with Dad as constant chaperone - until I set my cap at London.

London held the key to success; London and the long Atlantic rollers of popular music from America that were starting to hit British shores in the ‘50’s. The record industry, the society clubs, the big shows and the media were all London-based, so I went there too: alone, but determined. The 1950’s and early ‘60’s really were my private adventure in life.

In London I found work right away; my first employers even took me into their home and treated me like a daughter. I worked some of the large pubs and major society clubs, with well-heeled fans following me to wherever I was singing; that included the (infamous) *Krays brothers, who showered me with expensive teddy bears and protected this 16/17 year-old innocent from harm. ‘Don’t touch her’ was the word on the street and to this day I’m proud that I earned respect from the London underworld. I gave back respect by always saying ‘thank you’ for the teddies, but I really needed the cash at the time to make ends meet.

I worked all the major clubs in London and became star billing, but I was bursting with energy and wanted adventure. So what did I do? I walked away from stardom and took myself off to Mill Hill Army inoculation centre for the 5-jabs-in-one to travel aboard, entertaining UK and US troops in post-war Europe, the Middle East, Cyprus and Turkey. I was under-age and my parents had to give written consent for me to travel and work abroad.

My first trip abroad saw 8 of us squeezed into a VW mini-bus, with show costumes, musso’s instruments - including a massive double bass – crammed around us, bumping our way across mountain ranges into Spain. Can you truly imagine that? I endured long train journeys across Europe, half-starving; I crossed the Mediterranean Sea in a rusty old tub of a ship to live in an ex-whore house in Cyprus. I spurned the advances of a young Aristotle Onassis, an English Lord and many others. I was praised for my talents by the great Noel Coward - who invited me to tea - and twice survived terrorist attacks, seeing members of our military escort literally blown up and killed before our eyes. I befriended base commanders and troupers alike; Ella Fitzgerald gave me her hankie when I wept at the beauty of her singing; and I shared time with Elvis in Germany: the Elvis......

I endured long, and sometimes perilous, journeys but I was never alone – Jackie Trent always had Yvonne Burgess along for the ride. I may have changed my stage name, but I am still that little girl from Staffordshire whom I can liken to the bud of a little flower: all brand new and bunched up tight, then slowly shedding the protective outer leaves before bursting open to rejoice in life’s beauty. Perhaps the bees waxed more lyrical with my particular pollen?

(It stings me to this day, that Claude Wolff, Pet Clark’s husband is on record, accusing me of being ‘Unattractive and vulgar?’ ‘If she’s going to be writing all the lyrics I really don’t think they are going to be very good.’ (I’d already written lyrics for 3 Pet Clark hits). And Tony Hatch referred to me as ‘a Northern Girl?’ Is everything north of Watford ‘Northern?’ Does that make us inferior somehow?’ I think NOT. I swallowed it then, but no longer..............)

My flower of life blossomed until the pesticide finally won and the petals of my flower fell apart like so many chapters of a discarded book: I was dumped and ignored.

‘Don’t let him make you a victim’ was the common message of advice, but practical support disappeared virtually over-night, as did my cash flow. I lived through difficult emotional times, made worse by Hatch denying me my full royalty income –even denying my co-right to various songs we wrote together. How sad is that? So I finally took him to Court where Judge Kenworthy-Browne, sitting in the London High Court of Justice, Family Division, signed a Consent Order restoring my income. The roots of my flower rested awhile.

Well now the flower has new vigour and a new husband; perhaps that’s why I finally feel free to write the story of my life.

So many moments:

Picture an emergency ambulance rushing me to the North Staffordshire hospital one night. One of the crew leans over me dramatically and says.......... ‘Could I have your autograph, Jackie?’ (That signed picture of me appeared in my local paper – the Sentinel – just a few months ago)
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‘Sergeant, how can you expect me to be with the troops with all this barbed wire around my tent?’
‘MADAM, the barbed wire is not to keep you IN. It’s to keep the buggers OUT!’
(1955 in the Western desert, entertaining British troops)
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Suddenly the front entrance door of our hotel burst open and in poured half a dozen Red Caps (British military police), all armed. ‘What the hell are you girls doing here? Do you realise this place was closed down a couple of weeks ago. It’s been a brothel for years, with a major involvement in white slave traffic?’
(That was my 2nd (unplanned) visit to Cyprus in the 50’s)
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[Working at a nightclub in Cyprus]
After the show we were invited to a table of men wearing impressive silk suits and flashing rings and chunks of gold, generally. Ominously, there were 6 silver champagne buckets of Dom Perignon set around the table; and did it flow. I kept emptying my glass into the potted plants.....
Club manager - ‘Jackie, the man sitting next to you has invited you all to his yacht..........’
Me – ‘There’s no way I’m going on board that yacht’
Manager – ‘Do you realise who this man is, sat next to you?’
‘No, and I don’t care.’
‘But Ari will not pay the bill if you don’t comply with his request.’
‘Look, you. We are not hookers and you will not put us into a compromising position.’
So Jackie turned down Ari. Years later, in 1968 another Jacqui made news in the world press when she took Ari’s hand in marriage.

‘Colour My World’

BBC Radio 2 recently broadcast a 3-part programme on the musical life of Tony Hatch, my husband and working partner of over 30 years; we wrote over 250 songs together, including ‘Colour my World’. No-one approached me in the making of that programme; even my voice clips were taken from BBC archives. In part II, which included ‘The Jackie Trent Years,’ the nearest recognition or endearment towards me that Tony managed were ‘she’ and ‘Jackie Trent’. Excuse me? Some ‘Mr & Mrs.’

*’Just trust me’ is in the lyrics of ‘Now It’s Come to That’ on my new CD – ‘Trentquility’

For the record:
I had no ‘designs on the married Tony Hatch’ as wrongly suggested on the internet for many years. The married Mr Hatch, my sometime studio producer, pursued me. I invited him onto my stage so many years ago and then forgave his lapses of behaviour, time and again;0
Evie Taylor my manager first introduced us; she also later said, ‘Don’t marry him. He’ll use you.’

Well.........the Colours of Our World certainly were not black and white. Read all about it in the bio, folks. More another day...........

Something More Pleasant

My home town newspaper – The Sentinel – have been running some wonderful articles inviting readers to contact us with their personal memories of me: all research for my biography.

The response has been incredible: fans I slid in through the back door to join in the live recording of ‘We’ll Be With You’ for Stoke City FC; a policeman holding back crowds of fans in the Club car park afterwards (who admitted to enjoying a ‘quick cuddle’ – all in the line of duty); long-lost childhood friends from around the world; some incredible early photos of me on stage as a child; a God Mother I never knew about; an ambulance man collecting my autograph as I was dashed to hospital; and the young fireman doing a ‘George Formby’ cleaning windows one day who nearly fell off his ladder seeing me ‘lightly dressed’. Apparently he refused payment for his work that day from Mum!

So this week I will be in the Newcastle/Stoke area to thank Hayley Harp of the Sentinel for her great articles, to catch up with friends and to work on the bio.

Thanks a mill.....