|
Gary Miller was a talented individual who could doubtless have made a career in any of several spheres. After completing his service in the Royal Navy after the war, he made the move south from his native Blackpool. It was his ambition to enter the teaching profession and in pursuit of this he enrolled as a student at a London college. However extracarricular activity soon found him singing- a hitherto undiscovered talent that led him away from his studies and towards making it as a professional entertainer. Gary is a difficult singer to categorise, because he sang such a wide variety of different material. His chart successes indicate that he was most suited to light 'pop', but he also sang a great many romantic ballads. He was the consummate professional, but despite his polished performances he never quite managed to break through into the top flight of British balladeers. The writer of this piece remembers seeing a live performance that Gary gave in March, 1958. Buddy Holly and the Crickets were top of the bill at the same show. Unfortunately, the Crickets were due to appear on the TV show "Sunday Night At The London Palladium" that same evening and had to go on stage first because of the timing of this appointment. Consequently, it was left to Gary to close the show. Despite having to deal with an audience still heady after a legendary performance by one of rock and roll's greatest stars (several people held up lighted matches during the rendition of Gary's latest release, "Put A Light In The Window") he came through the ordeal undaunted and to great applause. |
|
|
The EP on the left (NEP24047 issued in 1957) is one of no less than seven that Gary had released during his recording career. However he only had two albums issued and all his releases with picture sleeves are now quite hard to find. EPs are often a good way of getting hold of original tracks that were otherwise only available on 78rpm. For example, this record contains Wonderful, Wonderful, and The Garden Of Eden which were originally issued as 78s. |
| Gary probably relied too heavily on recording covers of the songs of others and few of his best releases were without strong competition from well known singers. However, he managed to put something of his own into every one of them. Sadly, Gary Miller died from a heart attack in 1968. | |
