Vince Hill
(1934-2023)
The popular
British singer Vince Hill passed
away in July aged 89. His career
spanned almost fifty years and
embraced concert halls, cabaret,
television and radio and straight
acting. He was a prolific
recording artist and is said to
have spent more time at Abbey
Road recording studios than The
Beatles.
After working
variously as a coal miner, baker
and lorry driver he decided to
become a professional singer. He
was briefly a member of The
Raindrops vocal group but was
persuaded to go solo by his wife
Sophie, who worked for Cliff
Richard's agent Tito Burns and
whom he had married in 1959. He
released his first single, The
Rivers Run Dry, on the
Piccadilly label in 1962. He had
a minor hit the following year
with A Day At The Seaside
which was one of the shortlisted
UK entries for the 1963
Eurovision Song Contest (it was
beaten by Ronnie Carroll's Say
Wonderful Things). In 1965
he was signed by EMI Records and
scored success with Take Me
To Your Heart Again (an
English language version of La
Vie En Rose), Roses Of
Picardy and Look Around
(And You’ll Find Me There).
In 1967 came his biggest chart
hit, Edelweiss from
Rodgers & Hammerstein's The
Sound Of Music (Tim Rice was
the coffee boy for this
particular recording session!).
It was on the strength of this
million seller that he topped the
bill at the London Palladium and
Talk Of The Town and toured Down
Under to Australia and New
Zealand. He also worked on cruise
ships and in summer season shows,
and made frequent guest
appearances on TV programmes such
as The Good Old Days and
Blankety Blank. In 1983
he controversially recorded the
Conservative Party’s
manifesto song It’s
Maggie (Thatcher) For Me.
In the late 1980s
Vince was the guest singer on an
edition of Radio 2's David Jacobs
Lunchtime Show devoted to the
music of Rodgers &
Hammerstein…. he was
accompanied by the Stephen Hill
Singers and the BBC Radio
Orchestra conducted by Stanley
Black. The producer was Yours
Truly and I still have a copy of
the tape. The following year he
played the role of Ivor Novello
in the stage musical My
Dearest Dear and followed
that up with his own musical
entitled Zodiac.
In 2004 Vince was
diagnosed with prostate cancer
and although this was
successfully treated it returned
in due course. Tragedy struck in
January 2014 when his and his
wife's Sophie's only son Athol
died of a drug overdose at the
age of 42, leaving behind two
children. Just two years later
Sophie passed away from pulmonary
thrombosis.
In September 2018
he appeared in what was described
as his final farewell show at the
Kenton Theatre in
Henley-on-Thames, donating the
proceeds to the Macular Society,
of which he had become a Patron.
He suffered a stroke in 2021.
Vince’s
autobiography Another Hill To
Climb was published in 2010.
For further information,
including extensive clips from
television appearances alongside
Cilla Black and others, do visit
the website www.vincehill.co.uk
© Anthony Wills
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