The Fortunes

The Fortunes are an English musical group that, in the wake of the Beatles and as part of the British Invasion in the 1960s was successful. Your special music style consists mainly of soft ballads with three part choral singing and the voice of Rod Allen, who led the band for over 40 years. He died in 2008 at the age of 63 years to cancer.

The beginnings

Rod Allen was born Rodney Bainbridge in Leicester, the son of shopkeepers. His interest in popular music was awakened by skiffle, especially through the voice of the singer Lonnie Donegan guitar and whose fan club he joined at the age of 12 years. 1958 the family moved to savings Brook, a district of Birmingham, where the Rod Moseley Grammar School visited. Later he worked in an insurance company, which he left after 18 months to become a professional musician. He founded, together with his friends Glen Dale and Barry Pritchard, an acoustic guitar band, The Cliff tone.

In 1963, the group around on electric guitars, with Rod on bass guitar, and expanded to include Dave Carr (keyboards, harmonica) and Andy Brown (drums). The first manager of the band was Reg Calvert, concert organizer and later owner of the English pirate radio station Radio City. Calvert persuaded the musicians to accompany a singer, to whom he had given the stage name " Robbie Hood".

It was the time of renaming, so that from the first Cliff Tones The Merry Men, and soon after The Fortunes Rhythm Group was. Even Rod gave himself a stage name, Allen, whom he had picked out of the phone book. The band practiced a program of songs by Dionne Warwick, Gene Pitney and Broadway plays, and soon had such an extensive repertoire that managers Calvert occasionally called out to the audience during performances: " Wants you some song and when the Fortunes can not play pay, I 5 shillings! "

In 1963, the group won a Beat Competition in the Gay Tower Ballroom in Edgbaston and received it a recording contract with Decca Records. The second single, they recorded there, was called " Caroline " and was not a hit, but the signature tune of the pirate radio station of the same name off the English coast.

1965-1969

The breakthrough into the top of the charts came in 1965 with their fourth single " You've Got Your Troubles ". It reached number 2 in the UK and # 7 in the United States. The song was written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, two English Tin Pan Alley composers who should belong in the next 10 years to the most sought-after songwriters. Lead singer of the song was Rod Allen, as in the following chart hits " Here It Comes Again" and "This Golden Ring ", the latter also a Greenaway / Cook composition. Before the appearance of "This Golden Ring ", the band toured for the first time by the United States.

After the musicians had admitted in an interview that they had not played in the recording of " You've Got Your Troubles " even the instruments, they had the opportunity their skills live at the famous Poll Winners show of the New Musical Express at the Wembley Arena to prove where they offered "This Golden Ring " in front of thousands of screaming teenagers.

The Fortunes published in the 1960s, 10 more singles, but all failed to match the initial success. Modeled after the Beatles and other bands of that time, they now also took his own compositions on, especially from the pen of Rod Allen and Barry Pritchard, including the first published in 1967 " The Idol ".

1970 to today

The lack of chart success, the band bridged with appearances in clubs and jingles for various TV and cinema commercials, most notably "The Real Thing" for Coca Cola. The comeback succeeded in the early 1970s, as Greenaway and Cook helped them with the songs "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again " and " Freedom Come, Freedom Go" in the top of the charts. Another success was achieved with the follow-up single, " Storm in a Teacup", a song that Greenaway and Cook had written together with Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue. These successes secured the Fortunes regular live performances to this day.

A loyal fan base, especially in the Netherlands, and committed supporters enabled the recording of two albums in 1999 ( Some Bridges) and 2004 ( Heroes Never Die ), where for the latter, in turn, Roger Cook had contributed some songs.

Rod Allen played his last concert in the " Yeovil " in November 2007. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Stepping on his request, the surviving musicians, now with the new vocalist Eddie Mooney, continued as The Fortunes on. Rod Allen died on 10 January 2008 and was survived by his wife Margaret, his daughter Sharon, his son Leigh and three grandchildren.

Members

  • Barry Pritchard, * 3 April 1944 in Birmingham, England (guitar, vocals)
  • Glen Dale, * 2 April 1943 when Glenn Garforth in Deal, England (guitar, vocals)
  • Rod Allen, * 31 March 1944 as Rod Bainbridge in Leicester, England; died on 10 January 2008 (bass, vocals)
  • David Carr, * 4 August 1943 in Leyton, England; died in July 2011 (keyboards, vocals)
  • Andrew Brown, * 7 January 1946 in Birmingham, England (drums, vocals)
  • Tony Britnell
  • Gary Fletcher
  • Chris Capaldi
  • Shel McCrae
  • George McAllister
  • Johnny Davey
  • John Trickett
  • Ricky Persell
  • Michael Smitham
  • Paul Hooper
  • Bob Jackson
  • Goeff Turton
  • Eddie Mooney
Reginald Calvert Radio City (pirate radio station) Broadway theatre Radio Caroline
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