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Roy Young

After Oh Boy! ended, Roy (dubbed England's Little Richard) appeared many times on TV including Boy Meets Girl, Wham! (both produced by Jack Good) and Drumbeat. Young's boogie-woogie piano and vocal style is aptly described as a mixture of Little Richard, Ray Charles and Joe Cocker. Those qualities have had a tremendous influence on some of the biggest names in rock history including Elton John, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. By 1961, Young was an international rock'n'roll star playing the now legendary stages of Hamburg, Germany. There, The Beat Brothers were formed at the Top Ten Club, with Tony Sheridan, Ringo Starr, Colin Milander and Roy Young.

In 1962, the owner of the Star-Club, Hamburg, offered Roy a lucrative contract to appear at his club as a solo artist where some months later he formed the Star Combo, giving birth to the clubs' house band. The Beatles invited Roy to play with them during  their time there.   Young joined Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers after which, Roy met Laurie O'Leary who became his manager and a very close friend. It was Laurie's foresight that recognized the talent in Roy and decided to form The Roy Young Band.  

Roy was featured in several movies with Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, Suzanna York and Albert Finney.  Helater decided to tour The Roy Young Band throughout Canada, USA and Europe. His agenda also included The British Invasion concerts in the USA with Gerry and the Pacemakers, Peter Noone, Eric Burdon, The Hollies, The Searchers, Manfred Mann and The Troggs. In 1995, Roy was headlined in a Star-Club reunion concert in Hamburg, Germany, with the Pete Best Band and Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers. Later that year he returned to England to reunite with Tony Sheridan (The Beat Brothers) and Howie Casey (Roy Young Band and Paul McCartney's Wings) to record a CD and video entitled 'Legend, History of The Beat Brothers', with The Beatles'.   "Roy Young is one of the most highly regarded musicians of our era." said David Bowie. 

Read 7498 times Last modified on Friday, 07 October 2016 14:41

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