Terence (Terry) Nelhams-Wright, known as Adam Faith (23 June 1940, East Acton, West London — 8 March 2003, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) was an English singer, actor and financial journalist. He was born at 4 Churchfield Road, East Acton, West London, and was unaware that his real surname was Nelhams-Wright until he applied for a passport and obtained his birth certificate. He was known as Terry Nelhams in early life.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Music 1.2 Film and television 1.3 The later years 2 References 3 External links

Career

The 3rd in a family of 5 children, Terry Nelhams grew up in a council house in a working class area of London, where he attended John Perryn secondary modern school. He started work at the age of 12, delivering and selling newspapers while still at school. His first full time job was an odd-job boy for a silk screen printer close to his home.

Music

Adam Faith became one of Britain's most significant early pop stars. At the time, he was arguably the most distinctive British pop vocalist of his era. His unique voice and his hiccupping glottal stops and exaggerated pronunciation rendered him instantly recognisable. Like most contemporary pop singers, he did not write his own material, and much of his early success was attributable to his partnership with John Barry and songwriter Les Vandyke, whose arrangements were inspired by Don Costa's pizzicato arrangements for Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore".

He began his musical career in 1957, while working full time as a film cutter in London in the hope of becoming an actor, singing with and managing a part-time skiffle group, The Worried Men. The group played in Soho coffee bars after work, and became the resident band at "Two Is", where they appeared on an episode of the BBC Television live music programme Six-Five Special. The producer of the show, Jack Good was impressed by the singer's performance, and arranged a solo recording contract with HMV, under the new name of 'Adam Faith'.

His debut record "(Got a) Heartsick Feeling" and "Brother Heartache and Sister Tears", was released in January 1958, but failed to make the charts. Jack Good gave him a part in the stage show of Six-Five Special, along with The John Barry Seven but the show folded after only 4 performances. His second release later that year was a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential", backed with the Burt Bacharach and Hal David penned "Country Music Holiday", but this was also a failure.

Faith returned to work as a film cutter at the National Studios at Elstree until March 1959, when John Barry invited him to audition for a new BBC TV rock and roll show, Drumbeat. The producer, Stewart Morris, gave him an initial contract for 3 shows which was later extended to the full 22 week run. His contract with HMV had ended, and he sang one track, "I Vibrate", on a six-track E.P. released by the Fontana record label. John Barry's manager, Eve Taylor got him another recording contract with Top Rank, but his only record release for them, "Ah, Poor Little Baby" / "Runk Bunk" produced by Tony Hatch also failed to chart, partly due to a total absence of publicity, caused by the release date coinciding with a national printing strike.

Despite the failure of his first 3 records, Faith was becoming very well known and popular through his television appearances. He decided to pursue his ambition to become an actor by taking drama and elocution lessons, and was invited to appear as a pop singer in the film, Beat Girl, then in pre-production stage. The script called for Faith to sing a couple of songs, and as Barry was by then arranging not only Faith's recordings but also his live Drumbeat material, the film company asked him to write the score to accompany the film. This was the beginning of Barry's own successful career in film music.

Faith's success on Drumbeat enabled him to get another recording contract with Parlophone. His next record in 1959, "What Do You Want", written by Les Vandyke and produced by Barry and John Burgess, received good reviews in both The New Musical Express and other music papers, as well as being voted a hit on Juke Box Jury. This became his first number one hit in the UK Singles Chart, and his pronunciation of the word 'baby' as 'bay-beh' became a national catch phrase.

"What Do You Want" was the first ever number one hit for Parlophone, Faith being the only pop act recording on the label at that time.

With subsequent songs like "Poor Me" (another chart topper),"Someone Else's Baby" (a UK #2) and "Don't That Beat All", he established himself as a serious rival to Cliff Richard in British popular music. With his chiselled features, blonde hair and smart appearance, his style and looks were in complete contrast to Cliff's, offering a real alternative for the teenage market.

A UK variety tour was followed by a twelve week Summer season at the Blackpool Hippodrome and an appearance on the Royal Variety Show.

