Cliff Richard claims to have proven that UK radio stations are biased against him by revealing that he released a successful RnB single in 1998 under an assumed name. Richard, of course, has long claimed that radio stations, particularly BBC Radio 1, have a vendetta against him and unfairly refuse to play his music. Though why it's taken him ten years to reveal his secret single is anybody's guess.
The singer said: "I was proved right - my name can be a terrible drawback. When I hear myself on the radio I pretty much phone a friend and send a bottle of champagne round. I'm excited to get one play, if your name doesn't fit the bill, they will never give you a listen".
I'm not sure the anonymous track does prove the vendetta theory, actually. It just proves that if he does something a bit more in-keeping with current pop radio playlists, he has a better chance of getting played. He really needs to release an RnB single under his own name to test his theory. Or, even better, an emo single.
I've actually been trying to track down this single, so far unsuccessfully. Last.fm claims that there is a German visual artist called CR - perhaps that's his alter-ego. And CR has a song called 'Hate The Christian Right', perhaps the track Cliff's referring to.