Late-50's Crooning from a Forgotten Star...

Six Five Special Michael Holliday



Now Stretching the music genre to the 1950's, with a short-lived BBC live music show called "Six-Five Special". Promising British crooner here, Michael Holliday, sings "Love You Darlin'" accompanied by Don Lang and his Frantic Five, the resident band of the show.

The "Six-Five Special", ran from 1957-1958, a good year and a half actually. The reason for the titles, is because the show ran at 5 past six in the evening, hence the snazzy "Six-Five". Presented by radio DJ Pete Murray. This was the first programme to feature between 6pm-7pm on a Saturday evening. You know why? Because in this hour the BBC would shut down, marking the "Toddler Truce", a designated time when the parents should be tucking their small children in bed. Changed times!

The show was only suppoesed to run for six weeks, but it became very popular. However it was short-lived, because of arguments between show producer Jack Good and the BBC over what the content of the show should be, whether it would be purely live music or a magazine-type format. The most known performers on this show, were Petula Clarks, Lonnie Donegan & Cleo Laine. Their was also comedy performers on the show including Spike Milligan and Bernie Winters.

Michael Holliday was a popular British singer in the late-50's and early-60's. He had 2 UK No.1 hits, which were "The Story of My Life" and "Starry Eyed". He arguably, commited suicide from a drugs overdose, in 1963. He was believed to have suffered stage fright, and had a mental breakdown in 1961. So really, he would've probably have been more well-known if not for his tragic circumstances.