Pop star to porter

"It might be 'Per-so-nal-ly', or 'Super Love' but mostly it's 'Ski-ing In The Snow', and often at the tops of their voices!" laughed the porter, Jim McClusky.

Jim has not sung any of those songs for many years but he vividly remembers when he used to sing them every night of the week -- including on Top of The Pops -- when he was the lead singer with the pop group, Wigan's Ovation.

So, pop star to hospital porter, is that hard to take?

"I am not a man for regrets," he said, "I have a wife, children and grandchildren who I all love, and I have the type of job and way of life which enables me to see them.

"Twenty odd years ago I could go weeks without seeing my children." Jim, aged 56, who still lives in the same house he and his wife bought in Deane, when they married in 1966, does have one, small regret: "I do wish I had some of the money we earned in those days. We were ripped off good style."

The great-great-great grandson of Blind Billy Lonsdale, a well-known musician in Bolton in the early 19th Century, the young Jim was a member of a group called Sparkle in the early 1970's playing all sorts of venues, Labour Clubs, nightclubs, dance hall, discos and tailored their music to suit.

At one semi-regular gig for the lads, Wigan Casino they discovered an underground music scene called Northern Soul.

"And that's where our lives changed, for ever I suppose" said Jim. "The songs were amazing, we loved it.

"From then on we used to pop into the Casino on any Saturday night that we could get there. Often in the very early hours on the way back from a gig somewhere or other. We loved the music so much that we even added some of the songs to our act. One of them was called Ski-Ing In the Snow by a group called The Invitations."

One thing led to another, the management of Wigan Casino who had become involved in record production heard Jim's version of Ski-ing In The Snow and another song which Jim had written himself called Northern Soul Dancer

"We were asked to record Ski-ing In The Snow with Northern Soul Dancer as a b-side."

The rest, as they say, is history. Ski-ing In The Snow was released and went straight into the pop charts.

As it crept slowly up the charts, week after week, life changed for Sparkle.

For a start their name did. To Wigan's Ovation. Smart uniforms arrived and the group began a stint of visits to Top Of The Pops that lasted through three more hits.

"Oh we were stars!" laughed Jim, "for a bunch of young men in our 20s it was all very pleasant thank you very much and, of course, the cash was clocking up. The way it was done, we were told, was that we got paid out every six months.

"I was planning the car, and the bungalow for my mum," said Jim.

At this point in our conversation, the atmosphere changes. Jim is unsure about how to proceed with his story.

"Because of something unconnected with the band our manager, Mike Walker, a very good friend and a really nice man, killed himself.

"Mike did everything for us and, as well as losing a really good friend the end result of his death is that we never got any of the money that our three hit records must have earned.

"It was the end of the line for us," said Jim, "We split very soon after that and I had a minor solo hit, under the name of Jim McClusky and the Romantics."

"It is amazing to think back and see that this all happened, from our first release, 13 appearances on Top of The Pops. Mike's death and the end of Wigan's Ovation all took place in just 18 months. Life just went at a faster pace then."

Jim carried on gigging for another ten years, until 1985. "Then I realised that enough was enough. I'd had my 15 minutes -- OK 18 months -- of fame and it wasn't coming back," he said. "I decided to look for a real job, back in the real world. I think one of the lowest points in my life was when I went to try to draw the dole. As I walked in the door some of the staff at the job centre started singing Ski-ing In The Snow. No doubt they did not mean ill by it, but that was about the cruelest thing anyone has ever done to me."

Eventually, Jim did "join the real world" with his porter job.

"It's a great job, I meet some very nice people," added Jim.

Then, just before Christmas, Jim had a phone call from the BBC.

"They wanted me to appear on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. I enjoyed it, and have been recognised in the street, and in the hospital, all over again."

And there the story ends, from mechanic to pop star to hospital porter with no regrets... Or does it? Back to Jim: "After the Buzzcocks appearance our old bass player got back in touch with me by e-mail. We've talked about getting back together again for a charity gig."