Fact #140974
When:
Short story:
Harry Rodger Webb is born in King George Hospital, Victoria Street, Lucknow, India, Asia. He will find enduring success as UK pop idol Cliff Richard.Full article:
Cliff Richard : I can still remember certain things about India. There was the monsoon and, as kids, we used to love it because we used to wade outside in the water and mess around in the floods and then we used to have this kite flying season a bit like the film Kite Runner.
I didn't have quite as fancy a kite as that but the same kind of idea where you put glass and egg white on your string, on the kite cord, and then you come down and slice other kites off if you can, and roll up your kite and catch them and keep them. I remember all that kind of aspect of it, and visiting my grandparents. We used to live in the city but we used to go right out into the countryside to visit both my grandparents.
My mother used to say that before I could read she used to send me to her pile of – you know the old wax discs? She had a record collection of old 78s, yeah, and she'd give me a title to bring and I would always bring back the right title, which all her guests found very amusing because I didn't read. I must have just got used to seeing the pattern of the words.
My favourite song, which was on one of those records, was called Chewing a Piece of Straw, but I don't remember who sang it.
Independence came to India in 1947 and, in 1948, my parents decided it was time to leave India and we came back to an England that was still rationed. There were still ration books and stuff, and my father had great difficulty finding a job. We had nothing when we got here, nothing, and if it hadn't been for the goodness of my grandmother originally, and then one of my father's sisters, taking us into their homes I'm not sure how we'd have got on.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, September, 2008)
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I didn't have quite as fancy a kite as that but the same kind of idea where you put glass and egg white on your string, on the kite cord, and then you come down and slice other kites off if you can, and roll up your kite and catch them and keep them. I remember all that kind of aspect of it, and visiting my grandparents. We used to live in the city but we used to go right out into the countryside to visit both my grandparents.
My mother used to say that before I could read she used to send me to her pile of – you know the old wax discs? She had a record collection of old 78s, yeah, and she'd give me a title to bring and I would always bring back the right title, which all her guests found very amusing because I didn't read. I must have just got used to seeing the pattern of the words.
My favourite song, which was on one of those records, was called Chewing a Piece of Straw, but I don't remember who sang it.
Independence came to India in 1947 and, in 1948, my parents decided it was time to leave India and we came back to an England that was still rationed. There were still ration books and stuff, and my father had great difficulty finding a job. We had nothing when we got here, nothing, and if it hadn't been for the goodness of my grandmother originally, and then one of my father's sisters, taking us into their homes I'm not sure how we'd have got on.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, September, 2008)