The Stargazers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There have been two British musical groups called The Stargazers:

The original Stargazers, a vocal group founded in 1949 by Cliff Adams, served as backing vocalists for Petula Clark on her first recordings. They enjoyed considerable commercial success during the 1950s, including two United Kingdom number one hit singles on their own, "I See The Moon" and "Broken Wings", along with a third number 1 hit with Dickie Valentine on "Finger Of Suspicion", and were much in demand for back-up work and broadcast work. They were voted "most popular vocal group" by readers of the New Musical Express five years running.

Stargazers' member Fred Dachtler went on to form The Polkadots, who enjoyed great success in their own right. Beyond their own hit singles and albums, which included a cover version of "April In Paris", they recorded extensively with the likes of Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra. One of Dachtler's sons is Clark Datchler of Johnny Hates Jazz. Clark is now recording under the name of Nightfoxx, and has released an album entitled Tomorrow.

A second Stargazers group emerged in 1981. Key players include Peter Davenport, Ricky Lee Brawn, Chris Gardner, Danny Brittain, Anders Janes, John Wallace and Tim "Trundle" Purkess. The group was popular in the UK for their performances of 1950s style rock and roll. They performed a mixture of original songs, rock and roll converted standards, and cover versions of 1950s songs, particularly those of Bill Haley & His Comets, after whom the group loosely patterned its appearance and performance style. The band enjoyed minor chart success with Groove Baby Groove (Davenport) and a cover of the Louis Prima song Hey Marie. Stargazers' guitarist Davenport toured Great Britain in the early 1990s as a guest member of the Original Comets (he played steel guitar on the live album We're Gonna Party on Hydra Records). Around this time, Comets bass player Marshall Lytle recorded a solo album for the Vinyl Japan label backed by members of The Stargazers entitled Air Mail Special (the group took the name "Marshall and the Shooting Stars" for the album). Brawn later produced and played drums on the reunited Comets' 1997 album, The House is Rockin, (which also features Purkess on several tracks, as well as Brawn's wife, singer Helen Shadow) for Rockstar Records. The Stargazers have released many records over the years, on labels such CBS, Ace, Vinyl Japan and Blue Light.

The Stargazers continue to record, and make live appearances in the UK, US and Europe and although the line-up has changed from time to time, Brittain, Davenport and Purkess still form the stable nucleus of the band. Brawn parted company with The Stargazers in 1994 and formed a series of popular groups including The Big 6 and the Space Cadets. John Wallace resigned in October 2007, to concentrate on his other projects (The Hep Chaps and Heavy Shift).

In addition to The Stargazers, Davenport works with the Bill Haley Orchestra in "Rock Around The Clock - The Bill Haley Story", a tribute revue . Brittain runs his own well established music agency (DBBM) and gigs with his London band The Wild Uncles. Purkess has a small joinery firm (producing exhibition plinths and counters) and still does some session work for other outfits when not playing with The Stargazers.

Featured musicians who work with the band include Alex Bland (sax), Aaron Liddard (sax), Jim Russell (drums), Terry Doe (drums), John Dillon (drums) and Henri Herbert (piano).