Johnny Wakelin

His life

Johnny Wakelin! born & bred in Brighton, East Sussex. The son of Ray & Edna Wakelin, eldest of 3 three brothers, Bob & Barry, he also has an elder sister Marion.

Johnny left school at fifteen having excelled in athletics & soccer, unfortunately at sixteen a serious motorcycle accident left him with some serious leg injuries which finished any career in sport. Three & a half years of hospitalization followed where Johnny developed his talent for singing by entertaining the patients at the annual Christmas parties. Johnny is now divorced with 3 adult children & a grand daughter who are very much part of his life.

His career

Johnny started singing in Nightclubs, Country clubs & Social clubs in the Sussex area during the sixties. The lead singer & compere with the resident bands, rubbing shoulders with the celebrities that he introduced each night and wanting to be on the same level.

Johnny took his influences from an extremely broad range of artists from the time including Mark Bolan, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Barry White, The Rolling Stones as well as the early recordings of Elvis Presley, The Rat Pack & even Aretha Franklin!

The chance came when one of the many songs he had written was snapped up by PYE records and became a world wide hit. This song entitled "Black Superman" (Muhummad Ali) was a dedication to the great man, who took pride in promoting the song himself.

Guided by radio DJ Paul Hollingdale who introduced him to Ali, Johnny completed his first album entitled "Reggae, Soul and Rock 'n' Roll". From this album came another hit that has become a classic, the very memorable "In Zaire". more albums followed giving Johnny numerous hits in Europe, the USA & Australia throughout the seventies.

Johnny has toured every country in Europe as well as all over Australia & the USA, he has also appeared on countless TV shows around the world including "Top of the Pops" (6 times), Never Mind the Buzzcocks, The Paul Hogan show, The Barry Humphries show & the Portuguese Lottery show. Johnny also regularly still performs on the popular nostalgic broadcasts live throughout Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia & Spain.

A complete tour of Europe as the "guest singer" with the James Last Orchestra was a fabulous experience for Johnny as were his gigs in Las Vegas in 2003

What now?

Johnny is currently in the recording studio putting down the final tracks to his new album "No Deeper Love Than This" which is due out some time in 2006, he has also recently recorded updated versions of "In Zaire" and "Black Superman" both of which are available to download.

Johnny is a prolific lyricist, always looking for a great tune. He's also available for collaboration work. If you have a tune then maybe Johnny's your man!