P J Proby
 Texan
vocalist P.J Proby (born James Marcus Smith) became an overnight
sensation in Britain when Jack Good brought him and his pudding-bowl
haircut over in 1963 to appear
on a TV special. His specialties were re-vamped old show tunes like Hold
Me and mutilations of screen hits like Somewhere and Maria
(both from West Side Story).
By the mid 60s, Proby's stage outfits were reaching Tom
Jones levels of tightly fitting suggestiveness. Then, during a
show on January 29 1965 at Croydon's Castle Hall - opening for Cilla
Black - the singer's velvet trousers split from knee to crotch.
The (mainly female) audience went crazy with Proby telling the
suspicious press it was all an unfortunate accident.
When it happened again on January 31 at Luton's Ritz
Cinema, credulity was stretched and the tabloids smelled a rat. The
next day Proby was banned by the ABC Theatre group. The next week, ATV
did the same, with the BBC soon following. Proby was now unable to
perform anywhere in the UK.
A single, titled I Apologise, was rush-released
to capitalize on the publicity, and despite the lack of airplay,
reached Number 11 in the UK charts. Proby subsequently succumbed to
tax problems, bankruptcy, alcoholism and - inevitably - a spell as a
poverty-stricken stable-hand near Haworth, West Yorkshire.
In 1987, after hooking up with Mancunian label Savoy
Records, he was involved in further shame after recording a fake Madonna
duet called Hardcore which, The Star claimed,
"glorifies sex with young girls". The track opened with the
jaw-dropping line: "There aint no such thing as rape/When you're
wearing a Superman cape".
He resurfaced in 1997 with the single Yesterday Has
Gone, a collaboration with Marc Almond, followed by a solo album, Legend.
In the same year, Blur's Country Sad Ballad Man detailed
his earlier lifestyle of reclusive dissolution.
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