Rodney Bainbridge (Rod Allen), singer and guitarist: born Leicester 31 March 1944: married (one son, one daughter); died Coventry 10 January 2008.
Rod Allen's was the lead vocalist of the Sixties beat group the Fortunes, who had international hits with "You've Got Your Troubles", "Here It Comes Again" and "Freedom Come, Freedom Go". Allen never left the group, which is still touring, although since Barry Pritchard's departure in 1995 he had been the only original member in the line-up.
He was born Rodney Bainbridge in Leicester in 1944 and learned the piano and the cello at school. He and his friend Barry Pritchard joined the musicians living in
Clifton Hall, Rugby, the base of the Midlands promoter Reg Calvert, from where Calvert operated a kind of "pop academy", nurturing young talent. He encouraged
his charges to put on a good show while performing and at one time, Allen found himself playing bass for Robbie Hood and the Merry Men and being ridiculed for
wearing Lincoln-green tights. He knew then, he said, that his career could not get any worse. With Allen on bass, Pritchard on guitar, Glen Daly on guitar, David
Carr on keyboards and Alan Brown on drums, Calvert formed the Fortunes and groomed them as a close-harmony unit with a smoother sound than their Merseybeat rivals. They signed with Decca and their second single "Caroline", released in 1964, became the
theme song for the pirate station Radio Caroline North, leading to an appearance on a live album from the Cavern.
In 1965, the Fortunes broke through with "You've Got Your Troubles", a highly tuneful song written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway and helped by the counter-melody at the end. The record climbed to number two and also made the US Top 10. The Fortunes had follow-up hits with "Here It Comes Again" and "This Golden Ring" and travelled to the United States. "We went to America for a package show for Murray the K in Brooklyn," said Allen, "We had to be there at 10 in the morning and we got out at 1am, having done five shows in a day. We were on the show with Wilson Pickett, the O'Jays, Peter and Gordon, the Moody Blues and a great smooth singer that nobody ever mentions, Lenny Welch."
The group's manager, Reg Calvert, died in 1967 and for a time, the Fortunes were directionless. They made some strong singles - the psychedelic "The Idol" (1967),
"Seasons in the Sun" (1968, a cover version of a Jacques Brel song) and "Loving Cup" (1968) - but they didn't sell. They recorded a Coca-Cola ad, "It's the Real Thing", for the American market and had US success with the excellent "Here Comes that Rainy Day Feeling Again" (1971). They returned to the UK charts with an early example of reggae in the mainstream, "Freedom Come, Freedom Go" (1971) and "Storm in a Teacup" (1972).
In 1984 the Fortunes were featured on a big-selling double-album, Hooked on Number Ones. Allen adjusted to being part of an oldies act without complaint and spent his spare time on the golf course.
