In the early 1970s the Irish star conquered the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Then his career crashed. Now 75, he talks about self-belief, blowing his chance at Glastonbury – and the story behind one of the darkest No 1s in pop
have covered his songs, and 2018’s eponymous album – his 19th – was his first Top 20 offering of new material since 1974. “I never lost the belief in what I do,” he says, smiling from beneath a mass of slightly greying hair. “For me, success was always writing a good song.”
After a “magical” time studying art at Swindon College , some hapless episodes followed, such as sending a cassette of songs to the Troggs manager-producer Larry Page, realising it was his only copy and traipsing all the way to London to get it back . Then came the big break, after moving to the capital he sent a tape to Tom Jones’s svengali, Gordon Mills. “His secretary said that when Gordon first saw the pictures he went: ‘Who’s this idiot writing to me?!’ But he really liked the songs.
He remembers being in the office when a cheque to him for a million pounds arrived, but was told “they’re taking 90% of it”. He eventually bought a house in Weybridge, 10 minutes walk from the Mills, but when he visited Elton John’s mansion, he was “gobsmacked” at the luxury, returning home to “an empty lounge with nothing on the walls”. When he went to Las Vegas with the Mills, Gordon’s wife, Jo, had to lend him money for souvenirs.
“It was very sad,” the singer sighs. “I had a fantastic lawyer – a Rumpole of the Bailey – that tore Gordon to shreds. I don’t think he knew why he was there. He just assumed his lawyers would take care of it, but the judge gave me everything [£7m in unpaid royalties] plus the shirt.
Nine years ago, he got in touch with Mills’s widow, Jo, for the first time in decades. “She’d been through the mill, been married again and had everything taken away from her. My brother and I drove her home. She was living in a little room in a cheap apartment. It was heartbreaking. This is a woman who’d had a mansion, but she wasn’t in the slightest bit bitter. I’m glad we reconnected because she’s since passed away.
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