I think the problem is, he's not the sharpest tool.

I interviewed him a few years ago and I was shocked by how utterly controlled he was by his manager. He basically did as he was told. Without said manager, I doubt he'd still be around today.

Nice guy though, and endlessly frustrated by not making it in the US, not being played on the radio, etc. It's not entirely his own fault, but he will wheel out all these facts that make him sound really bitter. He should just embrace what he's got, but I don't think he's bright enough to do so.

Many years ago, I went out with a girl who had known him, along with some of the Shads, and she always said he was a strange bloke - not the public persona at all.

I never liked him, and he has got worse - pious prick. As above, he never got over the fact that the Beatles overshadowed (sorry) him, and the move to acts becoming self sufficient in songs totally crippled him because he can't write (unless someone knows better...?). The fact he never made a dent in the US says it all - he could have been part of the British Invasion if he'd played his cards right, but he was too busy becoming an all round 'entertainer', which eventually became his only real option.

That episode of Graham Norton is on over here this Saturday night. I think I'll give it a miss.

I still love 'In The Country' though.

...Peter Doggett wrote a penetrating piece several years ago based on the fact that Cliff has built a career on changing with the times - but meaning that as an artist he's hollow: there's nothing there, no 'Cliff Richard style', no contribution to MUSIC as opposed to music history/statistics.

Think of all the artists who created a sound or made some kind of lasting impression, however niche, on music and influenced people... and then think of Cliff: he's the opposite. To spend 50+ years selling millions of records but doing so in a vacuum, casting no shadow (ahem) on your peers or those who come after, is quite something.

I can forgive him anything for this:

...and I suspect almost every British popular musician of 'a certain age' would agree.

... I think he's worth comparing with the recently-discussed-at-length Bruce Forsyth: been around forever, still going, undeniably successful, didn't crack the US, reasonably bitter about a perceived lack of "respect", no "legacy" to speak of...

... but hell, he's given a lot of people a lot of pleasure for a ridiculously long time, isn't that enough?

His first ten years, from Move It to whatever came before Eurovision, had some decent stuff. After that, not much.
He and his fans deserve each other.

He did a "gig" at my Poly's Christian Union, and my girlfriend of the time was a member so we went. He sang really well and played acoustic guitar (whilst tuning it he muttered "sometimes I really miss Hank Marvin") then he went off on a self justification for being rich and famous as well as Christian. He informed us that whilst he drives a Rolls Royce, his accountant tells him that due to his tax arrangements it costs him no more than a typical family saloon. A stern looking bloke at the back shouted out "What about the nurses" to a round of applause. Cliff looked completely mystified.

before realising it wasn't the brick/tv/radio interface thread. Fucking should be though.

...I'm rather fond of the Cliff period between mid 70's and very early 80's. He made some quality singles that were up there with the best of whatever else was in the charts at the time. He's one of our our best ever singers but with absolutely no quality control and I guess lousy management (from a music perspective).

I made myself a compilation cd many years ago simply to put on when anyone was knocking him (as it were !) and have found it makes it onto the 'turntable' a few times each year simply for my own pleasure.

Well someone had to come to his defence !

Now lets get back to discussing Captain Beefheart (he says quickly to regain some credibility)

and how annoying he might have been. But if I had sold that many records over that many years I'd be proud of it. And unlike, say, Ray Davies or Marc Bolan, my guess is Cliff doesn't have an army of people coming out to bat for him so he feels more of a need to do it himself.
And as much as I admire the geniuses and the innovators I think there should always be room at the table for The Entertainer.
Beyonce will never mean one hundredth of what Morrissey means to me, but having seen both their performances at Glastonbury this summer I have the utmost respect for the one who can "bring it" to their paying audience..

...by the track-listing for his latest album.

It being a Cliff Richard album n'all, was it really necessary to say "Cliff Richard &" after every track?

has bombed hasn't it?? No wonder he's worried and appearing on every show going to push the DVD.

Seriously though. Soul. Cliff.

Come on. It's like having Val Doonican doing ska.

It's only pop music and he's made some great stuff. As good as The Beatles? Obviously not, but a world with Cliff is better than one without him.

1) I don't think the move towards bands who wrote their own material "crippled" Cliff, not when he had tunesmiths like Alan Tarney on the payroll.

