Adam Faith; Guardian obit
Hyfler/Rosner
One of the first generation of home-grown British pop stars, he remained in
the public eye first as an actor and then as a businessman
Dave Laing
Monday March 10, 2003
The Guardian
Adam Faith, who has died of a heart attack aged 62, was one of Britain's
leading pop singers in the early 1960s. One of the first generation of
home-grown British stars, he vied for popularity with Billy Fury and Cliff
Richard. His brief career as a pop idol was eclipsed when guitar groups,
such as the Beatles, took over and his style of beat ballad seemed outmoded.
But he did not disappear from the limelight. Instead, he reinvented himself
several times, as music businessman, financial expert and, in particular, as
an actor. His acting career reached a peak in 1971 when he starred in the
television series Budgie, scripted by Keith Waterhouse.
He was born Terence Nelhams in Acton, west London, the third of five
children of a coach driver and an office cleaner. After leaving school, he
worked in the film industry, progressing from messenger boy to assistant
film editor. He was inspired to form the Worried Men skiffle group in 1956
by Lonnie Donegan's recording of Rock Island Line. As Faith said in his
first autobiography Poor Me (1961): "Skiffle hit Britain with all the fury
of Asian flu. Everyone went down with it." Faith later repaid his debt by
producing a 1978 comeback album for Donegan, Puttin' On The Style.
While performing at the Two Is coffee bar in Soho, in a live broadcast for
BBC TV's 6-5 Special show in 1958, Nelhams caught the eye of producer Jack
Good, who told him that he could be a successful singer with a change of
name. Good gave him a book of Christian names from which Terry picked Adam
from the boys section and Faith from the girls.
His big break came when John Barry, the musical director of 6-5 Special,
recommended him to Stewart Morris, the producer of a new TV series,
Drumbeat. Morris created the moody Adam Faith image by ordering him to cut
his James Dean-style mass of blond hair and forbidding him to smile on
camera, resulting in Faith's trademark "sunken cheek, hungry look".
His first recording, in 1959, for the Parlophone label, What Do You Want,
was masterminded by John Barry, songwriter Johnny Worth and producer John
Burgess. They reinvented Faith as an Anglicised Buddy Holly with Barry's
pizzicato string arrangement and quirky vocal mannerisms like the oddly
pronounced "biya-bee" for "baby". The record was soon selling 50,000 copies
a day and became No 1 in the hit parade and the first of Adam's 16 Top 20
records over the next five years. His other hits included Poor Me, Who Am I,
Someone Else's Baby and Lonely Pup (In A Christmas Shop).
Adam Faith was quickly established as a teen-idol. From 1960 to 1962, he
appeared in the films Beat Girl, Never Let Go, What A Whopper! and Mix Me A
Person, a psychological drama which established his acting credentials. John
Barry's scores for three of the films provided the springboard for his
subsequent work for the James Bond series.
Such was his instant celebrity that in December 1960 Adam Faith was
interviewed on the BBC TV programme Face To Face by John Freeman to whom he
revealed that his favourite composers were Sibelius and Dvorak and his
favourite book Catcher In The Rye. In the words of pop pundit Nik Cohn,
Faith thereby introduced "the concept of pop singer as thinker".
By 1963, in order to compete with the new popularity of groups such as the
Beatles, Adam Faith hired the Roulettes to accompany him on his live
appearances and commissioned songs from a younger writer, Chris Andrews.
Nevertheless, by 1967, Faith's star had waned and recognising that "the
worst thing in the world is to be an ex-pop singer doing the clubs" he
focussed on an acting career.
He toured as the lead in Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall's Billy Liar,
appeared as Feste in Twelfth Night and with Dame Sybil Thorndyke in Emlyn
Williams' Night Must Fall. His role in Budgie, as the diffident small-time
crook, suited Faith's stage persona and the show ran for several seasons. In
1988 a stage musical version was produced.
In the early 1970s, Faith returned to the music business as a manager and
producer rather than a performer. While touring in 1964 he had discovered
the singer Sandie Shaw and now he recognised the potential of Leo Sayer.
Faith managed him until 1985 when the relationship soured and Sayer sued
Faith for unpaid earnings. Faith also coproduced Sayer's early albums and
the first solo album by The Who's Roger Daltrey in 1973.
In August 1973 he was seriously injured in a car accident, an event that he
described later as the turning point of his career. The crash inspired the
title song of I Survive, Faith's first recording for seven years. Although
the album received good reviews, it was not a commercial success and it
marked the end of his singing career.
In 1974 he returned to film acting. Producer David Puttnam persuaded him to
play the manager of the rock star character played by David Essex in
Stardust. In the Guardian, Derek Malcolm enthused that Faith's "portrait of
a rough diamond on the make could scarcely be more authentic". Faith later
starred in Yesterday's Hero (1979) and McVicar (1980). On the West End stage
he appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's City Sugar (1975).
In the 1980s, Faith reinvented himself again, this time as a financial guru
for the yuppie generation. Although he had invested in property since the
1960s, he had less success on the financial markets. He became a columnist
for the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday but was also associated with Roger
Levitt. When Levitt's investment empire collapsed, Faith was reported to
have lost £10m. Faith later became a partner in The Money Channel on cable
and satellite television, but its failure in 2001 cost him £32m and forced
him into bankruptcy.
In the 1990s, Faith returned to stage and television acting, appearing in
the sitcoms Love Hurts with Zoë Wanamaker and The House That Jack Built with
Gillian Taylforth. In the West End he starred in a revival of Bill
Naughton's Alfie and in the musical A Chorus Line. In 1996 he wrote a
memoir, Acts Of Faith.
He had a history of heart problems and was given open heart surgery to
relieve blocked arteries in 1986.
He is survived by his wife, the former dancer Jackie Irving, whom he married
in 1975, and their daughter Katya.
· Adam Faith (Terence Nelhams), singer, actor and businessman, born June 23
1940; died March 8 2003