His next release was a double A-side single, "Made You" / "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", Both sides made the Top Ten, despite a BBC airplay ban for "Made You", on the grounds of 'exhibiting a lewd and salacious lyric'. His 1960 novelty record "Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop"), (released to coincide with his performances in a Christmas pantomime) was also successful and gained him a silver disc.

His debut album Adam was released on 4 November 1960 to critical acclaim - as much for the inventiveness of musical director Barry's arrangements, as for Faith's own performances. The breadth of chosen material ranged from standards such as "Summertime", "Hit The Road To Dreamland" and "Singin' In The Rain" to more contemporary songs, such as Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman's "I'm A Man", Johnny Worth's "Fare Thee Well My Pretty Maid", and Howard Guyton's "Wonderful Time".

Still only 20 years old and living with his parents, he bought them a luxury house in Hampton Court for £6000, where he moved with the rest of his family from their council house in Acton. In December 1960 he became the first pop artist to be invited to appear on the prestigious TV interview series Face to Face with John Freeman.

He went on to make six further albums and thirty 5 singles, with a total of twenty-four chart entries.

Film and television

After a string of successful records, tours and TV appearances, Faith's brand of sometimes rather twee pop became less popular in the mid 1960s in the face of competition from groups like The Beatles. After a final single in 1968 he parted company with EMI and went on to develop his alternative career as an actor.

While still a musician he had appeared in several films such as Beat Girl (1961), Never Let Go, and television dramas such as Rediffusion's, No Hiding Place, but now he concentrated on acting in repertory theatre. After a number of small parts, he was given a more substantial role in Night Must Fall, playing opposite Dame Sybil Thorndike. In the autumn of 1969 he took the lead in a touring production of Billy Liar.

In the 1970s, he also went into music management, notably managing Leo Sayer among others.

He starred as the eponymous "hero" in the popular 1970s television series Budgie, about an ex-convict, but after a car accident as a result of which he almost lost a leg, his acting career suffered something of a decline. It restarted when he landed a major role as the manipulative manager of rock star David Essex, in the film Stardust. For this, he was nominated for a BAFTA award. In 1980 he co-starred with Roger Daltry in McVicar and also appeared with Jodie Foster in Foxes.

From 1992-1994, Faith appeared in another hit TV series, Love Hurts co-starring with Zoe Wanamaker, and in 2002 he also appeared in the BBC series, The House That Jack Built.

The later years

In the 1980s, Faith's interests moved from show business to finance, and he became an astute financial investments advisor. In 1986, he was hired as a financial journalist, by the Daily Mail and its sister paper the Mail on Sunday. He also had a financial involvement with television's, 'Money Channel'. But the channel proved to be an unsuccessful venture and closed down in 2001. Faith was declared bankrupt owing a reported £32 million.

He had had heart problems since 1986 when he underwent open heart surgery. He became ill after his stage performance in in the touring production of Love And Marriage at Stoke-on-Trent on the Friday evening, and died in hospital of a heart attack early on Saturday morning, March 8, 2003. An interesting side note is that the comedian Ross Noble was staying at the hotel in which Faith suffered his heart attack.

He married his wife, Jackie Irving, in 1967 and they had one daughter Katya Faith, a television producer.

At the time of his death, much of the British tabloid press revelled in reporting his apparent last words; these being a comment on British television channel, Five: "Channel 5 is all shit, isn't it? Christ, the crap they put on there. It's a waste of space". Although it is not certain that these were his actual last words, it has become a popular urban myth in recent years.

Michael Caine (born Maurice Micklewhite) said that his mother worked with Adam's mother in their early days, but because each, of course, referred to her son by his real name, they never made the connection to each other's already well-known offspring.

References

1. The Guardian Famous last words: Adam Faith joins those who did it in style 13 May 2003

External links

• All Music Guide entry
• Adam Faith site
• Adam Faith, entry in IMDB
• Obituary, The Guardian, March 10, 2003
• Obituary, The Telegraph, March 9,2003