JOHN SCHROEDER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 'SEX AND VIOLINS- MY AFFAIR WITH LIFE, LOVE AND MUSIC'

"Schroeder was the producer or co-producer for no less than one hundred and seventy Artists throughout his career, including such stars as Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Helen Shapiro, and Status Quo." The book is due to be published on 21st November. His story includes discovering Helen, and penning her No.1 hit Walkin' back to happiness. Order the book from Amazon

His Press

Release here..

9TH DECEMBER

MIKE READ VINYL COLLECTION AUCTION

Zoe Allchorn, representing, Ashwells Nationwide Services Ltd, informs me that they are auctioning the Mike Read (DJ and broadcaster) vinyl collection and have a number of 7" singles autographed by Helen.

The singles are: I don't care Columbia DB 4869 Helen Shapiro Let's talk about love Columbia DB 4824 Helen Shapiro Don't treat me like a child Columbia DB 4589 Helen Shapiro Goody goody Columbia SEG 8128 Helen Shapiro Woe is me Columbia DB 7026 Helen Shapiro Shop around Columbia DB 7340 Helen Shapiro Tell me what he said Columbia DB 4782 Helen Shapiro Queen for tonight Columbia DB 4966 Helen Shapiro You don't know Columbia DB 4670 Helen Shapiro Walkin' back to happiness Columbia DB 4715 Helen Shapiro Don't treat me like a child Columbia DB 4589

Anybody interested can email Zoe here.

30TH NOVEMBER

'What Wondrous Love is This' GOSPEL ALBUM

Update from Manna Music 27th November: We are making progress with Helen's album - but there is so much to do. The release is date is Feb. 10th. We all can't wait until it's done and 'out there'!

12TH OCTOBER

JOHN SCHROEDER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I have received a preview copy of John's book.
There are over 17 pages devoted to Helen, with several black and white photos, and makes very interesting reading!

28TH SEPTEMBER

NEW GOSPEL ALBUM

The title of Helen's forthcoming Gospel album will be: 'What Wondrous Love is This'

Many Happy Returns of the day, Helen...

25TH SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER ISSUE OF CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE MAGAZINE

The October issue is now on sale with a very interesting three page article featuring Helen-'The little girl with the huge voice' with three archive pics -available from WH Smith.

24TH SEPTEMBER

THE TIMES GUIDE TO THE BEATLES

Helen is mentioned briefly, although inaccurately, as having turned down, the Beatles song 'Misery'....

16TH SEPTEMBER

OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY

A nice archive picture of Helen appears in the BOOM AND LUST article. It made interesting reading, but a pity that Helen wasn't mentioned in the article....

24TH AUGUST

NEW GOSPEL ALBUM

Helen is currently in the studio recording a new Gospel album.
Her first Gospel album for 12 years. It is planned to release it at the end of the year.

13TH AUGUST

OCTOBER ISSUE OF CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE MAGAZINE

I finally have confirmation that the article will appear in the October issue of Classic Bike GUIDE Magazine, on sale mid September- apologies for any confusion

10TH AUGUST

OCTOBER ISSUE OF CLASSIC BIKE MAGAZINE??

Please check before you purchase the September issue,
as it might well be in the October issue- apologies....

5TH AUGUST

SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF CLASSIC BIKE MAGAZINE

Helen has just given an interview which will be published in the September issue of Classic Bike Magazine. On sale FRIDAY 7TH AUGUST.

27TH JULY

ACETE SINGLE SELLS FOR £255 ON eBAY

An acete of the unreleased 1965 track : 'It's been nice loving you' fetched £255 yesterday on eBAY...

10TH JUNE

MATT HAMILTON

Sorry to hear that Matt, a former Friends Club secretary from 1974-1979 (approx), died from heart problems, in the early hours of 8th June...

His partner, Richard Cox, had previously left a message in the HS Guestbook...

30TH MAY

SATURDAY DAILY EXPRESS

Helen is mentioned very briefly in the 'Whatever Happened to Kenny Lynch' article....

6TH MAY

HAPPY RADIO STATION

Email from Keith Perron - pcj.happystation@gmail.com Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 1:51 AM Subject: Helen Shapiro to be on Happy Station<

Hi Everyone,
Legendary 60’s UK pop icon Helen Shapiro will be my guest on next weeks Happy Station. For listeners outside Europe who may not know that name she was one of the youngest stars to impact the change in pop music in the early 60s with people like Cliff Richard, Adam Faith and others. At the ago of 14 she had her first hit called Don’t Treat Me Like A Child.
Air date: May 14, 2009
First transmission: directed to North & South America 0100UTC/GMT
Broadcast schedule via WRMI: 0100-0155 UTC Thursdays on 9955 kHz
Repeated 1500-1555 UTC Thursdays on 9955 kHz

Live web stream: www.wrmi.net then on 'listen live' -also seems to be recordable.

