Jenny Darren

Jenny Darren is a British rock singer. The Pat Benatar hit "Heartbreaker" was written for her. Darren was part of "The dream of Olwen" by Second City Sound that entered the top 50 at number 43 in 1969. Darren was born Jennifer Harley in Birmingham, England, the adopted and only child of Maud Phillips and Leslie Phillips. She was raised in Dudley and attended The Sir Gilbert Claughton Grammar School. She wrote her first song "Why does it have to be with me" at the age of eleven, after which she joined her first band (her cousin George's ) "Johnny Dark and The Rocking Phantoms" at the age of thirteen. During senior school, she gigged locally with a Blackheath group called "The Roving Saracens" as one of four singers with two other girls and one boy. At this time she met Manchester Evening News journalist Richard Jaffa, who became her manager for the next three years. Darren was fourteen years old when she signed a two singles deal with Nathan Joseph's folk label " Transatlantic Records", who had notables such as "Long John Baldry". She was working a minimum of two nights per week with alternating pop and jazz outfits, after which she became a backing vocalist for "Clifford T. Ward", a Kidderminster singer-songwriter. After leaving school at the end of her fifth form year, Darren went professional and joined cabaret group " Second City Sound", for a period of four years. Darren recorded the Love is Blue album, plus two singles, one being a remake of Ike and Tina Turner's "River deep, mountain high", with the B side "Julie", penned by the group's bassist Bill Gilbert. The other single was a piano and string arrangement of the classical piece "The Dream of Olwyn", with a vocal harmony song on the B side "A touch of velvet, a sting of brass". At the time the group were managed by Harry Gunn, a Manchester agent. At the end of the four-year stint, London agents Phil and Dorothy Solomons came on board, subsequently to manage Darren's solo career. Two years went by treading the boards, then a rock career beckoned. Firstly, with the Lancashire rock band "Stoney End" then in stepped "Hot Chocolate's" manager, Peter Walsh, a London impresario who pursued a recording deal with Decca Records for Darren. Walsh then went on to ask pianist and arranger, Mike Moran, to produce a remake of the Ronette's track "Be my baby" with the B side "How soon hello becomes goodbye" (from the French/Italian film "Le Silencieux" - "The Silent Ones") At the time in the UK, there were band residencies in most towns, therefore, a lot of professional musicians skipped from one location to another, Darren being no exception. She was resident at Manchester Tiffany's Oxford Street, then Rotherham, then Stafford. Later on, her London residencies were at Tiffany's Oxford Street, then Tottenham Mayfair, and Wimbledon Tiffany's. In the 1980s Darren worked at both Reading and Brighton Top Rank residencies, drifting from residency to residency. Later she joined The Dave White Band twice over the years at various Norfolk and Nottingham venues. At the same time, Darren joined forces with Dave White's guitarist Lee Vasey playing jazz/rock on their one day off each week. Darren met up with songwriter-producers Geoff Gill and Cliff Wade, who worked at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, Cheshire. Darren was pulled in to do backing vocals on some tracks they had written. This was the beginning of her rock career. The next four years were spent touring the UK and Europe. Along the way, there were three "Jenny Darren Bands" over this period. TV slots and tours followed; AC/DC, plus a "Sight and Sound in Concert" appearance supporting the band Be Bop de Luxe for BBC television. Reading, Glastonbury, and Knebworth festivals and others soon followed. After four years, Darren signed directly to DJM Records with father and son, Dick and Stephen James, who in turn became her joint managers and music publishers. A new Band was to follow. They were: ex-England keyboard player Robert Webb, Andy Richards on second keyboard (Frankie Goes to Hollywood), Chas Cronk on bass (from The Strawbs), Chris West on guitar (from Stomu Yamashta), Luis Jardim on percussion, and Nicko McBrain on drums (Iron Maiden) The Band recorded one album only (Jenny Darren 2) produced by Tony Sadler. Due to internal problems, the band only played two gigs. A live "off the desk" recording still survives from The Fulcrum Hall, Slough. After that, Darren came off the road and also halted her recording career. Rock was no longer an option and after a passage of time away from it, she embarked upon a jazz career. Darren worked at Ronnie Scott's club in Soho, London, the 606 Club Chelsea, plus various other jazz clubs around the country. Although live jazz recordings have been completed along the way, little has been released in the jazz vein. Two unreleased albums have not seen the light of day. In later years, Darren also pursued a career as a vocal coach in colleges and involved herself in other areas of music including pop, blues, Celtic, musical theatre, and classical. In early 1997 Darren received a phone call from jazz pianist John Donaldson regarding a two-part mini-series he was working on, featuring actress Helen Mirren as Maggie Sheridan. Maggie was portrayed in the film as a washed-up blues vocalist from the 1960s, who had long since stopped performing. The writers (Peter Salem and Alan Cubitt) heard Darren sing on the recommendation of Donaldson and then offered her the singing role of Maggie. The mini-series was released on video, then DVD. Darren is also credited within the film credits, interpreting songs veering from light pop, to heavy blues, with Celtic overtones at times. This is largely down to the fact of Maggie Sheridan's changing singing voice over the years, from a young teenager to middle age. For a short period from mid-2000 onwards, Darren rehearsed and recorded with jazz pianist Max Turnbull. Songs were recorded along the way which were initially meant to be an experiment for a new studio in Hampshire, eventually leading to making an album, entitled Song for New York, the title track written by Darren and Turnbull. The songs were never released and therefore remain unheard. Darren was in Balham, London to see a retro keyboard workshop by Robert Webb. There she met Finnish record producer and drummer  Kimmo Porsti, who asked her if she would like to record with his band Paidarion, to which Darren replied positively. Darren recorded her vocals in the UK, however,the other musicians recorded their own separate musical parts from around the world. They were: Ákos Bokor Bogarti (electric acoustic guitars, backing vocals), Jan-Olof Strandberg (fretless and fretted bass), Otso Pakarinen (Keyboards, synth), Robert Webb ( keys, acoustic guitar, vocals), Kev Moore (vocals). The album entitled Two Worlds Encounter -The Finlandia project, was released in November 2016. The Ladykillers band have taken three forms since the recording of the 2017 Ladykillers album. The first being the very first studio band. The main members being: Andy Hawkins - drums: Clive Poole - guitar and Kev Moore. The album itself was initiated by Moore, taking up on the idea made to Darren by a friend of hers, fellow musician Gordon Milton, who suggested that she should re-record and then re-release "Heartbreaker". Moore was instrumental from the first in bringing the project into being. He initially brought in fellow guest musicians Graham Oliver (Saxon-guitarist) Tom Leary (Fiddle-Lindisfarne) Andrew Hawkins (Drums - BC Sweet). Then Darren brought in Tony Williams (Guitar-Jaki Graham), Robin George (Guitar-Roy Wood/The Move/ Magnum); then Pete Way (Bass-UFO), and Chris Slade (Drums-AC/DC) by courtesy of Robin George. Nicko McBrain (Drums-Iron Maiden) who was the drummer in Darren's Band when the song "Ode to Billy Joe" was recorded. As also were Robert Webb (England-Keys) Andy Richards (Keys-Frankie Goes to Hollywood) Chas Cronk (Strawbs-Bass) Chris West