Clodagh Rodgers

Career

Rodgers was born in Ballymena and began her professional singing career at 13 when she opened for Michael Holliday. Her father, a dancehall tour promoter, helped her sign with Decca in 1962. She made 4 singles before moving to EMI's Columbia label in 1965, where 'Cloda Rogers' made the 1966 single "Stormy Weather"/"Lonely Room". Although none of her Decca or Columbia singles made the UK Singles Chart, Rodgers became regular face on British television and appeared in the musical films Just for Fun and It's All Over Town. She also appeared in various song festivals, finishing third in the European Song Cup competition in Greece with "Powder Your Face With Sunshine". In November 1963 she had flown to Nashville, Tennessee at the invitation of the American singer Jim Reeves, to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. On his Irish tour earlier that year he had recognised that Rodgers was a promising artist with a bright future.

Rodgers appeared with Honeybus on BBC Two's music programme Colour Me Pop on 12 October 1968. Her career changed dramatically when she married John Morris, who became her manager. She signed a three-single deal with RCA in 1968, but the first 2 failed to chart. When Producer and songwriter Kenny Young saw her on Colour Me Pop he telephoned the BBC to find out who she was. Clodagh Rodgers finally shot to fame in 1969 under his creative wing and with Morris' management. "Come Back and Shake Me" and "Goodnight Midnight" both were Top 5 hits and made her the best-selling female singles artist of 1969. Also, she won 'The Best Legs' in British showbusiness and insured her voice for one million pounds. The further single releases "Biljo", "Everybody Go Home, The Party's Over", and "Lady Love Bug" continued her chart success in the next few years.

Young wrote and produced many of these songs. She also recorded "Scrapbook," penned by Billy Ritchie, which appeared on her 1969 album Midnight Clodagh. In 1970 she recorded "Give Me Just a Little More Line" with Young under the name Moonshine; though it enjoyed moderate success, it failed to chart. Rodgers picked this track as one of her 8 favourite discs when she appeared as the featured castaway on the BBC's Desert Island Discs in March 1971. In May 1970 Rodgers appeared on The Bill at the NME poll-winner's concert, hosted by Tony Blackburn and Jimmy Savile.

Eurovision

By this time Rodgers had become a TV star and household name. In 1970 she was asked to represent the UK in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. According to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, part of the reasoning behind the BBC's invitation was their concern over the reaction the UK entrant would get on the stage from the Irish public. She received death threats from the IRA as a result of her appearing for the UK.

Heralded by two separate front-cover features on the BBC listing's magazine, the Radio Times, Rodgers appeared as the resident guest on It's Cliff Richard, a prime-time variety show hosted by Cliff Richard on BBC One from January 1971, performing one shortlisted song a week for six weeks, followed by a performance of all 6 on week seven and with a repeat of the 6 songs immediately after. Viewers would normally have been asked to send in postcard votes for their favourites, but because of a postal strike, regional juries decided the winner, with "Jack in the Box", written by John Worsley and David Myers, being named the winner the following week. The song that placed fourth in the UK selection, "Another Time, Another Place", later became a hit for Engelbert Humperdinck.

For the first time in the Eurovision Song Contest, broadcasters were required to prepare a 'preview' video of the song for broadcast in all the participating Eurovision countries to help promote the songs before the big night. For the performance in Dublin, Rodgers wore a pink frilly top and spangled hot pants. She finished in fourth place, behind Monaco, Spain and Germany. It was the first time since 1966 that the UK had not placed first or second. After Eurovision, the single reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, her third and last UK Top 10 success. It remains her most famous hit.

At Eurovision, Rodgers' sister Lavinia joined The Breakaways as her four backing vocalists. In 1982, Lavinia and brother Lewis attempted to represent the UK in the contest as part of the group 'Good Looks', but failed to come through the UK heat.

Post-Eurovision career

Despite only one more chart single, "Lady Love Bug" in autumn 1971, Rodgers continued to be a major TV star in the UK, guesting on many shows, appearing in cabaret, and becoming the face of 'Bisto' in a series of television advertisements. On Irish television, The Clodagh Rodgers Show won an award at the Golden Rose TV festival in Montreux. She starred in many other shows, including Seaside Special for BBC Television—hosting the first show from Great Yarmouth in 1975—and The Morecambe and Wise Show in 1970. She was a regular guest of The Two Ronnies.

