So farewell, Alvin Stardust aka Shane Fenton - I met your son once, and was oddly thrilled!

The glam rock singer Alvin Stardust has died following a short illness, aged 72. Born in Muswell Hill as Bernard William Jewry, he went on to achieve a small measure of fame as the pop singer Shane Fenton in the early '60s. All I remember of him from that period was his single, "I'm a Moody Guy" and his backing group The Fentones' hit instrumental version of "The Breeze and I". But it was as the extravagantly quiffed, slinky, leather-clad Alvin Stardust that he achieved real success with a trio of hit singles in the '70s. Unlike another notable contemporary '60s'-teeny-bopper-turned-glam-rock-star, Gary Glitter, I'm not aware of a whiff of scandal attaching iteself to Alvin Stardust, so the nation can still smile fondly at the mention of his name and the peculiarly British form of end-of-the-pier variety pop silliness it evokes.

I was interviewed some twelve years ago for some programme or other about interactive TV. The film crew (producer/cameraman/interviewer) turned up at my office, and while we all chatted as they set up their equipment, the cameraman revealed that he was the son of Alvin Stardust and that Liza Goddard was his stepmother. I couldn't stop grinning and repeating, wonderingly,  "You're Shane Fenton's son? Really? Shane Fenton? How incredibly cool!" He looked embarrassed but pleased at the same time. I have no idea why I was so utterly delighted. 

Once (for reasons that I can't recall) I was asked by some big-wig at TV News to accompany Lady Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, on a visit to a TV company. Believe it or not, he seemed a nice enough young chap - but being one remove from the most famous woman on the planet meant nothing to me (I'd forgotten all about it until I started writing this post). I've shared a lift with Elton John, I've stood behind David Frost in the BBC canteen, I've shaken hands with Ian Botham, I've helped Bob Hoskins find his car in the BBC multi-storey car park - working at TV Centre back then, one regularly rubbed shoulders with fame. But the only encounter that really impressed me was the one with Shane Fenton's son.

I hadn't realised until this morning that Bernard Jewry wasn't the first Shane Fenton. I'd always assumed it was a made-up name, but apparently it was the real name of the first lead singer with Shane Fenton and the Fentones. Poor kid died at the age of 17 as a result of rheumatic fever he'd suffered in childhood. Poignantly, his mother asked the band to stay together and to retain its original name in honour of her son, and Bernard (who was the band's roadie at the time) was asked to take over vocal duties.

I'll start with the two early '60s tracks that mean many members of my generation will forever prefer to remember Alvin Stardust as Shane Fenton:

Okay, Shane  was only at the controls board for "The Breeze and I", but he was definitely centre-stage when he returned as Alvin Stardust with this version of a classic Carl Mann  Sun single, "Pretend":

(The full black leather outfit was already a thing of the past.) I'll leave you with a clip from Play It Cool, a splendidly embarrassing 1962 film, purely so you can hear Shane utter the rousing call to arms, "Come on, fellahs - let's twist!":

Good Lord - were we really ever that innocent?

RIP, Bernard - and thanks for all the harmless fun.