5TH MAY

SMALL TOWN SATURDAY NIGHT

An excellent book has come to my attention: "Small Town Saturday Night" by Trevor Simpson, chronicling the development of popular music culture in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax. The book lists artists appearing at the local Odeon Cinema and the Victoria Hall, between 1956 and 1970. Nearly 200 pages, with illustrations of pop memorabilia, and previously unpublished photographs, with Helen featured in a three page article. Visit the website, order the book.

1ST MAY

IT'S ONLY ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO SHOW INTERVIEW

Alex East (AKA Al E. Cat), a DJ in California, interviewed Helen for his weekly radio show "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll". You an download a copy of the interview here.

25TH APRIL

'SHOUT'- THE MUSICAL.

The musical features songs of female singers from the 1960s, and should have a recorded snippet of Helen singing 'Let's Talk About Love', and also in the finale, members of the cast singing 'Walkin' Back To Happiness - if the musical runs to the same format as last year. Tour dates here

13TH APRIL

RIVETING RIFFS ARTICLE

Riveting Riffs Magazine is an online magazine interviewing leading musicians, composers, singers, and emerging artists in the music industry.

In an article entitled "British Pop Legend Helen Shapiro" Helen gives a resumé of her pop career, association with Humphrey Lyttelton and his band, and her decision to share her faith through her music and talks.

9TH APRIL

QUEENS OF BRITISH POP (CONTINUED)

The executive producer is Mark.cooper@bbc.co.uk 9 comments so far on the BBC MUSIC BLOG PAGE.

Even John Schroeder has left one! - his forthcoming autobiography entitled Sex and Violins (sub-titled My Affair with Life, Love and Music.) is due to be published shortly.

Another page for comments: Points of View message boards. You can use the same MUSIC BLOG ID to log in. Find the QUEENS OF POP thread, and add your comment.

8TH APRIL

QUEENS OF BRITISH POP (CONTINUED)

I did email Dione Newton, and here is her reply:

"Helen Shapiro was certainly a fascinating and pivotal artist and we do see her as relevant - we have featured her in previous documentaries made in this department - Girls & Boys and Pop Britannia.

When choosing the 12 queens who would best take us from the 60s to now, we decided to start with Dusty and the pop explosion that The Beatles kicked off. That decision - right or wrong - meant we decided not to include Ms. Shapiro whose major chart history lasted from '61 to '62.

When constructing the Queens BBC website, time, cost and effort restricted us to 60 Queens with footage/clips of them performing at the BBC. The only footage we'd found of Ms. Shapiro performing at the BBC was from the Des O'Connor Show in 1980 which seemed inappropriate so we decided to stick with singers whose careers began alongside Dusty and the Swinging Sixties.

Obviously these parameters are somewhat arbitrary as my exec producer, Mark Cooper, tried to make clear in the blog on the website; we simply made what we believe to be the best and most instructive editorial choices we felt we could when we came to both the programmes and the website."

7TH APRIL

QUEENS OF BRITISH POP (CONTINUED)

The list of Helen's friends is growing on the BBC MUSIC BLOG PAGE .

Vicki & Richard Marsden have also sent an email to the producer: dione.newton@bbc.co.uk

4TH APRIL

QUEENS OF BRITISH POP

There was a programme on BBC1 on Wednesday at 10.45p.m. entitled "Queens Of British Pop", featuring Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, Kate Bush, Marianne Faithful, Suzi Quatro and Siouxsie of Siouxsie and The Banshees. Such a shame that Helen wasn't mentioned in the programme, considering that she had two number 1 hits! Also on the BBC Queens Of British Pop page, Helen is not even included on the list of 60 female artists to vote for...

Executive Producer Mark Cooper explains the inspiration for the series, so why not take the opportunity to leave your comments for him HERE

30TH JANUARY

RECORD COLLECTOR FEBRUARY 2009

Helen's single, 'You don't know' is mentioned in Spencer Leigh's article- 'The Bobby Years'- celebrating 100 great records proving that there was Life Before Beatles.

3RD JANUARY

RECORD COLLECTOR JANUARY 2009

The letters section in the January issue of Record Collector has a picture of Helen, and a comment from GrahamTodd about the 'Diggin For Gold' article in the Christmas issue.

2ND JANUARY

THE NAT KING COLE INTERNATIONAL FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER

The December issue of the newsletter includes Helen's 10 Favourite Nat King Cole recordings; 1. Let there be love 2. It's only a paper moon 3. Stardust 4. Sweet Lorraine 5. Nature boy 6. This will make you laugh 7. Gee baby, ain't I good for you 8. Straighten up and fly right 9.That ain't right 10. Love letters.

1ST JANUARY

DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS TWO

Dreamboats And Petticoats Two - (EMI) was released in November, and has Helen's recording of 'You don't know' included on it. Volume 0ne- Dreamcoats and Petticoats, with Helen's 'Walkin' back to happiness', has sold over 600,000 copies.

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