2) Years ago, BRMB Radio (in Birmingham) was running a mystery personality quiz. The first clue given was that the figure was very influential in British pop and rock. One punter suggested Cliff Richard. Presenter Robin Valk's response: "Hmm. Can you really think of any British artist who can say 'I owe it all to Cliff'?"

3) I genuinely thought Eddie Large's impersonation of Cliff's speaking voice was hilarious.

Phew, that was close.

He managed to have a parallel career in pop and gospel in the 70s.

A very shrewd operation going on there, whoever was behind it.

I thought he came across quite well. It was just a bit of fun, but how many singers would be willing and able to just get up like that and entertain the crowd? Old school entertainer. I haven't followed his career but he's had at least a few great pop singles.

if an artist has never influenced anyone or wrote their own material. Cliff has entertained millions down the years and thats what its all about is`nt it?

Christ talk about an easy target.

Sorry, but the man was a pretty bland imitation of Elvis along with hundreds of others in the late 50s and early 60s, before the Beatles gave rock'n'roll a kick up the ass.

Someone nailed it earlier. Cliff has become the pre-eminent late 20th century pop star relic, the TV family entertainer for grannies old enough to remember bopping along to his records in their beehives and bobby socks. He's the guy wheeled out on tired formulaic chat shows and light entertainment programmes so that old dears can say "ooh, how does he keep looking so fresh? ooh, it was because he never took drugs or drink like those other guys? and ooh why did he not marry that nice Sue Barker? ooh, I wonder if he ever shagged anyone after he became a Christian?"

Meanwhile his material is akin to lift muzak, sentimental ballads, sloshy throw away pop and general over produced disposable claptrap. He is the antithesis of everything that rock'n'roll represented as an art form: youth rebellion, protest, subversion, iconoclasm, non conformism, nihilism, debauchery and excess.

To be honest if he told the papers that he's been gay all this time or had a secret cocaine habit in the 70s or he that once shagged Una Stubbs in a toilet I'd have lot more repect for him.

for this:

This look was less attractive:

My mother-in-law has, for many years, been a member of the tennis club in the St George's Hill estate in Weybridge. At various times, lots of proper rock 'n' roll musos have lived on the estate and a few joined the tennis club.

The only one to cause problems was Cliff.

The club has a 10% colour rule when playing tennis. As at Wimbledon, you must be dressed predominantly in white. Daft, but rules is rules.

Cliff ignored them and played in whatever he fancied wearing. He was asked to, please, observe the club rules like everyone else. He chose not to, because he was Cliff and famous and sung songs on Centre Court and everyone loved him so he could wear what he liked because he always wore what he wanted.

His membership was withdrawn.

He took the arse.

No-one cared.

That was Cliff's name in the film Expresso Bongo.

Oh and has anyone mentioned his, er, "bag" yet?

I do, however, have an opinion on radio stations that "ban" him (yes, Absolute 60s, that's you). Absolute clueless, snobby twats. I bet they're Rockists alright, the shit-for-brains bastards. OOH. He's not hip. He didn't write his own songs. He's a Christian. We feel safe to laugh at him, the easiest of easy targets. He doesn't fit into our fucking stupid idea of what "the Sixties" means, despite the fact that he was demonstrably part of it, and despite the fact that we only have the most tourist, Carnaby-Street-postcard idea of what that decade actually means.

It's precisely the same thinking that makes Matt "Credibility" Cardle try and market himself as a "serious" "indie" "artist" because him and his people are too thick to understand pop properly. Absolute Radio is full of Matt Cardles. They've made themselves look fucking stupid.

Don't really know why this has got my goat so much, but Christ, it pissed me off. You can't just airbrush Cliff out!

regarding Cliff I agree with you that Absolute are wrong to 'ban' him. I'm unhappy with any artist being 'banned'- especially for such spurious, publicity-seeking reasons.

The post is saying his chip on the shoulder persona is a bit tiresome and he doesn't seem to accept he is just an entertainer. Which is true. It is not saying all his records are rubbish and worthless. Just that he needs to accept what he is (which ought to be enough) and be happy with it and stop being such an arse, which he patently is. Seems fair enough to me and a valid point to make on a discussion forum about pop.

How many sixties pop stars appeared in Thunderbirds?

I seem to recall some time in the 90's, there was a white-label 12" dance remix of the Lucky Lips Hitmaker's new single, going under the pseudonym of White Knight I think. Anyway, all the hipper-than-thou club DJs delighted in playing it, to great reception from da kidz, until they found out it was a Cliff record. Then of course they all ditched it immediately.

