in awobopaloopabopbamboom aka pop from the beginning, nik cohn writes so excitingly about pj proby's as ultracharismatic superpopstar, singer and performer, that it was a shock to find out what a shlockmiester he was







but then much later on, after the US-born but big-in-UK star's career had crashed (for a while he lived in northcurch, which is half-a-mile up the road from berkhamstead where i grew up, but i never knew that at the time), Proby was adopted in the late Eighties by this deviant/transgressive-specialising label/publisher Savoy out of Manchester and embroiled in a series of bizarre records











as i recall these releases had their supporters among my colleagues at melody maker, the same sorts as were fans of el records

anyway he's 73 now and living in Doncaster and just been cleared of benefit fraud, so i read in the paper -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/16/pj-proby-benefit-case-dropped

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/16/pj-proby-benefit-case-dropped