Saturday 1 August 2015

Cilla Black dies, aged 72

Sad news reaches us from Spain, where Priscilla White, better known under her stage name Cilla Black, died aged 72.

Cilla Black's biography reads like a huge Beatles-related novel, and her story cannot be seen without that of the Fab Four from Liverpool.

Just like the Beatles, she came from Liverpool. Her first run-into with the Beatles probably dates back from the Cavern Club days, when she was a part-time cloakroom attendant at that famous music venue.

Cilla Black soon became a guest-singer for groups like Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, and The Big Three.

She was soon signed on by Brian Epstein (the only female singer in his portfolio) and her first record was the Lennon-McCartney composition Love of the Loved. later in life she would go on recording many other Beatles songs, including Yesterday, The Long and Winding road, For No One and Across the Universe. Paul McCartney wrote "Step Inside Love" and George Harrison I'll Still Love You and The Light that has Lighted the World.

Other notorious occassions when she joined The Beatles was during the Cannes festival with Ringo Starr and George Harrison, and holidaying on a yacht. Picture: Cilla Black in Amsterdam, CC BY-SA 3.0, Nationaal Archief