Peter Skellern

Lancashire-born Peter Skellern (14 March 1947-17 February 2017), who cultivated a sophisticated supper-club image of a pianist with soft, understated vocals, was primarily an easy listening artist who gained success with LPs rather than in the singles charts. His biggest hits came with two songs released three years apart. You're A Lady (1972) relied on the considerable appeal of its romantic lyrics, mass choir and brass band backing: it peaked at number three in the UK charts. The follow-up, Our Jackie's Getting Married, flopped, and it was not until Hold On To Love (1975), a number 14 record, that Skellern returned to the public consciousness.
Oddly, this latter single attracted Peel's attention and he placed it at number 15 in his pre-Festive Fifty chart of tracks from 1975. (He had also given four asterisks, meaning 'worth buying if you got the money', to Make It Easy For Me / Lie Safely in Sounds the same year.) Skellern would continue to mine this suave nostalgic lyricism in albums such as Astaire, A String Of Pearls and Cheek To Cheek, but he would never again have a top 40 hit (his 1978 version of Ray Noble's song Love Is The Sweetest Thing, a 1930s hit for Al Bowlly, gained some airplay and a low placing in the top 75). He was a regular topical song writer on Radio 4's Stop The Week, in a similar manner to Richard Stilgoe, with whom he frequently collaborated. His most recent forays were in the world of choral classical music. Although his musical leanings and Peel's would seem to have been mostly at odds, they shared a dislike for Oasis: in 1997, he called them 'louts' and compared them unfavourably to their musical role models, the Beatles.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*thumb|330x330pxNone
== Sessions ==
*None
== Other Shows Played ==
*J P D34: And Then You Fall (LP - Hard Times) Island
*19 December 1975: 'Hold On To Love (7")' (Decca)
== See Also ==
* Singles Reviews
*1975 Top Thirty Singles
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
*Noel Gay biog
*Pride Of Manchester
Category:Artists