I was wandering around Soho recently with a mate and as we walked up some of the back alleys, taking the shortcuts that we learnt about years ago when we should have been at school, we both remarked simultaneously that by doing that, it reminded us both of the TV series ‘Budgie.’ The seminal second series of that great 1970s TV show was my first proper introduction to Terry Nelhams, or Adam Faith as he became better known as.

A good-looking boy, and by far a better actor than some give him credit for, Adam started his career as a 1950s pop singer, with more than a little Buddy Holly inflection in his voice. Later, he became a man of many careers, a pop manager, a writer of songs, a financial journalist and a sometime successful businessman.

It’s fair to say, he made the most of every day.
       
He was born Terence Nelhams Wright  in June 1940, during an air raid in Acton, the son of Alf a coach driver and Nell a cleaner. Mum and dad weren’t married at the time of his birth, hence the surname Wright on his birth certificate, which was the married name of Ellen, who hadn’t bothered to get divorced from her previous husband.

One of five kids, school was unadventurous for young Terry, who instead had a love of the cinema from an early age, He was out working part time from the age of 12, delivering and then selling on a paper round, before securing a full-time job as a messenger for a printer . He then began working as an assistant film editor at Elstree Studios. Inspired by his combined love of James Dean and Lonnie Donegan, he had dreams of becoming an actor and singer. His skiffle group ‘The Worried Men’ were then spotted at the 2i’s Coffee Bar in Old Compton Street, Soho, after they appeared in a live outside broadcast of the popular TV series of the time, ‘Six-Five Special.’ The shows legendary producer Jack Good , was very taken with young Terry, and he signed him up to a solo HMV recording contract, complete with a new name of Adam Faith, the name being chosen from a book of baby names with Adam from the boy section and Faith from the girls, proving the most popular.

He didn’t trouble the scorers with his first record ‘Heartsick Feeling’  in early 1958 and that lack of chart success continued with his next release ‘Country Music Holiday.’ So, he went back to his old job at Elstree till March 1959,  when his old pal,  the musician and composer John Barry , invited him along to take part in a BBC music show called ‘Drumbeat.’

Initially contracted for three shows, he proved so popular with its viewers, he was kept on for the whole twenty-two week run, with his strong good looks gaining him an ever-growing teenage following. He had already begun taking acting and elocution lessons and he picked up a role in the teen flick ‘Beat Girl,’ with John Barry delivering his very first film score, in what would become an illustrious career.

The success of the film and his rising profile in general, led Faith to a contract with EMI. With a string arrangement lifted straight from the Buddy Holly song book, his next single ‘What Do You Want?’ hit the number one spot on the Parlophone label, with Faith’s distinctive vocal style of singing ‘Bay Beh’ instead of ‘Baby’ definitely catching the ears of the general public, resulting in sales of 50,000 copies a day. He soon followed up with ‘Poor Me’ ‘Someone’s Baby’ ‘Made You’ and ‘Lonely Pup’ as he took in a Summer season in Blackpool as well as the Royal Variety Show in 1960.

So, by the age of 20, our boy was doing good. He’d bought a house near Hampton Court for his family for £6,000, and then defied advice to make a celebrated appearance in the TV show ‘Face to Face’ with the inquisitive and hard-edged interviewer John Freeman. On the show he gave as good as he got and came away with a lot of credit, when in fact ‘this working-class pop star’ was expected to crumble under difficult questions. On the show, he revealed that his favourite composers were Sibelius and Dvorak, and his favourite book was ‘Catcher in The Rye.’ In the words of pop pundit Nik Cohn, Faith thereby introduced ‘the concept of pop singer as thinker.’

He continued to release well received singles and albums into the early ‘60s, but the pop landscape was changing, with the Beatles conquering all around them and so ending careers. Adam, tried to change tack to take on the Merseybeat boom at its own game, teaming up with a backing group called The Roulettes for the Chris Andrews penned (and much loved in SE5) ‘The First Time’ in late 1963. In fact, it was to be Faith’s last top ten single and he left EMI in 1967.

As he said at the time  ‘the worst thing in the world is to be an ex-pop singer doing the clubs.’

On a happier occasion in the same year, he married Jackie Irving and they went on to have a daughter Katya. This proved to be a marriage which, despite countless affairs on Adam’s part, including a very public one with US tennis star, Chrissy Evert, would survive.

During his pop heyday, Adam acted in various films such as ‘What A Whopper’ ‘Mix Me A Person’ and ‘What A Carve Up’ before solely concentrating on acting in repertory theatre, giving over excellent performances, including the lead role in the stage version of  ‘Billy Liar’ written by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse.

Then came the aforementioned LWT network TV show ‘Budgie,’ also written by Hall and Waterhouse, who had, of course,  seen first-hand, the potential of Faith as an actor. His double act working alongside Iain Cuthbertson as Glaswegian gangster Charlie Endell, as well as his feathered haircut, ‘Budgie’ jacket and green plastic clogs, are still fondly remembered by gents and ladies of a certain vintage.

A third series of the very popular show failed to appear however, when Faith nearly lost a leg in a bad car crash in 1973. His injuries were horrific, suffering a ruptured spleen, perforated bladder, split shin, crushed ankle, broken arm, countless broken ribs and damaging his face .

Once recovered, he made his comeback as the pop manager looking after David Essex in the 1974 film ‘Stardust, ‘ which earned earn him a BAFTA nomination. He would follow that up later, making a memorable appearance playing ‘Wally Probyn’ in the 1980 film ‘McVicar.’

In the middle of that, real life imitated art, when he managed the pop star Leo Sayer, who went on to have a string of hits including ‘The Show Must Go On’ and ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.’

1986 saw him undergo and recover from, open heart surgery, before he resurrected the character of  ‘Budgie’ for a musical with lyrics by Don Black. His long-suffering girlfriend ‘Hazel’ was played by actress Anita Dobson, then flying high career wise after her role as ‘Ange’ in the TV show ‘EastEnders.’ The musical, though an enjoyable romp, failed to find an audience, despite me seeing it twice.

By this time, Adam had a reputation of something of a financial expert, having dabbled in property and stocks and shares, when he first came into proper money. His ‘office’ was a table in the restaurant in Fortnum and Mason, with his yellow Rolls Royce parked outside. He wrote a money column for Mail Group newspapers and started a new TV station called ‘The Money Channel.’ Sadly, it all went badly wrong, with business partners being arrested for fraud and the enterprise finally came tumbling down in 2002, with Faith declared bankrupt and £32 million in debt.

‘He was a risk taker, and his last gamble was the digital TV 24-hour Money Channel which collapsed with the millions he had invested’  said his friend Keith Altham.

His last major TV role on telly came in ‘Love Hurts’ where he played  Frank Carver, a lovable rogue alongside Zoe Wanamaker
from 1992 to 1994.

From there, he was back treading the boards and acting around the UK, giving a tremendous performance especially in the stage adaption of the film ‘Alfie.’

He was taken ill after an evening performance in Stoke on Trent and died of a heart attack the following morning in March 2003.

A rascal in many ways, that cannot be denied, but someone who is still fondly remembered by many, and I include myself in that long list.

 

The Mumper of SE5

 

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