Obituary: Joe Longthorne, British singer and musical impressionist
Joe Longthorne’s mother worked in a fish factory by day, but sang in bars at night, while his father played piano. “It’s just in me, in my genes,” Longthorne wrote in his autobiography. He claimed he could sing before he could walk.
At four he won a local talent show, by his mid-teens he was a regular on ITV’s Junior Showtime variety show and in the late 1980s and early 1990s he had his own television show.
He was sufficiently big for the Daily Star to splash news of his death over their front page. “TV legend Joe dead aged 64,” said a headline that took up most of the page. And yet, strangely or not, many people devouring show after show at the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe had never even heard of him. I know because I asked them.
He was entertainment rather than art, ITV rather than BBC, tabloid rather than broadsheet.
Longthorne was an old-style singer and musical impressionist who could sing in the style of Sinatra, Bassey and Tom Jones, whose reputation was built up in working men’s clubs and who loved the faded showbiz razzmatazz of Blackpool, which latterly he made his home.
He had his share of tabloid headlines over the years, including the illegitimate son he had with a shop girl in his teens – “I became thieving junkie after star dad Joe snubbed me” – and on the other hand there were revelations of a “secret life” as a “closet gay”.
Longthorne was actually with the same partner for the last 20 years and they married last December when he feared he did not have long to live.
Cancer was first diagnosed about 30 years ago at the height of his career, but he kept going, with an exhausting schedule of international tour dates. He had fixed up dates for later this year that he would never fulfil.
Longthorne reportedly sold 10 million records. He was a legend for one section of society and yet remained unknown to another, a reminder of a bygone age before the internet changed the world.
His parents both came from travelling families. His father, Fred, was Romany, a “general dealer” and metal worker. His mother, Teresa, was from Irish travelling stock. She had nine children, but only four survived childhood.
By the time Joseph Patrick Daniel Longthorne was born in 1955 they were living in the Hessle Road area of Hull, where many travelling families had settled.
Longthorne went on his father’s rounds with his horse and cart. Although money was tight, his official website talks of “a very warm, safe upbringing”.
His mother encouraged him to sing and do impressions, beginning with Al Jolson and, unsurprisingly, Steptoe and Son. He sang in pubs and old people’s homes and even recalled standing on top of coffins singing at funerals.
He learned to play piano long before he learned to read or write. He passed an audition for Junior Showtime, singing I Believe and playing the spoons, even though he could not read the scripts. Only later did he learn he was dyslexic.
After Junior Showtime he built an adult following on the club circuit, with his father serving as manager. His career received a further boost when he reached the final of the ITV talent show Search for a Star in 1981.
Other television appearances followed, he won a Variety Club award as most promising artiste in 1983, he was a regular on The Les Dennis Laughter Show, he appeared on the Royal Variety Show in 1989 on a bill that included Tina Turner, Janet Jackson and David Essex and starred in The Joe Longthorne Show on ITV in the years 1988 to 1991.
“I felt invincible,” he said, “and suddenly, out of the blue, I felt helpless.” He was diagnosed with lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. “I had two choices, to give in or fight. I chose the latter. I got up, dusted myself off and got on with life.”
After responding to treatment he went on to play concerts all over the world, including the Royal Albert Hall, London Palladium, Sydney Opera House and several appearances at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow. He featured on This is Your Life in 1994.
But at much the same time financial problems left him on the point of bankruptcy, with more than £1 million of debt. He had bought a mansion, Rolls Royces and Bentleys and had a touring entourage of 60 people, so although a lot of money was coming in, it was going out even quicker.
Longthorne was drinking heavily and taking drugs. He suffered depression, a nervous breakdown and an overdose. In 2005 he was diagnosed with leukaemia and had a bone marrow transplant. He contracted pneumonia, was put on a ventilator and was given the last rites.
He was made an MBE in 2012 for services to charity. Latterly he lived in Blackpool, with his husband James Moran, his cats and free-range chickens. Last year he undertook an extensive national tour to celebrate half a century in showbusiness, beginning with a date at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh.
After the show at Glasgow’s Pavilion one fan posted on the theatre’s website: “My daughter bought me tickets for my birthday – listened to Joe’s music since my twenties, I am now 66, never saw him live before. He was amazing.”
Longthorne died at home in Blackpool in the arms of his husband, who was also his manager. He is also survived by his son Ricky Moore, though they were not in regular contact. His funeral was on Monday in Hull. The press reported that the streets were lined with onlookers who cried, cheered and sang as the horse-drawn coffin went by.
Brian Pendreigh