(c’63) Robert Bickford (vocal / guitar)
Ford lived in Woking with his wife and child, when as a Daily Mail reporter, he put himself up for ‘grooming’ by Robert Stigwood to become a pop star under the stage name Bick Ford. The Daily Mail covered each step of his progress. This culminated in the release on 11 April ’63 of the, Charles Blackwell penned, 7″ single “Cheat, Cheat” on Parlophone [R.5018].
The record was launched at the Dorchester Hotel, London with 10,000 copies pressed and Bick Ford, backed by The Hi-Fi’s, went on an All-Stars Package Tour with the likes of Mike Sarne, John Leyton, Mike Berry, Don Spencer, The Innocents, Jet Harris & Tony Meehan, Billy Doyle, Duffy Power, Grazina, The X-L Five, and Billie Davis to promote his single across the end April and through May ’63.
The tour was the typical relentless trek up and down the country, performing two shows a day per-venue. It started at the Essoldo, Brighton on 28 April ’63. Over the next two day they hit Ipswich and Rochester’s Gaumont, followed by the Odeon, Southend on 1 May ’63.
It continued, non-stop for another 17 days: Essoldo, Tunbridge Wells (2 May), Odeon, Romford (3), Guild Hall, Portsmouth (4), Gaumont, Watford (5), Odeon, Cheltenham (6), Capital, Cardiff (7), Gaumont, Wolverhampton (8), Regal, Wakefield (9), Odeon, Manchester (10) Opera House, Blackpool (11), Empire, Liverpool (12), Gaumont, Bradford (13)…
…Gaumont, Derby (14), Granada, Greenford (15), Theatre Royal, Norwich (16), Granada, Edmonton (17), and Winter Gardens, Bournemouth (18).
Ultimately, the track never succeeded in the charts and Bick Ford reportedly returned to reporting. “Cheat, Cheat” was covered by Johnny Cymbal and released in the US in ’64.
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