Rodgers also made a mark with her impressions of fellow artists such as Cilla Black, often working with Mike Yarwood, Des O'Connor, Tommy Cooper, Bob Monkhouse, and Dickie Henderson in variety. She was a regular performer in UK resorts' summer seasons, sharing the bill with Mike and Bernie Winters, among others. This success was mirrored on stage, where she has starred in London's West End in her own show at the Talk of the Town (breaking Sammy Davis Jr.'s box office record) and in Cinderella at the London Palladium in 1971.

Her stage career was damaged when she walked out on the show Meet Me in London at London's Adelphi Theatre in April 1971. The show, a fixed 10-week fill-in between the closure of the musical Charlie Girl and a new production of Showboat, was produced by Harold Fielding, and consisted of two-halves. Clodagh was due to feature in the opening half, mainly with the 30-strong singing and dancing group, The Young Generation, with two interspersed spots, one with comics Hope and Keen, the other some songs from Rodgers. The second half was a Tommy Steele-centred spectacular that had originally been played in Las Vegas. After cuts to the running order to trim the show's length, Rodgers and her manager/husband walked out 15 minutes before curtain-up on opening night. Hope and Keen filled in for her and after a few shows singer Susan Maughan took over her spot. Despite this, Rodgers continued with TV work through the late 1970s, and signed to Polydor Records in 1976. Despite radio airplay and television appearances, her 1977 single "Save Me" failed to chart. The track was covered in the US by Louise Mandrell who took it to number six on the US country chart in 1983. "Save Me" was also covered by the South African all-girl band Clout (an SA no. 7 hit in 1979). Other artists who covered this song include Merrilee Rush and Helen Reddy.

In 1978, Rodgers hosted UK ITV's St. Patrick's Day variety show for the second time, appearing on the cover of the TVTimes to promote the show. Later that year, Rodgers teamed with Terry Wogan on the ITV game show 3-2-1 in the programme's first Christmas Special Celebrity edition, and the pair became the first contestants (celebrity or otherwise) to end up with the 'Dustbin' as their prize, losing the chance to attain a prize for their nominated charity. She split from her manager/husband not long after their son's birth and opted for motherhood over performing, although she released 2 singles on the Precision label in 1980. One of these tracks was "My Simple Heart," which was placed on a B-side. Shortly after its release, The Three Degrees released their version of it, which reached the UK Top 10. Similarly, Rodgers had released "Stand by Your Man" as the B-side of her 1971 single "Lady Love Bug." Stand by Your Man (co-written by Tammy Wynette and Billy Sherrill) had previously been a hit for Tammy Wynette in the U.S. Country charts in 1968 and later a number one hit single for Wynette when it was released the UK in 1975.

Later years

Her second husband, guitarist Ian Sorbie, died in 1995, not long after their Paignton-based restaurant business collapsed, leaving them bankrupt.

She has appeared in two musicals in the West End. These are Pump Boys and Dinettes at the Piccadilly and Albery Theatres and in the lead role of Mrs Johnstone in the long-running hit Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre. She appeared in the UK tour of Blood Brothers between 1995 and 1998.

In 1996, the first of two CD retrospectives were issued, bringing Rodgers back into the limelight. In 1998, she made a rare TV appearance with other former Eurovision artists, performing on comedian John Shuttleworth's Eurovision parody Europigeon on BBC Two, just before the 1998 contest in Birmingham.

In 1999, Mint Royale issued the track "Shake Me," which sampled Rodgers' original recording of "Come Back And Shake Me"; it was featured in the UK TV production Queer As Folk. In 2001, Rodgers played a recurring character in the ITV drama series The Bill.

Other

In the TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, Episode 34: "The Cycling Tour", Mr. Gulliver (Terry Jones) receives a head trauma from an auto accident and is convinced that he is Clodagh Rodgers. At the end of the episode, two large Terry Gilliam-animated monsters, who has been eyeing the cyclist lead character Mr. Pither (Michael Palin) from behind a bush, wait until Pither is gone, jump out, and dance up and down to Rodgers' rendition of "Jack in the Box."

Singles

~ 'Wolf' was originally released as the 'A' side of the single, but when it failed to chart, the single was re-issued with 'Tangerines, Tangerines' as the lead track.

Albums