Hello from a Life Long Fan

Dad used to mention the Moss Empires a lot, and he talked about it quite a bit in the Channel 4 programme they made, he used to ramble on about it with Bill, who seemed to know a lot about the same things, this was at the big Hotel in Huddersfield where they use to stay when filming. That's where he met my mum, at a Theater, she was in a dance troupe that travelled the country at the age of 16. She used to tell of crying herself to sleep of a night time because her bed was damp and freezing cold, as Dad did, so I guess there was no such thing a nice place to stay in those days, or was it that they wanted to stay in the cheapest place they could to maximise the money they were earning, after all you don't want to spend most of your fee on digs. He used to do a Whistling Act and do Bird Calls as per a chap called Ronnie Renauld, and later when they married, Mum would sing, she had a Fantastic Voice, and Dad would Whistle along. I guess it was of its day, that type of Act. Dad then decided to have an easier life and became a 15% man, as you know. They used to have some wild parties back in the 60's and 70's with lots of Stars there, I can remember sitting on the knees of Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, and Tony Christie back in the day, when they came to their many parties, happy days, my sister and I, who were very young used to peek around the corner at what seemed like hundreds of people, all in very flash clothes.
My memory is somewhat out of date Chris but, your mum, the name Trudy Moore is foremost in my mind.
 
some people used to call her Trudy, others Beryl, and my Dad called her Freeda! very confusing for a Kid lol.
 
Didn't uncle Bill used to go by the name of the "Scotchpot's"
Yes he did. He had another partner then and one night they had a big row. He came round to my house late one Monday night and asked if I would take over his partners part. This I did and had just three days to learn all the spots before we did our first show together. Lots of groups were forming at that time and lots of young 'uns would turn up to see our shows expecting to see to see a group called the the Scotchpots. To make sure we attracted the right age group we changed the name to Scot & Scott.
 
We were booked for an audition to go on TV and had to go to Manchester. There were a few artists there and each of us had to perform in front of a producer for him to decide who would go on TV. Every act who performed was told to change something by the producer. We did our spot and he told us that we were to appear on TV. JUST ONE THING. At a point in our act I used to belt Bill over the head with a tin tray. I used to hit him so hard that the tray sometimes bent to an angle of 90 degrees. Like the others the producer told us to change something. Instead of the one bang over the head with the tray he wanted us to tap ourselves with trays to the song, 'Mule Train' . Another act on the club circuit at that time was doing that very act with a tray and mule train. We told the producer that we do not use other acts material. It just was not the done thing. We refused to change anything and were rejected from the show. The producer? I won't mention his name but PD are his initials. Bit of a bigwig in TV at the time.
 
Dad had a similar claim to fame, and I bet he never told you about this, but you know he used to Audition different people, yeah, well one night he had a 4 piece Group come to Audition for him, he listened to them, and at the end politely told them that they were not commercial enough for his purposes, as they wanted to do their own stuff, so he turned them down. They were call The Beatles!
 
Dad had a similar claim to fame, and I bet he never told you about this, but you know he used to Audition different people, yeah, well one night he had a 4 piece Group come to Audition for him, he listened to them, and at the end politely told them that they were not commercial enough for his purposes, as they wanted to do their own stuff, so he turned them down. They were call The Beatles
Hey Chris, did your dad work for Decca?:cool:
 
I do have a publicity shot of your mum but it is high up in a cupboard that I can no longer reach. Along with many more.
Ah I would love to see that, as I have precious few of her in her heyday. She is still with us, well sort of, she is 86 now, totally Bedridden, riddled with Arthritis, and has terrible Dementia, so she doesn't remember anything of her life, anything!, it has all gone, and she sleeps 24 hours a day now, Dementia does that to most people.
 
Oh Chris, I am so saddened to hear of your mothers bad health. I was going to ask you to pass on my best wishes but she will not remember me. Can she communicate with you?
 
Im not exactly sure if he worked for Decca, to be honest, remember I was only very young in the 60's born in 58, so his early career is a little misty, but he did tell me about The Beatles. Actually I worked for EMI as a 7" & 12 " Singles Promoter for many years, which meant mixing with a lot of high level Bands etc, some of which were absolute B......s, and certainly do deserve a Kiss & Tell, but not from me. Some were lovely, Toyah
Wilcox for one, she still sends me a Christmas Card! and realised that we were the guys who were helping their Career's.
 
Back
Top