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Kathy Kirby
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Kathy Kirby (b. Kathleen O'Rourke 20 October 1940 Ilford, Essex) is a retired English singer, whose popularity was at its peak during the 1960s.
lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m4574163",this)' onMouseout='hide("m4574163")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Convent">Convent-educated, Kirby's soprano voice became apparent early in life, and she was thought to be good enough for opera. She became a professional singer after meeting the bandleader, Ambrose at the Ilford Palais. She remained with Ambrose's band for three years and he remained her manager and mentor until his death in 1971.
She adopted the look of a 'blonde bombshell', and was compared to Marilyn Monroe.
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Encyclopedia
Kathy Kirby (b. Kathleen O'Rourke 20 October 1940 Ilford, Essex) is a retired English singer, whose popularity was at its peak during the 1960s.
Career
Convent-educated, Kirby's soprano voice became apparent early in life, and she was thought to be good enough for opera. She became a professional singer after meeting the bandleader, Ambrose at the Ilford Palais. She remained with Ambrose's band for three years and he remained her manager and mentor until his death in 1971.
She adopted the look of a 'blonde bombshell', and was compared to Marilyn Monroe. Her looks, lip-gloss and her powerful, pitch-perfect voice became her trademarks. She had a string of Top 20 hits between 1963 and 1965, the best known of which is her cover version of "Secret Love". That year (1963), she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express poll.
Kirby became one of the biggest stars of the mid-1960s, appearing in the Royal Command Variety Performance and three television series for BBC TV. She represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965, and came second with the song "I Belong". Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor describes Kirby's "I Belong" as being far more representative of current musical tastes than other songs from the contest, but she was beaten by France Gall from Luxembourg, singing an even more contemporary song written by Serge Gainsbourg. She also sang the theme tune of the BBC television series Adam Adamant Lives!.
Kirby's star faded in the late 1960s. She recorded twelve singles and an album between 1967 and 1973, but they did not reach her previous levels of success. She continued to make television appearances, and her 1974 appearance on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club TV variety show is available to watch on YouTube.
During the 1970s Kirby endured bankruptcy and some mental health problems, but she made occasional television appearances and performed a few live gigs on the 'nostalgia circuit'. In December 1983, although still in her early forties she retired from show business altogether.
Recent activities
Kirby is now 70 years old and has been retired for over 25 years. She lives away from the public eye in the South Kensington area of London. She shuns publicity and recent reports say that she is in poor physical and mental health. A recent amateur recording of Kathy Kirby singing the song "He", made in around 2005, has been made available online .
Interest in Kathy Kirby and her work has continued, particularly among gay men for whom she is something of an icon.. She records regular short greetings for a website dedicated to her and a 2005 biography was adapted into a stage show about her life, called Secret Love. The show opened in Leeds in May 2008.
Although the Daily Express reported in 2008 that plans for a new filmed interview had been abandoned, later reports indicate that the interview has now been filmed and will feature on a new DVD compilation. She also gave an interview to the Express in 2009, billed as her first in 26 years, which included a recent photograph
Hits
Note: Kathy had one charted single on the US Billboard Hot 100. "The Way Of Love" peaked at #88 in 1965
See also
External links
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