Peter Andrew Beardsley M.B.E was born on 18th January
1961, in Longbenton, Newcastle upon Tyne. Well loved Newcastle
hero and England star with over 50 caps for his country. Peter
played for Carlisle and Vancouver Whitecaps before joining
Newcastle in 1981. He played in the 1982 promotion side with
Kevin Keegan, Chris Waddle, Terry McDermott, David McCrery and
John Anderson.
After one season in the first division he was transferred to
Liverpool for a then record fee. He spent several successful
seasons there before Graeme Souness allowed him to move to
Everton. Kevin Keegan brought him back to Tyneside for just over
1million pounds which was an absolute bargain. He is now part of
the England coaching staff. The locally born striker still ranks
high amongst the greats who have played for the club and pulled
on the black and white shirt.
Chris Rea was born on 4th March 1951, in Middlesbrough. Chris is a
songwriter, singer and guitarist with a wide following throughout Europe. He
grew up in the north east where his family owned an ice cream parlour. As a left
handed singer/song writer Chris was a late starter in anyone's terms, learning
guitar (as a right hander) in his late teenage years, he released his first
single So Much Love" in 1974. It was not a success.
After several years refining his skills in a local band Magdelene later renamed
The Beautiful Losers, Chris began work on an album with Gus Dudgeon which
finally attracted some attention. If anyone had tried telling Chris in 1977 that
years down the line he would be looking back on a fourteen album career spanning
multi million record sales around the world, sell out arena tour piled upon sell
out arena tour and the kind of artistic freedom and creativity that few acts
dare to dream about, he probably would have raised his eyes to the heavens and
chuckled to himself.
Hank B. Marvin Guitarist with the
Shadows was born Brian Robson
Rankin on 28th October 1941, in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Hank's metallic, echoed
picking on a red Fender Stratocaster was the inspirational source of Jeff
Beck, Ritchie Blackmore and many other lead guitarists who began in groups
imitating the Shadows, of whom Hank in his black, horn-rimmed glasses, was the
principal public face. After teaching himself guitar, banjo and boogie-woogie piano
at school, Hank's father presented him with a Hofner Congress on his
sixteenth birthday.
When his Crescent City Skiffle Group won a South
Shields Jazz Club talent contest, he was asked to join Bruce Welch's
Railroaders. On moving to London, Hank and Bruce operated briefly as the
Geordie Boys before joining a band called the Drifters, which slowly
became the Shadows. While backing and, later, composing songs such
as "The Day I Met Marie" for Cliff Richard, the quartet recorded
independently and became generally acknowledged as Britain's top instrumental act.
