Obituary: Freddie Garrity of 'Freddie and the Dreamers'
Who will own up to having seen 'Cuckoo Patrol' (1966) ?
<< Garrity's British film appearances, in low budget musicals, included the
Joe Brown vehicle 'What a Crazy World' (1963), and 'Every Day's a
Holiday' (1965) with Mike Sarne and John Leyton. Garrity's short feature,
'Cuckoo Patrol' (1966), was banned in some US states for purportedly
belittling the boy scout movement>>.
Obituary: Freddie Garrity
Clowning pop star with a series of 60s hits - and a zany dance - to his name
Alan Clayson
Monday May 22, 2006
The Guardian
With his band, the Dreamers, the minor British pop legend Freddie Garrity,
who has died aged 69, enjoyed a chart run on both sides of the Atlantic
during the Merseybeat boom of the early 1960s. But Garrity, who had suffered
from emphysema in recent years, never made it to the top of the UK pop
charts, though he did have two No 2s.
The group's success began with a cover of an American rhythm and blues
track, If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody (1963) and concluded with Thou
Shalt Not Steal (1965). Their 1963 British hit, I'm Telling You Now, got to
No 1 in the US two years later, and for a few months Garrity was omnipresent
on American TV pop shows and packed out concerts.
Diminutive, with large, horn-rimmed spectacles and a geek-like public
persona, Garrity was blessed with on-stage vitality, a catch-phrase ("Just a
minute!") and a dash of lip-trembling pathos that some found endearing.
During his US success, his lively stage antics, which he described as "a
dance called the Freddie", inspired the sometime king of the twist craze,
Chubby Checker, to record Do the Freddie, which Garrity covered, and took
into the US charts.
He was also an adept if limited composer, co-writing I'm Telling You Now,
the second of his three British singles hits - the third being You Were Made
For Me. During 1964 the band's chart success faded until the sentimental I
Understand became a Christmas hit.
Born in Sale, Manchester, the son of a miner, Garrity was educated locally.
A talented schoolboy footballer, he was also steeped in his city's popular
entertainment tradition. After leaving school in 1956, he signed on for an
engineering apprenticeship that would have lasted seven years had his
musical talent not begun to emerge. He started to practice his guitar skills
on the shopfloor of the Turbine factory, and show them off at staff dances.
A fanatical Manchester United fan, he began to get pub gigs. Then, during
the first year of his apprenticeship, he won a local talent contest with an
Al Jolson impression. During the skiffle era, he and his brother Derek
formed a band called the Red Sox, which, in 1958, were runners-up in a
north-west skiffle competition. Subsequent bookings in Greater Manchester
kept them busy, but Garrity's fiancee prevailed upon him to leave the group
to sing with the less demanding John Norman Four. Within weeks, he had
joined the Kingfishers, who by 1961 had mutated into Freddie and the
Dreamers.
The comic capers that became their trademark were developed during a club
residency in Hamburg. Though Freddie was the front man, the Dreamers did not
just skulk behind him, but engaged too in trouser-dropping, slapstick and
other clowning. For aspiring pop stars, they were an odd bunch; a podgy bass
player, a drummer who resembled a door-to-door salesman, one guitarist
sporting curious sunglasses and the other prematurely bald.
Garrity's film appearances, in low budget musicals, included the Joe Brown
vehicle What a Crazy World (1963), in which the band covered - as they
frequently did - the Hollywood Argyles' Short Shorts and Every Day's a
Holiday (1965) with Mike Sarne and John Leyton. Garrity's short feature,
Cuckoo Patrol (1966), was banned in some US states for purportedly
belittling the boy scout movement. By the end of the decade, singles success
was largely gone, though Susan's Tuba was a hit in France. The Dreamers
recorded an album of Disney film themes, and moved into cabaret and
pantomime, more their natural element. Garrity also compered an ITV
children's show, Little Big Time. Later he featured on 1960s revival shows,
played Ariel in a 1988 production of The Tempest and a drug-dealing
disc-jockey in ITV's Heartbeat series. He continued to release records,
including his own composition, I'm a Singer in a Sixties Band.
Though he disbanded the original Dreamers in 1969, Garrity reformed the
group in 1976, and it continued touring until 2001 when, after an engagement
in New York, he was taken ill on the flight home. Emphysema was diagnosed
and, though incapacitated, he continued to work on his auto biography. He
leaves a wife, Christine, four children from two previous marriages and
three stepchildren.
Frederick Garrity, singer and songwriter, born November 14 1936; died May
19 2006
--------------------------------
Obituary
The Times May 22, 2006
Freddie Garrity
November 14, 1936 - May 19, 2006
Singer who, with the Dreamers and his unique dance, briefly ruled the
jollier side of Merseybeat and rock'n'roll
WITH his zany stage antics and reliance on comedy, Freddie Garrity was often
regarded as a novelty act rather than a serious singer. Yet, at the height
of Beatlemania he scored major hits with his group Freddie and the Dreamers,
creating effervescent pop songs such as You Were Made For Me and I’m Telling
You Now.
The group also topped the charts in America, where they became part of the
British invasion spearheaded by the Beatles and where Garrity’s jerky,
high-jumping concert routine launched a brief, bizarre teen dance craze
known as “the Freddie”.
After the hits dried up, he worked in cabaret and pantomime and starred in a
children’s television show. He later developed an acting career but, despite
occasional reunions on the nostalgia circuit, he and his group were in many
ways the forgotten hitmakers of the 1960s British beat boom.
Born in Manchester in 1936, he left school at 15 and worked variously in a
shoe shop, as a door-to-door brush salesman and as a milkman. Like many
British teenagers of his generation, he was inspired by the imported rock’n’
roll records of Elvis Presley. More significantly, he was influenced by the
homegrown musical movement known as skiffle, forming his first group the Red
Sox with his brother Derek and making their debut at the Chorlton Legion
Hall in 1957.
Two years later he joined Roy Crewsden, Pete Birrell, Bernie Dwyer, Ernie
Molloy and Derek Quinn in a Manchester group known as the Kingfishers. By
1961, after the departure of Molloy, they renamed themselves Freddie and the
Dreamers, with Garrity installed as the frontman.
They kept their day jobs, but took time off in the summer to work their way
around seaside resorts, developing an act that combined comedy and music to
satisfy all sections of their family audiences.
A residency in a club in Hamburg was far more rock’n’roll and found them
following in the footsteps of the Beatles, with whom they shared a bill at
the Cavern Club in Liverpool in September 1962. Within months, the Beatles
had become the biggest act in the land, sending London-based record company
scouts scurrying to the North West in search of other Merseybeat groups.
Garrity and his cohorts were Mancunians, but that was close enough. By the
spring of 1963 John Barry had signed them to the EMI Columbia label.
The group’s first single was a cover of James Ray’s If You Gotta Make a Fool
of Somebody. The original had made no impact on the British charts, but the
Dreamers’ version rose to No 3. The resulting television appearances made
Garrity a star with wide appeal. To many of the older generation, the
Beatles — despite their smart suits — were still long-haired layabouts. At 5
ft 4 in, with his spectacles, lopsided grin, giggling voice and offbeat but
inoffensive humour, Garrity was a pop star that even your grandmother could
like.
This image had a direct impact on the group’s music. Their debut single had
been an R&B song but, instead of following with something in similar vein,
they turned to Mitch Murray, who had already written hits for Gerry and the
Pacemakers. He came up with the frothy I’m Telling You Now, which made No 2
that summer and followed with the simlarly-styled You Were Made For Me,
which by the end of 1963 had given the group a trio of Top Three hits.
That Christmas the group made their pantomime debut, a move that would have
been anathema to more “serious” British groups of the time, such as the
Rolling Stones or the Animals, who prided themselves on their R&B
authenticy. They were also swiftly signed up to appear in the
cheap-and-cheerful comedy films What A Crazy World with Susan Maughan and
Joe Brown and, as singing chefs at a holiday camp, in Every Day’s a Holiday.
A series of lesser hits followed in 1964 with Over You, a version of Paul
Anka’s I Love You Baby and Just For You, another Mitch Murray tune.
