- Rory Blackwell
Rory Blackwell (born
22 June 1933 ,London ) was the first British Rock'n'Roller, bandleader of The Blackjacks, singer, drummer and songwriter.Rory Blackwell founded the first British rock'n'roll band and put on rock'n'roll at Studio 51 in September 1956 and at the
The 2i's Coffee Bar .Rory and his Blackjacks starred in the 1957 classic film "Rock you sinners" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221516/] Directed by Denis Kavanagh, it also starred Art Baxter, Jackie Collins, and Tony Crombie. [imdb name|0085951|Rory Blackwell]
In 1959, Rory Blackwell spotted the 16 year old pianist Clive Powell aka
Georgie Fame in a summer holiday camp, where he offered him a job as a piano player with The Blackjacks [imdb name|0266600|Georgie Fame] . After the season ended, Clive left as new opportunities arose.They entered the charts with "
Bye Bye Love ", later covered byThe Everly Brothers . Rory had a number of hits with "Boney Maroney", "Red Roses", "Daddy don't you walk so fast", "Great balls of fire", and "Rory's Rock", then toured Europe and the UK with all the big stars from the USA.In 1968 ' Rory Blackwell's 1968 Rock'n'roll show Live' (45' EMI/Parlophone) was released with the tracks: "Lets have a party, Rock around the clock, Great balls of fire, be bop a lula, shake rattle and roll, hound dog, whole lotta shakin goin on, boney maronie, heartbreak hotel," and "rorys rock".
After the launching of the Apollo 11 in 1969, Rory wrote and released the orchestral piece ' Apollo 11 : Sea of Tranquility ' (EMI/Parlophone)
In 1978 an LP was released: "The two sides of Rory Blackwell" (33',Ellie jay records, 1978) with "Boney Maronie, amarillo, teddy bear, Beatles medley" and "Wipe out".
He appeared in many top shows such as 6.5 special, Cool for cats, and the Oh Boy Show where he acted with Lord Rockingham XI.
Later he toured with the
Beach Boys andPlastic Ono Band as a drummer.References
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