The glam rock singer Alvin Stardust has died following a short illness, aged 72. Born in Muswell Hill as Bernard William Jewry, he went on to achieve a small measure of fame as the pop singer Shane Fenton in the early '60s. All I remember of him from that period was his single, "I'm a Moody Guy" and his backing group The Fentones' hit instrumental version of "The Breeze and I". But it was as the extravagantly quiffed, slinky, leather-clad Alvin Stardust that he achieved real success with a trio of hit singles in the '70s. Unlike another notable contemporary '60s'-teeny-bopper-turned-glam-rock-star, Gary Glitter, I'm not aware of a whiff of scandal attaching iteself to Alvin Stardust, so the nation can still smile fondly at the mention of his name and the peculiarly British form of end-of-the-pier variety pop silliness it evokes.
