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Artist News Obituaries
Alvin Stardust 1942-2014
By Aly Barchi | Published on Friday 24 October 2014
Singer, entertainer and glam-rock star Alvin Stardust has died aged 72 after a brief illness, this following his recently being diagnosed with prostate cancer. His manager confirmed yesterday that Stardust, real name Bernard Jewry, died at his home in Billinghurst, West Sussex, with his wife Julie Paton, four children and family at his side. His first LP in thirty years, titled ‘Alvin’, will be still released as he intended on 3 Nov.
Born in North London in 1942, Stardust’s first intro to showbiz came as a teenager when he did occasional work as a roadie for Shane Fenton And The Fentones. Original frontman Johnny ‘Shane’ Theakstone died suddenly at only sixteen of a heart condition, and the band later asked Jewry to replace him, with the outfit going on to have a string of moderate hits in the early 1960s.
After a quiet time playing the club circuit, a solo Jewry, then still going by Shane Fenton, was chosen by pop impresario and Magnet Records boss Michael (now Lord) Levy to front songwriter Peter Shelley’s ‘My Coo Ca Choo’, with Levy creating and shaping the mean, moody, black-haired Alvin Stardust alias to capitalise on the glam rock craze of the day. The track was released in 1973, and started off a chain of charting singles for Stardust spanning the 1970s and 1980s, not least ‘Jealous Mind’, ‘Pretend’ and ‘I Feel Like Buddy Holly’.
Having watered down his mean image considerably since ‘My Coo Ca Choo’, even teaching kids the Green Cross Code in a 1975 TV advert, Stardust moved more into family entertainment in later years, acting and singing in a number of musicals and TV shows, playing the Child Catcher in a 2005 production of ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ at the London Palladium, and appearing in series like ‘Hollyoaks’ and ‘Doctors’.
Paying his respects to the late star, Lord Levy has said: “He was one of the most professional artists that I had the privilege of working with. He was a real gentleman. Whenever he did TV or a radio appearance he would always thank the staff or the producer. He knew the score and knew what he was doing. He knew he had been given an opportunity and was prepared to graft to make the most of it”.
Meanwhile Stardust’s manager Andy Davies adds: “Alvin and I had only started working together over the last couple of years because he and I believed that musically he still had a great deal to give and explore, and so we recorded an album that is a testament to an artist who gave his career to music. I may not have known him long but even in that short time he proved to be one of the most genuine and likeable men I’ve ever met. His passing is a huge and sad loss”.