I'm completely ambivalent towards Cliff, but he (or, more likely, his publicity machine) did go up in my estimation when I heard about him showing those trendy fuckers up for the shallow bunch they are.

Children In Need and all that. A good cause. Answer the phones, bang the gong, do what has to be done.

Oh. And plug your shite new CD as well. Which he'd obviously gone on about to his PRs judging by the way JV discussed it with him through highly-clenched teeth.

Shame on you, Sir Cliff. Shame on you indeed. Hijacking a telethon to plug your latest product. Do you need the money?

Sir Cliff is supposed to be a Christian. What values might they be that you uphold, Sir Cliff? Which needle? What camel? What Would Jesus Do?

Fuck off. Right off. Now.

Cunt.

?..never the twain shall meet.

He will be a footnote I reckon. An interesting local statistic. But when that massive tome is eventually published and future generations look back I think time itself will have done all the airbrushing.

I am a fan, have been for about 40 years - but I can still understand where Absolute are coming from. There are plenty of musical fascists who, like them, consider that only music they like and artists they respect, should be allowed. How good it is that they have their own station to listen to now - certainly one I won't be bothering with.

On Cliff generally, what I don't get is the sneering. So many web comments condemning him for "not coming out" when it is clear that he has nothing to 'come out' about. If he was, as suggest, a 'closet' homosexual, would he really have been so open about sharing a house with Bill Latham for decades, having a friend/employee whom he has referred to a kind of companion (only in the company sense), having been friends with Elton (and recorded with him at a time when Elton was being pilloried in the press about Rent Boys), and Kenny Everett, and several other homosexuals. Advocating Christians be more open to 'gay partnerships' and more tolerant of homosexuals in general. These are NOT the acts of a 'closet' homosexual.

Rather, they suggest that Cliff is extremely secure in his own sexuality - which, given his string of relationships with Carol Costa, Una Stubbs, Sue Barker and others, is very evidently heterosexual.

It is just a sad reflection on society that a when a man who seems so eligible doesn't get married or 'put it about' it is seen as a negative thing rather than him being applauded for his restraint.

Cliff is the first to say he is not a saint. He will tell you he has many vices - though he wont tell you what they are.

Dislike his music by all means, but don't condemn the man for not being true to the the public's false perception.

to airbrush out the full page of Cliff's entries in the Guiness Book of Hit Singles.

They will be there forever.

Didn't I hear somewhere that Cliff was the first owner of a Fender Stratocaster in this country?
Later borrowed by Bruce Welch and never given back.
You surely can't deny The Shadows' place in British pop history.

Underlines my slightly flippant point even more.

Is that it? Hardly a major breakthrough. Then making records that sounded like American ones with it.

Cliff copied. And he's gone on copying ever since. I don't have a problem with his chart record- it's just that when he thinks that this somehow makes him as important as the Beatles or Dylan or whoever ( who all copied to begin with...but then innovated )he annoys me. I repeat. Grrrr.

but years ago I worked with the son of a famous British 60's actress and dancer. He happily told me that his mum got it on with a famous British rock 'n' roll star in a caravan on the set of a certain movie they were both appearing in . This had me open-mouthed, as did hearing a conflicting story from a friend's mum who worked in a Cardiff nightclub in the 70's where a famous British 60's backing band beat combo were playing. After the show, the rhythm guiarist was sat at the bar talking to the barmaids. When one of them inquired whether the rumours about the band's former lead singer being gay were true or not, the guitarist casually confirmed they were, saying how the singer avoided detection by getting his boyfriends to pretend to be his tennis coach . My mind was boggled

...His hubris is staggering. the writer does her best not to do a full-scale 'Tom Hibbert' on him, but the stuff cliff keeps coming out with cannot but have one thinking that the writer must have been sitting with a metaphorical raised eybrow for the duration of the interview.

Apparently he believes he's a more famous Christian than Jesus or the Pope. He admits to having one flaw: envy. when asked to specify he says it's envy of other people's hits. For a man who's sold X amount of records, this is surely pathetic - not envy of particular songs (which any songwriter might occasionally suffer from 'Gosh, wish I'd written that...' etc) but simply envy of other people HAVING HITS. As if 40+ years of having hits oneself, before radio stations move on, weren't enough.

This is after apparently regaling the interviewer with sales figures for his records and - wait for it - his calendars. The interviewer (Stephanie Marsh, I think, paper not in front of me at the mo) concludes that Cliff's music ought to be due for a revival - but that the biggest impediment to this is the personality of Cliff himself.

What an empty man.

dates back to the early 60s when he was pretty much the last artist to go through the 'pre rock and roll' career path - cabaret, mainstream films, variety TV, Norrie Paramor-produced sludge aimed at the mum-and-dad market.

Within two years of 'Move It', he'd been neutered and rendered an irrelevance, in the same way as Tommy Steele, the Vipers etc before him. That's the way things worked then

But, within a year the HJHs turned the industry on its head and invented a new career path for rock and roll acts. I don't think Cliff has ever got over being the last big artist to be forced down the traditional career route.

....but at a time when the idea of a British guy being able to do Rock 'n' Roll, Cliff actually did it.
Admittedly only on about five or six singles, but Cliff did it.
At the 'business end' as well - 1958.

After the 'business end' every one had a road map.
In '58, in Ealing or Liverpool or Cheshunt....no one had a road map.

should read: '.....do Rock 'n' Roll was ridiculous'....

For the record I like The Fall, Beefheart, Duckworth Lewis Method, Herbie Hancock, Miles David, Erik Satie, Boards of Canada etc and am no fan of the Cliff but have guilty pleasure / uncharacteristic liking for his 70s era hits that have a production quality that is rather good. And I must admit he does have a good voice with that Karen Carpenter quality of sounding like she could be standing next to you.

that fierce plugging the 'Soulicious Tour' DVD has just crashed in at 29. Was it worth it? Will he pop back to Portugal a sadder and wiser man?

Sadder maybe.
Wiser?

I somehow doubt it.

This is a top pop song by anyones standards.

www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=qWQ_vJYt7DA

of a certain age have a number of Cliff 45s sitting in our collections? He may, to some, be a figure of fun / derision but during the late 50s and early 60s he was - almost - all we had.

Best part of living in the USA is that no-one's heard of Cliff, and you never hear him.

Seems to me he stopped putting out the Christmas single when he realised that he wouldn't get a number one anymore, probably due to the X-Factor nonsense.

On that note... how many internet campaigns are there this year to get the xmas number one?

the showbiz path of the time, as delineated in 'Awopbopaloobop' and 'Revolt into Style.'
As a young kid, I had a great time watching 'Summer Holiday' at the Saturday afternoon matinee.

that I was dubious when a friend persuaded me to fork our £65 for the farewell tour with the Shadows last year, but I was very glad I went. I'm 53 and Cliff's films and songs soundtracked my childhood until, say, 69. The farewell tour didn't feature anything later than 1966, so apart from the absence of 'Carrie' and 'We Don't Talk Any More', it was the dream Cliff show, and it was bloody good. Highlight, probably, 'The Next Time'. But the next time he appeared in Nottingham it was with a bunch of soul stars, most of whom I'd have been happy to see in a small club, but not in an arena, brown-nosing Cliff. Still, I won't have a word said against the Cliff of my childhood, even if he was having an affair with Jet Harris's wife while Jet was still in the Shads...

Anyone else remember an article in the NME about Cliff in the late 70s? I remember reading it at that time & even in the period of punk iconoclasm I thought it was a tad harsh on old Cliff. Afterwards I think the NME had to settle out of court for defamation of character - wonder what happened to the journalist?

Cliff comes across as a bit of a knob admittedly but ask yourself this; if you had endured the level of criticism and attempts to write you out of pop history that he has wouldn't you be a tad bitter and seek to justify yourself?
CLiff has made some blinding pop singles and some absolute dogs dinners-like most artists.
To deny he influenced anyone is narrowed minded a plainly wrong. Vilify him as an Elvis copyist-he wouldn't deny it anyway but he showed that British singers could do rock 'n' roll-original not a cover version. That influenced a bunch of young lads on Merseyside to believe they could too. Macca has said that their ambition was to be as big as Cliff and the Shadows.
Meanwhile a young public school boy in India idolised a certain Cliff Richard and was spurned on by this to take up rock 'n' roll. My life would certainly have been poorer with out Fred and the boys!
Why is everyone hung up on he didn't write his own material etc.
Why does that matter? It didn't do Sinatra any harm.
Give the man a break and maybe he wouldn't need to be as annoying as he undoubtedly has become.