![]() ![]() "It was my mother who always thought I would be a singer, from quite early on when I used to mess around and sing to the records we had. "I wanted to be a singer but I don't think I was too serious about it", he recalled in 1972. He began to develop a vocal style by mimicking the popular singers of the day, and he later formed a school vocal group of two boys and three girls called the Quintones, which performed versions of current hits. But the rock 'n' roll music of Bill Haley and especially of Elvis Presley interested him more and would eventually change his life. He also excelled in athletics and played football for his school and for the county of Hertfordshire. When his father had a small win on the pools, Dorothy Webb persuaded him to buy a record-player and Cliff was able to play guitar to the popular records of the period. It was at Cheshunt that Cliff first became interested in music. A neighbour was so appalled at the Webb family's cramped living conditions that she asked a local council official to intervene, and in 1954 the six-strong family were moved to a council house on a quiet estate in Cheshunt. Rodger Webb eventually found employment and the family moved to another room in an aunt's house in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. On arrival they were driven from Tilbury Docks to Carshalton in Surrey where Cliff's maternal grandmother provided temporary refuge until her next-door neighbour lent the homeless family a spare room. Neither of Cliff's parents had ever lived in Britain and by emigrating they sacrificed comparative wealth for a virtually penniless new existence. When India was thrust into political turmoil in the late Forties his parents, Rodger and Dorothy Webb, decided to sell their belongings and sail to England on a passenger steamer from Bombay. And Cliff Richard is probably the only British artist whose career has successfully embraced the numerous sociological, cultural and musical changes which have shaped the course of what is now a multi-million pound industry.īorn Harry Rodger Webb in Lucknow, India, in October 1940, the future Cliff Richard's upbringing was unremarkable. The record industry has progressed to such an extent that modern rock is almost entirely removed from the music of the Fifties in all but spirit. Since Cliff Richard made his chart debut with Move It in September 1958, popular music has changed beyond recognition. ![]()
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