DAVID MACBETH

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WHATEVER happened to the Likely Lad - David McBeth? A cheeky question, really, because I know David and his wife are living happily in Newcastle.

But I'm talking from memory of that excellent laid-back singer who was once never off our TV screens and effortlessly entertaining us.

David, who hit the charts with Mr Blue, in 1959 was part of the famous 1963 Beatles-Roy Orbison tour, when Orbison started the tour as the headline act, only to be pushed aside as the Fab Four took the music world by storm.

But in the early 60s, when everybody was scrambling for success, there was David McBeth, enjoying the ride and never ready to make his family suffer for the sake of success.

David had it all, the voice, the looks, the temperament and was even popular with his contemporaries and, to prove a point, compred at the famous London Palladium
on three occasions - but he was first and foremost a family man and quick to return to Tyneside.

In fact, David's big ambition in the entertainment business was to own Newcastle's famous Grey's Club. His first attempt to buy it, in 1978, was scuppered by Ladbrokes, who gazumped him with an offer he couldn't top.

At the time he felt let down by the sellers as everything, including the finance, had been in place for the deal to go through.

David and his wife Margaret, a former Queen of the Sun finalist, left Tyneside for the South, but the lure of the area was too much and the couple returned a few years later and David took over Grey's Club.

David was born in Rochester Dwellings, in Walker. His dad was a joiner with the council and his mam an office cleaner. David once told the Chronicle of his first 'professional' engagement when he recalled singing for Risi the ice cream man in the street - in return for a much-coveted cornet.

Many a star of the time would conveniently forget about his poor past - I say poor in money terms only, because I believe it must have been a family rich in love.

But David has never attempted to hide those hard times and once recalled being proud of his many clips about the ear, as well as his gran who was a bookie's runner. But if you press him you will probably unearth a few embarrassments - like the time he broke into the local undertakers and helped pinch a coffin - thankfully empty - for bonfire night.

He admitted he learned to talk "posh" at Heaton Grammar School and that he was destined to be a mechanical engineer at Reyrolles.

Like many Geordies he started married life in furnished rooms - David and Margaret's 'abode' was on the old Coast Road, at 12s 6d a week.

The one constant for David has been Margaret, who he pays tribute for being level-headed and charged with ideas.

When Tyne Tees Television started, David was a regular on the One O'Clock Show.



30.10.1959:
David MacBeth: "Mr. Blue" [Pye 7N 15231; charts; UK #18]
Joe Meek war Balance Engineer der Aufnahme.

xx

als KEN MORRIS

Hier also Ken Morris:
viewtopic.php?p=129166#129166

Hallo,

ich blicke nicht mehr durch .........
Ken Morris - David McBeth: identisch????????????????

Einmal in Rochester Dwellings (in der englischen Grafschaft Kent) geboren?
Einmal 1922 in Ferndale/Wales?

Gruß
Heino

Hallo Gerd,

ich freue mich sehr über Deine Arbeit - darauf hatte ich gehofft.

Knokke-Teilnehmer 1962 (aus dem Netz):

France: Christiane Legrand; Alain Barrière; Luce Klein; Joël Holmès; Billy Bridge.
Italy: Franco Franchi; Rossana; Umberto Marcato; Angela; Luciano Rondinella.
UK: Christine Campbell; Noel Harrison; David Mackberth; Anita Harris; Colin Day.
Germany: Peter Kirsten; Angelina Monti; Nina Westen; Ralph Paulsen; Ulla Raphael.
Belgium: Serge Davignac; Sonia; Staf Wesenbeek; Lize Marke; Claude Manau.
Netherlands: Anneke Grönloh; Max Woiski; Mieke Telkamp; Milly Scott; José Marcello-Joke Copier.


Gruß
Heino