They were restored to the Top Five at the end of the year with I Understand,
a revival of a G-Clefs song, but it was to be their last British Top 20
entry. Musical fashions were changing dramatically: by 1965 the Beatles’
lyrics were getting more serious under the influence of Bob Dylan, protest
songs were everywhere and the Rolling Stones were about to unleash the
cataclysmic (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. The pop innocence of Freddie and
the Dreamers appeared hopelessly out of time.
But just as British audiences were turning their backs, American fans
embraced them. A US tour in early 1965 found them on the US television shows
Shindig and Hullabaloo, and Garrity’s idiosyncratic performances turned the
group into a sensation. By April, a reissued I’m Telling You Now was sitting
on top of the American charts. Asked about his unusual stage movements, the
singer told reporters, with his typical quirky humour, that it was a dance
called “the Freddie”. Immediately his American record company employed a
group of session musicians to record a backing track called Do The Freddie
and asked Garrity to put a vocal on top.
The single made the American Top 20 in June, but by then Freddie and the
Dreamers were already back home, playing an 18-week summer season with the
comedian Tommy Cooper in Blackpool. Do The Freddie was not even released in
Britain, although in America Chubby Checker recorded a cover version.
The Dreamers’ last minor British hit came at the end of 1965 when Thou Shalt
Not Steal scraped into the lower reaches of the Top 50. By then America had
stopped doing the Freddie and the Dreamers spent the next three years
playing pantomimes and seaside residences before breaking up in 1969.
The group’s final album was a collection of children’s songs and Garrity and
the bass player Pete Birrell found work presenting the weekly ITV children’s
television show Little Big Time. In 1976 he reformed the Dreamers to tour
Britain, America and Australia but the enterprise was short-lived. Garrity
landed his first serious acting role in a 1988 production of The Tempest and
made several further appearances in the British theatre. He continued to
appear at Sixties revival shows, although none of his Dreamers were original
members.He had suffered from ill-health since 2001, when he was taken ill
after a performance and had emphysema diagnosed. He is survived by his wife,
Christine, and by four children from two previous marriages.
Freddie Garrity, singer, was born on November 14, 1936. He died on May 19,
2006, aged 69.
Freddie certainly was a character.
One of the faces of Britain's "Swinging Sixties".
I remember Freddie and the Dreamers many comical antics on stage. One was for the members of the band to go round the stage pulling each others trousers down while performing a live song.
They were always fun to watch and released some worthy music.
He will be sadly missed.
Dave.
(David Brent @ May 27 2006, 06:06 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
Freddie certainly was a character.
One of the faces of Britain's "Swinging Sixties".
I remember Freddie and the Dreamers many comical antics on stage. One was for the members of the band to go round the stage pulling each others trousers down while performing a live song.
They were always fun to watch and released some worthy music.
He will be sadly missed.
Dave.
[/b]
Was that when they wore the Union Jack underpants? They did on the foreign tours apparently. One of "The Dreamers" was on the radio reminiscing about that. Here's hoping that they always remembered to wear them [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]
Steve
One of my earliest childhood memories is of going with my late father to see them in 'Aladdin' at the Odeon in either Stockton or Middlesboro...funnily enough, I do not think he was a smoker
(David Brent @ May 31 2006, 05:52 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
Gee, smoke must get in the eyes. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/shocking.gif[/img]
I can't see a thing !!! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif[/img]
Dave.
[/b]
Here is a pic of Freddie with Jean Fergusson taken in 2004.
(bartonbank @ May 30 2006, 11:13 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
One of my earliest childhood memories is of going with my late father to see them in 'Aladdin' at the Odeon in either Stockton or Middlesboro...funnily enough, I do not think he was a smoker
[/b]
I think that is when I saw him as well. It might have been the old ABC cinema (later the Globe*) in Stockton,where he was performing.
Ta Ta
Marky B [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]
*It was the Globe Theatre (where the Beatles were on the night Kennedy was shot),then the ABC cinema,back to the Globe and it is now empty and derelict.
Check out Freddie in EVERY DAY'S A HOLIDAY, a camp holiday (or should that be holiday camp?)
musical with Mike Sarne, John Leyton on BBC2 TV this Sunday morning.....
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