Freddie Garrity

Freddie Garrity (14 November 1936, Manchester, Lancashire, England – 19 May 2006, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales)Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_26may2006.shtml|title=Freddie Garrity|accessdate=2007-01-06|publisher=BBC|date=May 26 2006|author=Matthew Bannister|work=News & Current Affairs: Last Word] was the singer, frontman and comical element in the 1960s pop band Freddie and the Dreamers.

In the early years of the band, Garrity's official birthdate was given as 14 November 1940 to make him appear younger and therefore more appealing to the youth market who bought the majority of records sold in England at the time.

Garrity's trademark was his habit of leaping up and down during performances. This, combined with his almost skeletal appearance and horn-rimmed glasses, made him an eccentric figure in the UK pop scene of the early 1960s. He worked as a milkman before forming the group in 1959.

Freddie and the Dreamers disbanded in the late 1960s but between 1971 and 1973 Garrity and former bandmate Peter Birrell appeared in the ITV children's television show Little Big Time.

After his TV career ended, Garrity formed a new version of Freddie and the Dreamers and toured regularly for the next two decades, but no further records or chart success came their way. He continued to perform until 2001 when he was diagnosed with emphysema after collapsing during a flight, thus forcing him into retirement.

With his health in decline, Garrity settled in Newcastle-under-Lyme. He was married three times and had one child in his first marriage named Jackie and three children in his second marriage named Nicola, Danielle, and Matthew. Freddie Garrity died at Bangor in North Wales, at the age of 69, after being taken ill while on holiday.

References

External links

*imdb|0308484
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:abfixq85ld6e Freddie Garrity] at Allmusic.com
* [http://www.popcultureaddict.com/music/freddie.htm Freddie and the Dreamers Tribute] at Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict