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This page features profiles of famous
Warrington people
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Percy
Francis Phillips (born March 1896 in Warrington) was a veteran of the
First World War, and left the British Army (Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) at
the rank of Corporal in 1918, due to him being wounded before the war ended. After
the war, he started selling bicycles and motorbikes in a small shop in Brunswick
Street, in the Kensington Fields area of Liverpool. He began selling and
recharging batteries in 1925, opening a shop in the front room of his family's
three-storey Georgian terraced house, called Phillips’ Battery Charging Depot,
and had to install large accumulators in the cellar. Phillips ran the business
for 30 years, even during WWII, but due to a decline in demand for batteries in
the early 1950s (most people having electricity by then) he started selling
household electrical goods. By late 1954, the shop was only selling records and
record players; customers would buy recordings of American Country and Western,
and Big Band music. As Phillips had supplied batteries to the Burtonwood air
base during the war, he could buy and sell the latest records from America via
his contacts there. In
1955, several customers asked if Phillips could make demo discs, so he bought
various items of equipment and set up a recording studio. Phillips
advertised the studio as Phillips' Sound Recording Services (also advertised as
P. F. Phillips' Professional Tape & Disc Recording Service) and his business
cards read, "PF Phillips, 38 Kensington, Liverpool, 7. Television and
Battery Service. Gramophone Record Dealer. Professional Tape and Disc Recording
Studio." Phillips'
first recording was of himself singing "Bonnie Marie of Argyle",
(unaccompanied) and a few days later he recorded "Unchained Melody",
with local dance band singer Betty Roy. The first disc he cut in the studio was
on 7 August, 1955, with his eight-year-old daughter, Carol, singing "Mr
Sandman". All the discs had "Play with a light-weight pick-up" on
the label, as this would increase the life of the disc which would eventually
wear out. His
client list included, in 1958, The Quarrymen (John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
George Harrison, John 'Duff' Lowe and Colin Hanton) who recorded "That‘ll
Be The Day", and "In Spite of All the Danger" in the studio.
Other clients included Billy Fury, Ken Dodd, and Marty Wilde. Later customers of
Phillips’ studio included The Swinging Blue Jeans, Brian Epstein, Freddie
Starr, Willy Russell, Liverpool F.C. supporters club, and players from Everton
F.C. Phillips closed the studio in 1969 and the record shop in 1974. He died in 1984 at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. The recording of The Quarrymen acetate and the site of Phillips' Sound Recording Services was commemorated in 26 August 2005, when a Blue Plaque was unveiled by two of The Quarrymen (Lowe and Hanton) on the front of the house. Read more in Wikipedia.
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George Formby
(born 26 May 1904 in Wigan, lived in Stockton Heath, Warrington, died 6 March
1961 in Preston, age 56,) was a British singer and comedian
who became a major star of both cinema and music hall.
The
family grave at Warrington cemetery on Manchester Road. |
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George was born in Wigan, Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven surviving children (four girls and three boys). His father (born James Booth) was George Formby (Senior) (1875-1921), one of the great music hall comedians of his day. On the death of his father in 1921, George abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music hall career using his father's material. He spent part of his life at Hillcrest on London Road, Stockton Heath, Warrington, leaving in 1924. In 1924 he married dancer Beryl Ingham, who managed his career until her death from leukaemia on 24 December 1960. Some of his best-known songs were written by Noel Gay. The Window Cleaner song was about a real-life window cleaner John Edwin Marlow. His (John's) grandson is my friend, Myles Crozier, a member of Warrington Male Voice Choir. He made his first record in 1932 with the Jack Hylton Band, and his first sound film Boots! Boots! in 1934 (Formby had appeared in a sole silent film in 1915). The film was successful and he signed a contract to make a further 11 with Associated Talking Pictures, earning him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 per year. Between 1934 and 1945 George was the top box-office attraction in British cinema. He appeared in the 1937 Royal Variety Show, and entertained troops with ENSA in Europe and North Africa during World War II. He received an OBE in 1946. His most popular film, and still regarded as probably his best, is the espionage comedy Let George Do It, in which he is a member of a concert party, takes the wrong ship by mistake during a blackout, and finds himself in Norway as a secret agent. George suffered his first heart attack in 1951. His funeral was held in St Charles' Church in Aigburth, Liverpool, and an estimated 100,000 mourners lined the route as his coffin was driven to Warrington cemetery, where he was buried in the Booth family grave. Read more in Wikipedia.
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Edwin
Astley
(born 12 April 1922 in Warrington, died 19 May 1998, age 76) was a British composer,
occasionally credited as Ted Astley. His best known works are British
television themes and scores, most notably the theme to The Saint. He
also successfully diversified into symphonic pop and an arrangement of his Saint
theme reached number five in the UK Singles Chart. Astley served in the Second World War as a musician playing saxophone and clarinet for the troops. He married Hazel Balbirnie in 1945 who is the great aunt of Jason (de-Vaux) Balbirnie (who also recorded music and performed in the 1980s). Their eldest daughter Karen Astley married Pete Townshend of The Who, and their son Jon Astley produced and remastered The Who's reissues. Daughter Virginia Astley is a singer-songwriter. In
the early 1950s Astley was arranging for Geraldo, and his song "I Never
Could Tell" was recorded by both Vera Lynn and Richard Tauber. His own
band, the Ted Astley Orchestra, became well known in the north of England, and
he wrote songs for performers such as Anne Shelton. He
wrote music for many British television series of the 50s and 60s, including
incidental music for The Champions, and the title music to The
Adventures of Robin Hood (but not the famous closing theme song), Danger
Man (known as Secret Agent in the USA, where his theme music was removed in
favour of a theme with lyrics), Department S, Randall and Hopkirk
(Deceased), The Saint, Gideon's Way and The Baron. Most
of these programmes were part of Lew Grade's showbiz empire of ATV and ITC
Entertainment. These TV themes are noted for their rich melodies and lively
arrangements. Astley
also wrote two themes for Danger Man — one for the 30 minute series
entitled "The Danger Man Theme", and a new theme for the 60 minute
series entitled "High Wire". Astley was asked to write music for The
Prisoner, seen as a sequel of sorts to Danger Man, but had to
withdraw because he felt that he would be unable to create Patrick McGoohan's
vision for the score — due to McGoohan being too busy to hold meetings with
him. However,
Astley showed his diversity by writing the music for Sir Kenneth Clark's
celebrated 1969 BBC documentary series Civilisation, and scoring several
British Transport Films including Diesel Train Ride (1959), Broad
Waterways (1959/60) and The Signal Engineers (1962). In
1997 Astley found himself at number five on the pop charts as composer of
"The Saint", thirty-three years after he wrote it, which had been
revived by Orbital for the new Saint movie. His last work was a 1998 symphonic
interpretation of Who music called Who's Serious: The Symphonic Music of the
Who, which followed 1995's Symphonic Music Of The Rolling Stones. Astley retired in the late 1970s, and died in 1998. Read more in Wikipedia
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Peter Douglas Robinson (born 1932 in
Warrington, died 4 July 2003, age 71) was a professional comedian for 50 years. He appeared on
TV and radio and in his early days entertained the troops abroad. He was also
involved in the editorial work for the Warrington Guardian newspaper. He lived in Warrington all his life and was a keen
supporter of Warrington rugby league club, where he was an announcer at
the ground for many years.
This is Peter photographed by me at the Grand Hotel Llandudno in August 1991. |
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I met him in the 1990s in his capacity as compere at the Butlin's Grand Hotel in Llandudno when I was assisting with Friends and Neighbours Travel Club, a company which organised holidays for the elderly. One of the funniest things he did before the main entertainment show on a Monday and Wednesday was to tell everybody exactly what had happened in Coronation Street that evening, quoting the script word for word and putting his comic touch to it. He was a good friend of Edna Savage, profiled below. Peter's funeral service was held on 11 July, 2003 at St James Church, Latchford.
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Edna Savage
(born 21 April 1936 in Broadbent Avenue, Latchford, Warrington, died 2000,
age 64) went to Richard Fairclough
Secondary School. She was a singer in the 1950s, and always told her fellow pupils she was going to be a
star. Her trademark choker was a piece of velvet
ribbon with a brooch. Warrington bandleader, Eric Pepperall, was her mentor
who pointed her in the right direction for recording success. She sang
alongside the up and coming talent Glen Mason on TV. Her only entry in the official British Hit Singles chart was with 'Arrivevederci Darling' on the 'Parlophone' label which entered the chart on 13 January 1956 for one week at number 19. She died in Ormskirk hospital on 31 December 2000.
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Barbara
Law (born 1940s in Warrington) is a singer and a great friend of the
late Edna Savage and attended the same school as her, Richard Fairclough
Secondary School. She performed in many TV and radio shows on the BBC in the
north from the late 1950s to the 1990s, as well as making many records. In June
1957 she crowned Hazel Jones as the Lymm May Queen. In 1959 she appeared as
herself in David Croft’s One O’clock Show for Tyne Tees Television in
northeast England. The show was on five days a week and ran for 1098 episodes
between 1959 and 1964. She has also won
the Tyne Tees Television personality of the year award. She
was selected by the BBC in London to represent Great Britain in
the ‘Nord Ring Song Festivals’, which resulted in her broadcasting with many
European orchestras.
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Sue Johnston (born 7 December 1943 in Padgate, Warrington) is a British actress. From 1982-1990, she appeared as Shelia Grant in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside. Other dramas include Inspector Morse, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Brassed Off, My Uncle Silas, and Waking the Dead. However, she is well-remembered for her role as Barbara Royle in the comedy series The Royle Family. In this role, she appeared alongside her former on-screen husband in Brookside, Ricky Tomlinson. In 2004, she appeared in the series, Who Do You Think You Are? for the BBC, in which she traced back her family tree. Part of that research brought her to the Railway Club on Winwick Street. Prior to becoming an actor, Sue was a tax inspector. An avid fan of Liverpool Football Club, Sue Johnston has also campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party. In the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours she was presented with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her services to drama and to charity. She said she was 'delighted and honoured' to receive the OBE and was sorry her parents weren't there, as they would have been so proud. In November 2010 she received a Doctor of Letters from Chester University in recognition for her outstanding contribution to television, drama and the performing arts. In 2012 she joined the cast of Coronation Street. Some information from Wikipedia.
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Peter William Postlethwaite OBE (born 16 February 1946 in Warrington, died 2 January 2011 in Shropshire, age 64) to parents William & Mary Geraldine Postlethwaite. He was brought up in the Norris Street area of Orford and also lived in Padgate. One of his favourite pubs was The Lower Angel in Buttermarket Street. He enrolled in acting classes when he was 24. Postlethwaite was a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and other acting troupes by the time he became known in the United States through his film and television roles. He trained at the world-famous Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He did a short stint as a teacher before following his passion for the stage, but had originally planned to be a priest. He started out in acting by touring pubs in a theatre group with his then girlfriend, Julie Walters. He spent some of his acting life at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, working alongside future stars such as Jonathan Pryce, Alan Bleasedale and Bill Nighy. On the screen he had parts on Coronation Street, Minder and Casualty. He is also well known for his role as Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in the period television drama series, Sharpe, alongside Sean Bean. On the big screen he appeared in Last of the Mohicans, and Alien 3. Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role of Giuseppe Conlon in In the Name of the Father in 1993. The story followed the lives of the wrongly-convicted 'Guildford Four' pub bombers and starred Daniel Day-Lewis. Other films included The Usual Suspects, where he played the mysterious lawyer "Kobayashi", and Brassed Off, set in a Yorkshire mining community. Other roles include a part in Steven Spielberg's Amistad. Spielberg, who also worked with Postlethwaite on The Lost World; Jurassic Park, once described him as "the best actor in the world". Pete modestly laughed off the comment by saying "it sounds like an advert for lager and it's only one man's opinion". Pete was made an OBE in 2004 for his services to drama, which he described as a "complete shock". In 2006 he received an honorary degree from Liverpool John Moores University. He returned to the Everyman Theatre at Liverpool to play the lead in King Lear, one of the highlights of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture. Away from acting, he was also a political activist: he marched against the Iraq War and supported the Make Poverty History campaign. Pete Postlethwaite died on Sunday, 2 January 2011 after a struggle with cancer. A friend said that he passed away peacefully in a Shropshire hospital. He was aged 64. On 1 September 2011, the Pete Postlethwaite Studio was opened at the Pyramid Arts Centre on Palmyra Square South to inspire future actors and performers. It is hoped to install a willow statue in Orford Park, close to where he was born in Norris Street. Some information from Wikipedia.
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Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946, in Grappenhall, Warrington) is an English actor, singer and composer, perhaps best known for his role as mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). He also had an earlier career as a rock musician. Tim Curry's father, James, was a Methodist chaplain for the British navy. Upon his father's death in 1958, Curry relocated to south London. He studied Drama and English at Birmingham from age 19, and then at Cambridge. At Birmingham he also acted with the renowned Guild Theatre Group. Curry's first full-time acting role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968. Here he first met Richard O'Brien, who went on to create his next full-time and perhaps still most famous role, that of Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles and New York until 1975. He cites Billie Holiday as his major musical influence, saying that he "listened to nothing but her records for two years" during a period of teenage depression as he contemplated on "which gloomy Sunday afternoon I was going to throw myself under a car". In 1978, A&M Records released Curry's debut solo album, Read My Lips. The following year, Curry released his second and most successful album, Fearless. Curry's third and final album, Simplicity, was released in 1981, again by A&M Records. In 1979, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in a London stage version of The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole. In 1981, he formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show Amadeus, playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In late 2004, he began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago. The show successfully moved to Broadway in February 2005. TV and movie credits include Jerome K. Jerome in the BBC TV movie Three Men in a Boat (1975), Dr. Petrov in The Hunt for Red October (1990), Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Gomez Addams in Addams Family Reunion (1998), Roger Corwin in Charlie's Angels (2000) and Trymon in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (2008). Read more in Wikipedia.
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Peter
Alan Waterman
OBE (born 15 January 1947 in Coventry and lived in north Warrington for a time). He
started his career on the railways and when that ended he turned to a career in
music. After various projects, He set up his own company PWL (Pete Waterman
Limited) in 1984. He signed up producers Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, to form
Stock Aitken and Waterman, a hugely successful pop music production company,
with artists including Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley. Between 1988 and 1992 he
presented The Hitman and Her music show from various nightclubs,
including Mr Smiths nightclub at Bridge Foot on ITV, alongside Michaela Strachan. On
TV he presented a series of programmes for Channel 4/Discovery Channel about his other passion: railways. The programme was called
Waterman on
Railways and he also has a passion for model railways. In the New Year's Honours
List published 31 December, 2004, he was given an OBE for his services to music.
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Matthew Corbett (real name Peter Corbett, born 28 March 1948 in Yorkshire) is an English television personality known for The Sooty Show. He took over Sooty from his father, Harry Corbett in 1976. Once Matthew retired in the late-1990s, he hand-picked Richard Cadell to replace him. He also appeared in the 1971 Doctor Who serial, The Dæmons, and appeared in the children's show Rainbow for a number of years in the mid-1970s before his Sooty days. He now lives in south Warrington, and in November 2006 became the Press Officer in a protest from boat owners on the Bridgewater Canal about the owner's price hikes on licences and mooring fee charges. He plays guitar with his musical partner, keyboard player and vocalist John Gray, around the pubs and clubs of the land. In 2007 he presented a series for ITV Granada sailing the length of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Some information from Wikipedia.
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John
Maines (born 10 December 1948 in Warrington) is a musician, trombone player and
active figure in the British brass band movement as a performer, conductor,
tutor, compere and concert presenter. Maines
was raised in Winwick, and later Newton-le-Willows. After initial lessons from
his father, his early musical career started as a tenor horn player with the
Prescot Cables Band near St. Helens. After a move to trombone he joined the
Wigan Boys Club and Cammell Laird band in Birkenhead. As a young player he
became the North of England Junior Solo Champion and was invited to play for the
National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. A move to Cornwall saw John as
principal trombone with St. Austell and Bodmin bands where he achieved a
succession of competition victories at solo competitions throughout south west
England. It was at this time that he gained the title of Champion Trombone
Player of Great Britain on three successive occasions. He is one of only two
players ever to achieve a hat-trick in this event. After
playing solo trombone with the Stanshawe (Bristol) and Fairey Engineering bands,
with whom he also held the post of principal trombone with Harry Mortimer’s
Men o’ Brass, he became principal trombone with the Black Dyke Mills Band.
With this band he won competition titles including a hat-trick of European
Championships and toured such countries as Holland, Switzerland, Spain and
Japan. Since
1979 he has been a music tutor for the National Youth Brass Band of Great
Britain and is a Council member of the same organisation. Maines
is a member of the National Association of Brass Band Adjudicators and regularly
adjudicates both at home and abroad. He travels in Europe taking him to such
places as Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Denmark where he has taken part in
various musical activities including the direction of the National Youth Band of
Denmark. Maines’ academic work saw him graduate from the University of
Sheffield with a BA (Hons) Degree. Maines
is active as a conductor in the UK directing different bands, as well as
undertaking the role of Master of Ceremonies at many of the country’s band
events such as The National Youth Band Championships, The Great Northern Brass
Arts Festival, The Harry Mortimer Centenary Concert. He is also acting as
compere for many bands such as Black Dyke, Fairey’s, Grimethorpe Colliery,
Foden's, Brighouse & Rastrick, Wingates, Leyland, BAYV Cory and Yorkshire
Building Society. Maines
was for a time the Musical Director of the Versatile Brass group with whom he
travelled extensively. Maines is a writer for various music publications, and has taken part in
many recordings for CD, Radio and Television. In addition to his everyday
banding activities, Maines was for many years the presenter of the long running
BBC weekly band programme "GMR Brass” and in 1999 received the Manchester
Music Makers award for his contribution to music broadcasting in the Greater
Manchester area. He is now the presenter of World of Brass Radio on www.worldofbrass.com,
an internet based programme of brass music. Read more in Wikipedia. |
| Isabelle Amyes
(born 13 June 1950 in Grappenhall, Warrington) is an actress best known
for her role as Barbara Hunt in the British TV drama Bad Girls
from 2000-2003. Her various guest appearances on other television
programmes include The New Statesman, The Darling Buds of May,
A Touch of Frost and As Time Goes By.
Her father was Julian Amyes; a British film and television director and producer.
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Peter Charles McCarthy Robinson (born 9 November 1951 in Warrington, died 6 October 2004, age 52) was a British broadcaster and successful travel writer. He was born in Warrington, the son of an Irish mother and an English father. When he was 14, he decided to become a writer, but instead ended up in the comedy business after going to the University of Leicester, teaching and travelling. He co-founded the Cliffhanger Theatre in Brighton. His popularity increased as he wrote comedy scripts for Mel
Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones. He then went on a comedy tour of Britain and
Australia with Roger McGough. His most successful radio show
was X Marks the Spot on BBC Radio 4, which he presented. He presented the Channel 4 TV
travel show Travelog.
His
television career after that included Country Tracks on BBC2 and The
Pier on Meridian Television. One of his most popular series was
Desperately Seeking Something, a look at various spiritual movements. In 2002, he won the Newcomer of the Year award at the British Book Awards and the humorous travel book, McCarthy's Bar, sold over a million copies. He followed with The Road to McCarthy about his travels to remote places around the world in search of Irish connections. He was diagnosed with cancer early in 2004, and died of the disease in October of that year at the age of 52. After his death, his old friend Roger McGough wrote a poem about him called November the Fifth. Read more in Wikipedia.
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Gareth Jones (born 1954 in Warrington) is a
music producer and engineer notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende
Neubauten, Wire and Erasure. When
he was young he played different instruments but became more interested in music
technology. He owned a simple valve tape recorder and began experimenting with
tape editing. He later trained at the BBC and began working in recording
studios, such as "Pathway" in the early 1980s. At "Pathway"
he recorded and mixed John Foxx's Metamatic album in 1980 and the first Madness
single, "The Prince", in 1979. While working with a band in Vienna the
band's manager suggested Jones mix the recordings in Germany. He did the mixing
at Hansa Studio in Berlin. The studio was the most high tech he had worked in.
He decided to live in Berlin and began working with lots of bands at Hansa. Many
English bands began recording in Berlin as the exchange rate made it cheaper. At
Hansa Jones began experimenting with recording atmospheres. Bands would play
their instruments through large amplifiers which were then recorded with
microphones creating a large arena type sound. This sound would catch the
attention of bands like Depeche Mode who used this method on many
recordings. Gareth
Jones was a pioneer in the use of digital equipment. He introduced sampling to
many bands such as Depeche Mode and Einstürzende Neubauten. He
began recording with new electronic instruments such as AMS digital delays and
the Synclavier sampler synthesiser, which was brought in by Daniel Miller of
Mute Records. In the mid 1990s he moved back to London and worked in famous
studios such as Abbey Road and The Strongroom in London. Jones
uses mostly software these days which keeps him more mobile for work. He has an
outstanding knowledge of "Logic Audio" music production software. Read more in Wikipedia.
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Miles Tredinnick (born 18 February 1955 in Warrington) has been a rock singer, TV comedy scriptwriter, songwriter, playwright, novelist and tour guide. Born at Royal Air Force Padgate where his father Wing Commander Reginald Tredinnick (1913-1967) had been stationed. He grew up in the Cornish seaside town of Falmouth. Trained as a photo-journalist in the Midlands. Managing Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees as well as presenting the West End musicals of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 1976, with drummer Jon Moss (later of The Damned and Culture Club), guitarist Dave Wight (real name Colin Wight) and bassist Steve Voice (real name), Tredinnick formed the punk band London with himself as lead singer and chief songwriter. He supported The Stranglers on a nationwide tour. He made uncredited appearances in many films including Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1, Flash Gordon, Lady Jane, Octopussy, Hawk the Slayer, Ragtime, Chariots of Fire, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Whoops Apocalypse, Who Dares Wins, Britannia Hospital, Ivanhoe and TV series’ Minder and The Professionals. Tredinnick wrote regular stage and television scripts for Frankie Howerd, including the hour-long special, Superfrank! for Channel 4. In 1986 Tredinnick started writing for the international Disney Magazine, creating cartoon stories for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and other well-known Walt Disney characters. In 1987/8 he created and wrote the BBC1 comedy series Wyatt's Watchdogs. This led to an invitation to write for the Alomo/BBCTV show Birds of a Feather. Tredinnick's first novel Fripp was published in 2001. Miles Tredinnick lives in London and works for The Big Bus Company training tour guides in London, Dubai, Philadelphia and Baltimore. In this role he's been featured in BBC TV shows Generation X (2001) and Facing the Music with David and Carrie Grant (2005). Read more in Wikipedia. See also his official site.
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Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE (born 8 November 1958 in Wellington, New Zealand). He lived in Appleton, south Warrington, in the 1970s. He is a screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. On TV he has written the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley, and was also part of scriptwriting team on the BBC sketch show Not The Nine O’clock News from 1979 to 1982. He is also the founder of the
British charity Comic Relief and Make Poverty History. He
organised the Live 8 concerts with Bob Geldof to publicise poverty, particularly
in Africa, and pressure G8 leaders to adopt his proposals for ending it. In
May 2007 he received the BAFTA Fellowship at the British Academy Television
Awards in recognition of his successful career in film and television and his
charity efforts.
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Ian Brown (born 20 February 1963 in Warrington) is a musician and former lead singer of The Stone Roses, a popular indie rock band. Since the Roses broke up in 1996, Brown has released 4 solo albums to critical acclaim across Britain. He has appeared on several club tours and has performed at the Glastonbury Festival three times since 1998. He grew up in Timperley, south Manchester. He was a great admirer of Mohammad Ali, George Best and Bruce Lee, and learned karate. His interest in music was inspired by the original punk bands, specifically the Sex Pistols but also the likes of Angelic Upstarts and The Clash. He also loved northern soul music and attended all-night events across the north of England. He joined The Patrol on bass before it disbanded, and eventually became singer to the newly-formed The Stone Roses in about 1984. In 2005 Brown headlined The Other Stage on the closing night of Glastonbury Festival to great acclaim, playing five Stone Roses classics and ending the festival in great style. In his solo career, Brown has worked with many notable musicians including UNKLE and Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Brown appeared in a cameo role in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In 2002, Q magazine named Ian Brown in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", although this was part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way". He undertook a sell out UK tour in 2005, including the 25,000-capacity Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena on 3 December, 2005. In the 2006 NME awards, Brown was presented with the "Godlike Genius" award. In 2011 Ian reunited The Stone Roses, 15 years after they broke up, for a world tour in 2012, beginning with two concerts at Heaton Park, Manchester, in June 2012. Some information from in Wikipedia.
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Martin
Roberts (born
c1964 in Warrington) is the current presenter of the BBC1 series, Homes
Under the Hammer along with co-presenter Lucy Alexander. Martin has also
presented several other programmes including Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
(TV series) and How to Survive the Property Crisis, both for the BBC, as well
as ITV's travel programme Wish You Were Here...?. Martin
studied Electronic Engineering at Bradford University between 1982-86 and was a
DJ on Ramair, the university's radio station. During this time he developed a
love of Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran that is still seen in his legacy haircut.
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Andy
Bird (born
3 January 1964 in Warrington) is the Chairman of Walt Disney International.
Bird grew up in Warrington, and was schooled at King's School, Macclesfield. In
1985 Bird gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English language and literature at
Newcastle University. Bird first started his career in broadcasting as the breakfast show producer on Manchester's Piccadilly Radio. He later moved to London working for Richard Branson's Virgin Broadcasting Company, working on their music television channel Music Box and satellite radio station Radio Radio. Next was British Satellite Broadcasting's The Power Station channel. Bird joined Time Warner in 1994 as senior vice president and general manager of Turner Entertainment Networks Limited. In 2000 he became president of TBS International in 2000, being responsible for all TBS broadcasting outside of the United States. In 2004 Bird joined The Walt Disney Company and has since overseen the acquisition of Hungama TV in India and investment in India's UTV. He also localizes content and has reorganized Disney's international structure and leadership ranks. Read more in Wikipedia.
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John
Harold Arnold Bramwell (born
27 November 1964 in Warrington) is a singer-songwriter. He is the
frontman for the three-piece alternative rock band I Am Kloot. During
his period with Granada Television he was engaged to Fresh
co-presenter Tara Newley, daughter of Joan Collins and Anthony Newley. After
leaving Granada, John spent many years travelling between Athens and North Wales
where he continued to write and perform songs solo before giving up music to
deliver glue around the U.K. In the early 1990's John formed The Mouth
with friend and musician Bryan Glancy (the titular Seldom Seen Kid) that
later included members of I Am Kloot - Andy Hargreaves and Peter Jobson. The
Mouth first played live at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California and
on returning from America, John worked booking bands at Manchester venue Night
& Day Café during the mid to late 1990's. In 1999 he formed I Am
Kloot. The
band released their first single Titanic/To You as a 7" double A
side single in 1999 and their debut album Natural History in 2001 - both
produced by Guy Garvey from Elbow.
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Chris Evans (born 1 April 1966 in Orford, Warrington) is a radio and television presenter and producer. Evans started his broadcasting career in 1985 at Manchester's Piccadilly Radio as an assistant to Timmy Mallett, and playing a character on his show called Nobby Nolevel (No 'O' Level). After working as a producer on Richard Branson's service Radio Radio, Evans went on to work at the BBC London radio station GLR, first of all as a producer on Emma Freud's mid-morning show. He went on to produce Danny Baker's weekend breakfast show. Evans became a presenter on the station in early 1990, taking over a Saturday afternoon show. In March 1992, Evans began presenting a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 1, replacing Phillip Schofield who had previously broadcast in the slot. The show ended in September 1992. His next break was The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 from 28 September, 1992. He left The Big Breakfast on 29 September, 1994, and formed his own production company, Ginger Productions. Its first major programme, Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, was broadcast on Channel 4 between 1994 and 1995. In April 1995 Evans joined BBC Radio 1 to host the flagship breakfast show. His spell at the station ended in 1977 when he failed to turn up to work, following a long-running dispute over his demand to take Fridays off, in part to pursue commitments he had taken on as the host of Channel 4's TFI Friday programme, which had commenced in 1996. Evans returned to Virgin Radio to host the breakfast show from 13 October, 1997. In December that year, with the assistance of investors, he bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson, for £85m, and formed the Ginger Media Group, to control the interests both of Ginger Productions and Virgin Radio. During the last quarter of 1999, Evans ran separate quizzes on his radio show and on TFI Friday, both called Who's Going To Be A Millionaire? The £1million prize was awarded on radio on 17 December and on television on 24 December, the first million pound prizes on British TV and Radio, beating ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by ten months. He was dismissed from Virgin Radio in 2001 and later tried, and failed, to sue the company for unfair dismissal in 2003. In August 2002, Chris Evans set up a radio and television production company, UMTV. TV shows include Johnny Vegas: 18 Stone of Idiot for Channel 4/E4 and OFI Sunday for ITV. In early May 2006, he was named Music Radio Personality of the Year. He has previously been married to Carol McGiffin ('Loose Women', ITV1) and former pop star Billie Piper ('Doctor Who', BBC1, 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl', ITV2). Read more in Wikipedia.
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Polly Walker (born 19 May 1966, in Warrington) is an English actress. Walker's first school was Silverdale Preparatory West Acton, London. Walker began her career as a dancer, but had to abandon dancing after an injury at the age of 18. She moved from the Drama Centre in London to the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she played bit parts for six months before graduating to small roles on television. Walker landed the title role in the television series Lorna Doone before making her feature debut in Shogun Mayeda (1991). She first gained international attention as a single-minded English member of an Irish terrorist group in Phillip Noyce's Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. In late 2005, she played Atia of the Julii in the first season of the HBO/BBC2 television series Rome. Her performance earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama. Read more in Wikipedia.
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Jan
Linton is a singer, musician and producer from Warrington, born in the 1960s, who
helped internationalise the music scene in Tokyo, Japan. Jan
Linton studied violin from the age of four, moving briefly onto piano, before
discovering pop music and electric guitar as a teenager. When he was 17 years
old his first synthesizer exploded, leading him to try bass guitar instead. After
graduating from Birmingham University, he left for Japan in January 1990 after
encouragement from P-Model's Tatsuya Kikuchi then subsequently Susumu Hirasawa,
and secured a recording agreement from King Records after just three days. The
project combined electronics with Asian pop and a world music flavour, including
a performance by violinist and Chinese Kokyu player Masatsugu Shinozaki (who
performed on the soundtrack to "The Last Emperor"). A change in A/R
management delayed Linton's first CD, "Oinaru Sekai (TrueNirvana)"; it
was finally released at the end of 1992. The producer also worked with the
Japanese boy band SMAP, with the result that the album swung between
electro-pop and Asian World Music. The album was sung in ten languages,
including Japanese. In
1993 Roger Eno introduced Linton to the renowned guitarist and artist Bill
Nelson (musician), whom Linton had been a fan of since his university days.
Nelson contributed guitar to some new tracks Linton was recording. One was
released by Sony in 1994 on an album which sold 15,000 copies. This established
Linton as one of the few non-Japanese musicians in the Japanese scene of the
time, which centered on clubs such as "Julianas", modelled
superficially on British style "raves". However, Linton's track
"6 Ritual" was clearly going in a different direction. From
1994-1997 his releases were sporadic, as the Japanese scene had moved into
instrumental techno and Linton was mainly a singer at the time. Only one track,
the jungle (music) styled "Jungle Friends" was released on 12 inch
vinyl from Ummo Records. In
1998 his instrumental piece "Sarajevo" was chosen to open a Princess
Diana tribute/charity album sponsored by the British Embassy, and it sold five
thousand copies, even though the CD had no label or distribution at all. In 1999
he was able to release an EP of earlier tracks, and Sony Asia Pacific later
marketed it. Linton formed a band called "dr jan guru" which played
frequently at large venues. Under the band's name, he released three albums over
the next few years, starting with "Alienshamanism" in 2000. However,
the live members often changed and rarely appeared on the albums; instead, a
number of well-known musicians contributed to the recording sessions, such as
Duran Duran's John Taylor. The albums also included reworkings of the unreleased
tracks Linton had recorded with Bill Nelson. Linton
made several releases in 2000 in the UK, Japan, and Europe. The singles
"Inner Sanctum" ("Can't You Feel") and "Sarajevo"
were both number one hits on the MP3 electronic music charts in several
countries. Linton also released the first of a series of experimental albums
under his own name, on the "Kaerucafe" label, which is noted for
experimental and sampling CDs. Inspired by the notoriously difficult to program
Yamaha DX7 synthesizer as used by Brian Eno, "Music for Aliens" was
the best selling sampling CD in national stores such as Yamaha. In 2001 a
collaborative project with the former Japan (band) and Porcupine Tree
synthesist, Richard Barbieri, was again marketed as a sampling CD and titled
"Cosmic Prophets". This became a cult classic, and is still available
on the UK Burning Shed label. In
2003 Linton signed a European distribution contract for a compilation of new,
unreleased, and re-recorded tracks. The album "Communion" included a
cover of "Dark Entries" by Bauhaus; of John Taylor's "King
Porn" (which the band had been playing since two concerts in International
Stadium Yokohama in 2001); and a track of Linton's, "Lose Yourself With
Me", which Taylor also played bass on. The album was released as by Jan
Linton/dr jan guru. In
2004 King Records signed Linton to make another album as "dr jan guru"
again. Entitled "Planet Japan", it was in a rock/cyberpunk style (such
as a cover version of the John Foxx period Ultravox song Hiroshima Mon
Amour), and the controversial subject matter—Linton's occasionally bitter
experiences in Tokyo—caused a slight stir in the Japanese media. Featuring the
former Japan (band) and Ippu-Do guitarist Masami Tsuchiya, Hoppy
Kamiyama, and sounds from Richard Barbieri, (one instrumental, "Sequential
Sakura" was credited as a Barbieri/Linton joint composition), it was
released by King after being recorded in just seven weeks, an experience which
exhausted Linton. A
UK promotional video (and later, CD/DVD single) of a drum n bass reworking of Bauhaus’s
Dark Entries (from the "Communion" album) followed, but due to label
disputes was never fully released. This marks the last use of the name "dr
jan guru" to date. He
moved back to the UK in 2005 to study for a Master of Arts degree in music
technology while supplying sounds for Roland's new sampler and demonstrating
Roland and Digital Stage`s Motion Dive Tokyo Console VJ software throughout
2006. A chance meeting in Bath with Leo Abrahams led to collaboration on
"Anemone" and "The Kindness of Strangers", but other than
the former, all of Linton's academic output from this period remains unreleased.
In 2007 he translated the lyrics for various songs by Susumu Hirasawa into
English, more than a decade since the two had last been in contact. In early 2011, Entropy Records released Linton`s 2009-2010 reworkings of the sounds of FM3’s Buddha Machine versions 1 and 2, but following the 9.0 magnitude Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and subsequent releases of radioactive materials in Japan (where Linton had returned to in 2007) delayed the release until late March. Read more in Wikipedia.
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Curtis Jobling (born 14 February 1972 in Blackpool, Lancashire, and currently living in Warrington) is an illustrator and animator. A fruitful work experience placement in the puppet and prop-making department on Aardman Animations' Academy Award-winning Wallace and Gromit production A Close Shave landed Jobling a role as puppet painter on Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! But Jobling's most universal acclaim was born out of his role in the making of children's TV hit, Bob The Builder, on which he is production designer, the hand behind all of that programme's inimitable characters and sets. As an author and illustrator of children's books, his most (in)famous character can quite easily be recognised as Frankenstein's Cat, the muddled up feline and star of his own animated show. His company, Bada Bling Ltd, specializes in the development of film and animation content, covering all aspects of production. Collaborators include such industry notables as acclaimed animation director Ian Culbard, glam rock-loving comic scribe Ian Carney, premier puppet makers Mackinnon & Saunders, (Corpse Bride), and Seed Animation Studio. Children's books include Frankenstein's Cat, Dinosaurs After Dark (with Jonathan Emmett), My Daddy, Cheeky Monkey, and The Skeleton in the Closet (with Alice Schertle). Read more in Wikipedia. See also his official website.
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Ray
Peacock
(born Ian Boldsworth in 1973 in Warrington) is a comic performer who came to
prominence in the Big and Daft comedy trio. They had a BBC London radio
series, three consecutive years of sell-out Edinburgh Festival shows and their
own series for the BBC's Play UK, Terrorville. He
attended Selwyn Jones High School in St. Helens and turned his attention mainly
to playing Rugby League, before rekindling his performance interests and
successfully applying to Bretton Hall. After graduation he relocated to London
and was briefly active in Fringe Theatre (Appearing in Lead Roles in Chekhov's
The Bear and The Proposal) before turning his hand to comedy. In
2007 Ray began presenting his iTunes & Chortle-hosted The Ray Peacock
Podcast alongside Ed Gamble and Raji James, which was available to download
on iTunes and at www.chortle.co.uk/raypeacock.
Ray Peacock's second podcast: The Peacock and Gamble Podcast can be found
on the same website. Ray
made his debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002, originally as a brash
Yorkshireman character who soon became a regular act on the live circuit. In his
2006 show at the Edinburgh Festival the character was dropped in all but name
and Ray delivered a confessional stand-up show entitled "Out of
Character". He
is a fanatical supporter of St Helens RLFC, comic book collector and an
accomplished artist.
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CLICK ON EMAIL OR FEMAIL TO CONTACT ME | |
Chris
Braide (born 6 February 1973 in Padgate, Warrington)
is a singer, songwriter, record producer published by Sony/ATV worldwide. Producer,
songwriter and Ivor Novello and ASCAP winner, Chris Braide has achieved
considerable success as a songwriter in the UK and the US. He is one of few
British songwriters of late to reach multi million record sales in the United
States. In a 2005 article for GQ magazine, Braide featured among the most
successful and influential men in the music business under the age of 40. At
the age of 16 Braide secured his first publishing contract with Zomba Music Publishing. In
an interview with HitQuarters he cited this as his career breakthrough
because, in his words, it "opened up the world to me". Leaving his
hometown of Warrington he moved down to London, where he signed to Polydor
Records as a recording artist. His first residence in the capital was at the
home of songwriter Cathy Dennis who, at the time, was also signed to Polydor
as an artist. In
1993, Chris recorded his debut album "Chapter One" for Polydor
Records. The album was produced by Thomas Dolby and Mick Hucknall and
recorded at the residential studio Condulmer in Italy. In
1996, Braide signed a new solo deal with East West Records. The label
released the singles "If I Hadn't Got You" and "Heavenly
Rain" followed a year later by the album, Life In A Minor Key which
was co-produced by Chris and David A. Stewart at Electric Lady Studios in
New York. "If I Hadn't Got You" was released in the US in 1998 by Atlantic
Records after chairman Craig Kallman saw Braide performing an acoustic show
in London. The video's for both singles were filmed in New York and New Orleans. In
2009, Warner Music reissued the Life In A Minor Key album and both
singles as digital downloads. In 2010, Braide Productions released Life
in a Minor Key - Deluxe Edition. This 16 track edition of the album contains
previously unreleased tracks, demos and reworkings of those on the original
album. In
2010 he announced he was emigrating to Los Angles. See the October 2010 edition
of Warrington-Worldwide
magazine for more. Read
more in Wikipedia
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Wainwright
(born Michael Wainwright on 6 March 1973 in Warrington). He is a
singer-songwriter, who as young boy, relocated to St. Catharines, Ontario,
Canada. He began playing guitar when he was 12. He founded the band “Flat
Broke” in high school along with his brother Paul. Since the mid-1990s,
Wainwright has also played guitar, assuming the role of John Lennon in The
Caverners, a Beatles cover band. Wainwright
met producer Charlton Pettus in 2004 and began recording songs which eventually
became the album "Wainwright", released in February 2008 on Town
Records. Guest musicians include Russ Irwin (Aerosmith) on keyboards,
Curt Smith (Tears for Fears) on vocals, and Fred Eltringham (The
Wallflowers, Dixie Chicks) on drums. The album also features guest
singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno (a John Lennon Songwriting Contest winner) on two
tracks. “Wainwright” was mastered by Ted Jensen (Norah Jones, Metallica)
at Sterling Sound. The album artwork was created by artist Alan Aldridge (Beatles,
Elton John). He
has contributed to various songs. 2007: contributed three songs to the
soundtrack of Moving McAllister, starring Ben Gourley, John Heder, Mila
Kunis, and Rutger Hauer: Across the World, World To Bring Me Down
and Can’t Believe My Eyes. He also contributed backing vocals for Los
Angeles-based band Sleeping Masses, fronted by lead singer Patrick
Muldoon. In
2008 Can't Believe My Eyes was licensed by EA sports for the video
game The Sims 2: Apartment Life. Also, Across The World was licensed by NBC's show Las Vegas (TV
series) for its DVD release. In
May 2008, Wainwright launched his Guitar and a Car tour, which has taken
him across Canada, the United States, and (in October 2008) to the United
Kingdom. He’s documenting the tour online via the Guitar And A Car
website. Read more Wikipedia.
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Steven Arnold (born 12 December 1974 in Warrington) is an actor best known for his role as Ashley Peacock in Coronation Street. He was educated at Sir Thomas Boteler High School in Warrington, where his drama teacher suggested he went up for a part in a National Film and Television School production called This Boy's Story. This film went on to win a British Academy Film & Television Award (BAFTA) for best short film in 1991. Steven and his younger brother, Kevin, then both appeared in the Granada Television series Children's Ward. He later worked on the medical information film Growing Pains before making his BBC debut as a courier in the Patricia Routledge series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. He played a character called Rob in an episode of The Bill and a role in Common As Muck before returning to Granada to play Darren in the medical series Medics with Tom Baker and Sue Johnston. In 1996 he made his debut on ITVs Coronation Street as Ashley Peacock and soon he was made a regular character, marrying Maxine Heavey, who was eventually murdered by Richard Hillman. Ashley then married Clare Casey in 2004. He left Coronation Street in 2010 when his character was killed off in the tram crash story. He appeared in ITV1's Dancing On Ice in January 2011. Steven, who still lives in Warrington, has also played Neil in You, Me and Manley and has worked on the BBC Radio 4 play The Distance Between Stars. He is a patron for The Shannon Bradshaw Trust, a Warrington based Children's Charity helping children with life threatening conditions and their families, www.shannonstrust.org.uk.
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Christopher
Paul "Chris" Bisson
(born 21 July 1975 in Wythenshawe, Manchester) is an actor who is based in south
Warrington. Chris Bisson first appeared on television as J.J. in Children's
Ward in 1990. He went on to appear in Prime Suspect and Holby City,
but he is most recognized for his roles as Saleem Khan in East is East,
Vikram Desai in Coronation Street and Kash Karib in Shameless. He
also appeared in the second series of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!. Bisson
appeared in the Channel 5 films Perfect Day: The Wedding (2005), Perfect
Day: The Funeral (2007) and the feature film Stepdad (filmed in
February 2007). He participated in the Channel 4 Documentary Empire's
Children (2007) tracing his paternal heritage to Trinidad in the West
Indies. His recent television appearances have been on the Valentine's Day 2009
episode of Casualty, and on the latest series of Hotel Babylon.
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James
Stelfox (born 23 March 1976 in Warrington), best known as Stel, is a member
of the British group Starsailor, and one of the first members of the
band. He plays bass guitar. Stel produced with John Kettle, Kingsway's debut EP.
Stelfox first met Ben Byrne ten years prior to Starsailor forming. They had become friends since junior school and later went to Leigh Campus of Wigan and Leigh College, where they finally met Barry Westhead and James Walsh. Stelfox and Byrne played in north west England for a number of years. After their singer fell ill, James Walsh decided to join them (before that, he was in a school choir). Stelfox is musically influenced by Neil Young, Paul McCartney and Massive Attack. For
information on the band Starsailor see their official
website. See also this Wikipedia
file,
which also includes notes on Ben Byrne band member who was born in Warrington.
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Warren
Brown
(born 11 May 1978 in Warrington) is an actor and former professional Thai boxer.
After appearing in two episodes of the television series Shameless,
Warren played the evil Andy Holt in Channel 4's teen soap opera Hollyoaks.
Although he was 27 years old at the time, his youthful good looks were said to
have helped him win the role of the student. It is arguably his most famous role to
date. Brown was nominated for a number of awards for his performance in the show
including Best Villain, Most Spectacular Scene and Best Exit at the 2006 British
Soap Awards. Brown's character Holt met his demise in February 2006. He is also
known for his role as Lee Hibbs in the three-part BBC drama series Occupation
written by Peter Bowker. Brown
won a role in the short-lived ITV show Jane Hall in the summer of 2006.
This was followed in March 2007 by his role as Tommo in ITV's Mobile.
Also in 2007 he starred as Chris in one episode of Casualty. In September
2007 he starred in the second series of BBC Three's Grownups, playing
barman, Alex Salade and has played the part since. In the 2009 Comic Relief
special of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, which was a
crossover between Grownups, Two Pints and Coming of Age, he
played Alex again. In
2008 Brown was the voiceover for the film trailer on the soon to be released Gomez:
A True Story based on the life of boxer Michael Gomez and starring Emmerdale's
Kelvin Fletcher. In October 2008, Brown played the role of Marky in E4's zombie
drama Dead Set. In November 2008 he again appeared in Casualty, but
playing a different character than the one he played in 2007. In 2009 Brown appeared in the
three-part BBC TV Iraq war drama Occupation, alongside James Nesbitt and
Stephen Graham. Recently he has appeared in two episodes of The Bill
playing Jake Clegg, who is a part of the operation of trafficking young girls
illegally. These episodes were titled "The Forgotten Child". In May 2010, he
appeared as the regular character of DS Justin Ripley in the BBC TV
drama Luther. Read
more in Wikipedia
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Kerry
Jayne Elizabeth Katona
(previously McFadden; born 6 September 1980 in Warrington) is a singer,
actress, author and television presenter. Best known for her television work,
predominantly in light entertainment and reality shows, she has also been a pop
singer with girl group Atomic Kitten, which had been created by former OMD
frontman Andy McCluskey in 1999. She has also been a magazine columnist and
published an autobiography and several novels. In February 2004, she won the
third series of the British reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of
Here!. Between 2007 and 2009, Katona was the subject of three MTV reality
shows. In 2013 she fronted a TV advert for a payday loans company, which was
eventually banned for being irresponsible. The public were not taken in by a
bankrupt promoting loan companies. Later in 2013 she landed the role of playing
Marilyn Monroe in the musical Norma Jean the Musical. Read more in Wikipedia.
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Nathan
Head (born 8 October 1980 in Warrington) is a British actor known for his work in independent
horrors. He attended Bridgewater High School Arts College, and then later
studied advanced level art at Hartford College and Design at Warrington
Collegiate. He began his career
in independent film and television. The Archangel Murders
Head
is primarily known for his role as demonic Raymond Korkinsky in the
award-winning film The Archangel Murders, which was shown at Cannes in
2010. The film had a limited theatrical release in October 2009, playing
alongside Halloween and Someone's Knocking At The Door. Head also
voiced a character in the animated spin-off Underworld Tales. Filmography
The Zombie King
, The Psychiatrist, Beat 'Em Up,
The Damned United (2009), Tuck Bushman And The Legend Of Piddledown
Dale (2009), The Archangel Murders (2009) and Goal III: Taking On
The World (2009), Somnium Illis (2006). Television appearances
The Friday Night
Project (Channel
4, 2006), The Street (BBC1, 2006), Doctors (BBC1, 2007), Doctor
Who (BBC1, 2007), The Vampyre Diaries (Webseries, 2009), Missing (TV
Movie) (Sky 219, 2009), Crimes That Shook Britain (The History
Channel, Bio & Crime and Investigation Network, 2011) and The Sleeper
Effectt (Webseries, 2012). Radio
FM
RADIO
- From August 2009 to July 2011 Nathan Head could be heard on the
weekly Matinée Show on 103.6FM, Sundays 15:00 to 17:00. He was part of the Matinée team
since Summer 2009 and as well as co-presenting the show he also read the
entertainment news following the highlights from the Sky News Centre at 16:00. INTERNET RADIO - Nathan produced and hosted a feature on Online World Radio called The Showbiz Slot, covering various entertainment themed subjects. The show was initially broadcast on Online World Radio in 2010 and then later released on iTunes as a podcast in 2011 with a second series released in 2012.
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Andrew
"Andy" Whyment (born 2 April 1981 lives in Warrington) is an English
television actor, best known for comedy roles, including his roles as Darren
Sinclair-Jones in The Royle Family and Kirk Sutherland in the ITV1 serial drama Coronation
Street, a role he has played since 2000 to the present day. TV career
Whyment
trained at the Laine Johnson Theatre School in Salford. His first credited part
was in Cracker in 1993. He also had minor roles in The Cops and Where
the Heart Is. He attended Salford College of Further Education for a BTEC in
Performing Arts where his real love was singing, in the mode of Oasis. From 1999
until 2000, Whyment appeared alongside Caroline Aherne and Ricky Tomlinson as
Darren Sinclair-Jones in the BBC comedy The Royle Family. Since 2000,
Whyment has played the role of Kirk Sutherland in Coronation Street. In
2003, he was due to leave Corrie to appear in a new run of Carry On films, but
cancelled this plan due to their delays. Reality television
In
2006, Whyment appeared as a contestant in the ITV reality singing competition Soapstar
Superstar. He has also appeared as a celebrity darts player on the game show
Bullseye in the Bronze Bully Round in one episode. In July 2010 he was
seen at an X-Factor audition in Manchester. He was auditioning under his
Coronation Street character Kirk and sang Kings of Leon's 'Sex on fire'.
He took part in the 2012 series of Dancing on Ice and was paired up with
professional skater, Vicky Ogden. Awards
British
Soap Awards 2003 Best Comedy Performance. Personal life
Whyment is a supporter of Salford RLFC as he appeared on Sky Sports during Salford's match against Hull in which Hull Won 18-14. Whyment is a staunch Manchester United supporter. Whyment married his long term girlfriend Nicola in 2007, and they have two children, Thomas and Hollie. He currently lives in Warrington. Read more in Wikipedia.
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| Darren Jeffries
(born
1982 in Wrexham - exact DOB unknown) is a British
actor who is predominantly known for playing Sam 'OB' O'Brien in the TV show
Hollyoaks
since 1997. He is a former pupil at Padgate
High School, and its adjoining college, in Warrington. At
The 2008 British Soap Awards, Darren and Matt Littler (Max Cunningham) won The
Best On-Screen Partnership Award
for their roles in Hollyoaks.
Darren left
Hollyoaks in March 2008. He currently co-presents with Matt Littler on
Lancashire-based radio station "Rock FM", and presents "The Vs
Chart" on 4Music. Read
more from Wikipedia.
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Bill
Ryder-Jones (born 1983 in Warrington) is a musician and film score
composer. He was originally the lead guitarist with The Coral from 1996
until 2008. Ryder-Jones' debut album If... was released in 2011. The Coral
Ryder-Jones
was originally the lead guitarist with The Coral and played on the band's
first five albums. In 2005, he briefly stopped touring with the band due to a
stress-related illness. It was announced on 9 January, 2008 that Ryder-Jones had
left The Coral and the remaining five members would continue with the
band. In 2011, Ryder-Jones collaborated with his old band mates playing guitar
on "Gently" (the b-side to "Two Faces"). Solo career
Following
his departure from The Coral, he began writing songs and instrumental
pieces and uploaded several demo recordings to his MySpace profile. In
2009, Ryder-Jones composed the score for his friend's short film Leave Taking,
directed by Laurence Easeman. The four compositions were released on his debut
EP A Leave Taking Soundtrack as a free download in July 2011 by Double
Six Records (a subsidiary of Domino Recording Company) via their website and a
music video was filmed for the title track "A Leave Taking". The EP
was also released on 12-inch and digital download formats on 26 September, 2011.
He also composed the scores for the short films It's Natural to Be Afraid
(2010) and Bed (2011). Ryder-Jones'
debut solo album If... was written as a musical adaptation of Italo
Calvino's 1979 novel If on a Winters Night a Traveler, with each
composition representing a different chapter in the book. The idea for the album
was first conceived after a meeting with Laurence Bell, the head of Domino
Records, who had suggested Ryder-Jones record an "imaginary film
score". Recording sessions for If... took place during 2010 at
various locations on Merseyside, including Elevator Studios, the Scandinavian
Church of Liverpool, The Friary in Everton and Ryder-Jones' mother's house in
West Kirby. Most of the album's tracks were recorded with the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra. Ryder-Jones' musical influences for the album came from
film score composers such as Abel Korzeniowski, Michael Galasso and Clint
Mansell, and rock artists such as Syd Barrett, Nick Cave and Gorky's Zygotic
Mynci. If... was released on 14 November, 2011, and received largely
positive reviews from music critics. Collaborations
Ryder-Jones
has also recorded guitar for other artists such as The Last Shadow Puppets
on "Gas Dance" (b-side of "Standing Next to Me") and Alex
Turner on Submarine EP. In 2011, he collaborated with Graham Coxon and
Paloma Faith on the song "Desire", which was released online by
Converse. Read more in Wikipedia.
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Sonya
Hurst from Warrington, Cheshire, was born on 4 January 1986 and has been
singing and composing music since she was a little girl.
With a range of experience including performing as a solo artist in pubs, clubs, holiday camps and events she also enjoys performing in residential homes. Her repertoire covers all styles of music, country/pop/jazz/rock/gospel and she is classically trained to grade 8 with the ABRSM (the exam board of the Royal School of Music). Sonya left college in 2004 with a triple grade distinction in music practice and went on to perform dinner music and some session singing/backing vocals in her spare time, while continuing to write songs and play keyboard. She is currently performing in a boy/girl duo while working on recording some of her own music. Her music will be available soon on CD. And she is planning a tour hopefully as soon as 2016. |
| Sonya,
who has two sons, went over to America in the autumn of 2015 to fulfil
her lifelong dream of singing live in Nashville. She is selling her single “Emily” on I-Tunes
and Amazon.
“The most exciting part of all this for me is that people all over the world are listening to songs I have written myself!” said Sonya. “It’s very surreal to think that people in Australia and America are hearing my songs on the radio. I have always dreamt of going to Nashville and my biggest ambition as a young girl was to sing at the Grand ole Opry. I love country music and always have. I was inspired by people like LeAnn Rimes and grew up listening to Charlie Landsborough and Patsy Cline. Now I'm enjoying being able to do what I love most and my goal is to keep on doing that." Sonya visited www.radiowarrington.co.uk on 15 May 2015 to promote her single "Emily", which is now available to download on i-Tunes and Amazon. It was also the very first interview to be broadcast from the station's new studios in Warrington Market. A bit of history in itself - Sonya and Gordon live! Check out Sonya on Facebook. She also has a fan club page there too. |
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Andrew Gower (born 1989 in Liverpool) is an actor best known for his recurring role on the ITV medical drama Monroe. In the summer of 2011, he was cast on the BBC Three supernatural drama series Being Human. Gower
was born in Aintree, Liverpool, and attended Davenhill Primary School in the
district. Gower began acting in Year Nine while attending Great Sankey High
School. He appeared in several high school plays and musicals. He enrolled in
Barrow Hall College, Great Sankey High School's sixth form college, in 2007, and
while studying for his A-levels joined a local drama group. Gower enrolled at
the Oxford School of Drama, and graduated in 2010. On 20 July, 2010, he won the
prestigious Spotlight Prize. On
10 March, 2011, Gower made his British television debut on the ITV series Monroe,
in the role of Dr Andrew Mullery (a cardiac surgeon in training). To research
the role, Gower watched two coronary artery bypass surgeries while standing next
to actual surgeons. Monroe was filmed toward the end of 2010, and he
appeared in all six parts of the series. During
the initial run of Monroe, on 19 March, 2011 Gower appeared in the live
television broadcast of the new musical, Frankenstein's Wedding... Live in
Leeds. Originally conceived as a filmed musical, the show was broadcast live
on BBC Three from a set at Kirkstall Abbey. On
20 July, 2011, a Hertfordshire local newspaper revealed that Gower had been cast
in the hit television series Being Human as a new vampire character named
Cutler. The Warrington Guardian confirmed the report two days later. The
show began filming series 4 in Barry, Wales, in late July 2011. It was broadcast
during February-March 2012. Gower is also a member of a rock band called Emerson. A singer and songwriter, he is a self-described "obsessed" Beatles fan. Emerson has played The Cavern Club (the Liverpool club where The Beatles were discovered) several times. Read more in Wikipedia.
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George
William Sampson
(born 29 June 1993 in Warrington) is a street dancer and was the winner of the
second series of Britain's Got Talent on 31 May 2008, aged 14. As a
prize, he received £100,000 and the opportunity to perform at the 2008 Royal
Variety Performance, staged at the London Palladium on 11 December 2008
(broadcast on BBC One on 17 December). In
2007, Sampson auditioned during the first round of Britain's Got Talent
after a dance teacher told him there were auditions in the area that would be
right up his alley. He only discovered it was for Britain's Got Talent
when he arrived. In his audition, he danced to Drop (Timbaland feat.
Magoo & Fatman Scoop), but despite Simon Cowell's enthusiasm, he was unable
to convince the other two judges, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, to let Sampson
proceed to the live semi finals. This experience made Sampson determined to
enter the 2008 auditions and prove Holden and Morgan wrong. In the intervening
time he continued dancing on the streets of Manchester to improve his technique,
and to raise money for his family. Sampson
got through the Britain's Got Talent auditions in 2008 by dancing to
"Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now)". He then came top in the
audience's vote in his semi-final with his arrangement of Mint Royale's big beat
remix of "Singin' in the Rain", complete with an artificial rain
machine onstage, a formula that had previously been produced in a television
advertisement for the Volkswagen Golf GTI. He subsequently won the audience's
vote in the final, beating dancers Signature (second place) and Andrew Johnston
(third place). He broke into tears when his win was announced. Sampson was due
to perform a different routine for the final, to a track by the Bee Gees, which
he described as involving "a lot of movement without me actually doing anything". An
hour before the final started he changed his mind and, after consulting Simon
Cowell, opted to perform his winning act from the semi-final again. The Mint
Royale version of "Singin' In The Rain" went to number 1 in the UK on
download sales alone in the week following Sampson's performance and Simon
Cowell's label SyCo was bombarded with requests from fans to make a video for
the song. It is the first time SyCo has signed up a non-singing act solely to
make a video. In
an interview the day after the final, Sampson told of his return to normality
the Monday after the event. In
2011 he appeared in the BBC1 drama, Waterloo Road.
Some
information from Wikipedia
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Dean
McGonagle
(born 1994 in Great Sankey, Warrington). In 2004 and 2006 he appeared in the
British soap opera Emmerdale playing the character Luke Dingle. He also
played Jamie Quinn in The Street in 2006. In 2007 he starred as Will in
Channel 4's Shameless. Read
more in Wikipedia |
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