As
far as show business trends are concerned Johnnie has always seemed to have
been in the right place at the right time. As a lad he was touring the Variety
theatres with all the great Music hall names and was on the spot when the big
American stars appeared in the West End in the late fourties. During the fifties
he was presenting one night stands - first with the new record supersellers
like Johnnie Ray, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine - and later with the rockers
like Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and Gene Vincent. He was at the opening of
the famous 2 I's coffee bar and his office window actually looked straight down
Carnaby Street.
The
sixties found him in the northwest - right at the heart of the new music
scene which was started by the Fab Four and was destined to become a worldwide
sensation. As a Londoner living and working in the North Johnnie was quick
to spot the great wealth of talent doing the rounds in the Clubland and
devised series like The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social
Club which introduced viewers nationwide to a hundred new faces who became
the stars of today Johnnie recalls the time when Frank Sinatra could only
attract 150 fans for a one night stand; Mick Jaggar saying in 1964 that
the Rolling Stones would only be around for another two years; turning
down Stevie Wonder; bribing Alvin Stardust; skinny dipping with Larry
Hagman in Dallas - and a thousand other stories
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