Conleth (Con) Cluskey (18 November 1935 – 8 April 2022) was co-founder and lead singer of The Bachelors.Over the course of their lengthy career, the band released more than 70 albums, appeared in two films and performed in venues all over the world andsold more than 20 million records.
Declan, John & Conleth
The son of a railway fitter and turner, Conleth Joseph Cluskey was born at Inchicore, a suburb of Dublin, and educated at O’Connell School and Bolton Street technical college, where he studied mechanical engineering. He started work as a heating engineer.As children he and his younger brother Declan (born 23 December 1941) had played the harmonica, joining John Stokes (born 13 August 1936) to form an instrumental group called the Harmonichords in 1957. Persuaded to add vocals to their act, two years later they played Danny Boy, recorded in Dublin, for The Ed Sullivan Show’s St Patrick’s Day television special, and on Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks on Radio Luxembourg. They also featured in Eamonn Andrews’s comedy series Odd Noises on Radio Éireann.
In 1960, they changed their name to the Bachelors at the suggestion of Dick Rowe, A&R at Decca Records, who reportedly recommended the name "because that's the kind of boy a girl likes". The Bachelors became a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland, but primarily based in the United Kingdom. They had several international hits during the 1960s, including eight top-ten singles in the UK between 1963 and 1966. The founding members of the group were Conleth (Con) Cluskey, his younger brother Declan (Dec) Cluskey, and their friend John Stokes (Sean James Stokes) They formed their first band together in 1957: "The Harmonichords" (also seen as "The Harmony Chords"), a classically styled instrumental harmonica-act.
During the 1960s, they had many successful songs in music charts in Europe, Australia, South Africa, South America, parts of the USSR, and the United States. Some of the most successful were "Charmaine" (1963); "Diane", "I Believe" (1964), "Ramona" and "I Wouldn't Trade You for the World" (1964); "Marie" (written by Irving Berlin) and "In the Chapel in the Moonlight" (1965).
The Bachelors with Cilla Black
They also racked up hit albums and made guest appearances on all the then-current TV shows, and appeared in two Royal Variety TV shows. In 1963, they starred in It's All Over Town with Frankie Vaughan and The Springfields. The following year they appeared on the TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium, then hosted by Bruce Forsyth: this episode, according to Paul Gambaccini, achieved the largest viewing audience ever for this very popular show.
The Bachelors appeared in a film in 1964 called Just for You (known as "Disk-o-Tek Holiday in the USA), with DJ Sam Costa. In 1965 they made I've Gotta Horse with Billy Fury. In 1965 they had the 'most played juke box track' with "The Stars Will Remember", from the film "It's all over town". Their last big hit in the UK was a cover of the Paul Simon song "The Sound of Silence" which reached No. 3 in April 1966. Live work carried them into the 1970s with record-breaking theatre season shows. After a successful end to the 1960s with the album World of the Bachelors hitting the top 10 in 1968, the band became less and less dominant in the changing music industry. The group began 1970 by appearing on the BBC's highly rated review of the 1960s' music scene Pop Go The Sixties performing "Charmaine" and "Diane" live on the show, which was broadcast on BBC1 on 1 January 1970.
They remained successful recording artists and moved to the Philips label, which contracted easy listening stars such as Val Doonican and The New Seekers. They continued to play the cabaret circuit, still maintaining the original line-up until 1984, when there was "a messy split" between the Cluskey brothers and Stokes. Stokes was asked to leave the group and responded by taking legal action against the brothers and their company, Bachelors Ltd. The Cluskeys did not pull their punches, telling the court that Stokes sang “like a drowning rat” (the comedian Eric Morecambe considered the headline the funniest he had ever seen) and that his voice had been overdubbed on some of their records without his knowledge.
Stokes responded by saying his voice was perfect. After Stokes received compensation, Peter Phipps replaced him as the new Bachelor, remaining until 1993, when the Cluskey brothers became a duo. Following the split, the Cluskey brothers appeared as "The New Bachelors" and Stokes as "Stokes & Coe"; Stokes allegedly also then appeared as "The New Bachelors" and the Cluskeys performed as "Con & Dec, The Bachelors. Unassuming and softly-spoken,Con Cluskey lived in a 15th century “gentry” house at Elland near Halifax, ranked one of the most important vernacular buildings of West Yorkshire, and where he became active at his local Catholic church and president of the local Rotary club. In 2009 he needed emergency surgery on a torn artery in his leg.
In December 2016, Con and Dec (performing as The Bachelors) appeared in Channel 4's Skeg Vegas, a one-off documentary following Skegness' Number One Entertainment Agent Noel Gee.They continued to tour throughout the intervening years until the first lockdown in 2020, playing to packed houses of fans who stayed loyal over the decades.
Con
Cluskey died at Calderdale Royal
Hospital after complications from coronavirus, on 8 April 2022, aged 86. He had
been living in Elland, West Yorkshire, since 1970 with his wife Kay (who died
in 2017). His brother Dec is now a successful after dinner speaker and a member
of “Toastmasters International,' the largest Speaking Organisation in the
world. He also runs his award winning worldwide Guild : 'The Serious Writers
Guild.'
(Edited
from Wikipedia & The Telegraph)