Georgie Fame

Georgie Fame was born on Jun 26, 1943 in UK. Georgie Fame's big-screen debut came with Entertaining Mr Sloane directed by Douglas Hickox in 1970.

The beginnings of Georgie Fame started on June 26, 1943 when he was born as Clive Powell in Leigh, Lancashire. By 1957, at the age of 14, he had joined a local pop group called the Dominoes, as a pianist. In 1959 the group won a talent contest put on by bandleader Rory Blackwell, at which point Blackwell offered Clive a job playing piano with his band. Clive accepted, and soon after moved into a London flat, which he shared with members of the instrumental group Nero and the Gladiators. It was during a routine show with Blackwell's band at the Islington Ballroom (where the band had a residency) that Clive was spotted by songwriter Lionel Bart, who urged him to audition for beat group/record mogul Larry Parnes. Well, Parnes liked what he saw and snapped up Clive as his new 'discovery', and then changed his name to Georgie Fame. Most of Parnes' talent roster also had odd names; Marty Wild, Vince Eager, and Duffy Power for examples. 'Georgie' was employed as a back-up musician for many of these singers as well as for touring American artists like Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. Georgie then joined Billy Fury's first back-up band, The Blue Flames, with whom he stayed until late 1961. At the end of that year he switched from piano to organ and formed his own Blue Flames with Colin Green (guitar), Mick Eve (sax), Tony Makins (bass), and Red Reece (drums). The Blue Flames line-up, however, was fairly flexible and changed throughout their career.