20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011)
Early life
Kirby was born in Ilford, Essex.[2] She was the eldest of three children of Irish parents.[5] Her mother Eileen brought them up alone after their father left early in their childhood.[5] Kirby grew up in Tomswood Hill, Barkingside, near Ilford and attended the Ursuline Convent School in Ilford where she sang in the choir.[6]Career
Kirby's voice became apparent early in life, and she took singing lessons with a view to becoming an opera singer[7] She became a professional singer after meeting bandleader Bert Ambrose at the Ilford Palais in 1956. She remained with Ambrose's band for three years and he remained her manager, mentor and lover until his death on stage in Leeds in 1971.[3]She adopted the look of a "blonde bombshell", and was compared to Marilyn Monroe. She had five Top 40 hits between 1963 and 1965, the best known of which is her cover version of "Secret Love". In 1963 she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express poll.
Kirby became one of the biggest stars of the early to mid 1960s, appearing in the Royal Command Variety Performance and three television series for BBC TV. She represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965, and came second with the song "I Belong". Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor describes Kirby's "I Belong" as being far more representative of current musical tastes than other songs from the contest,[8] but she was beaten by France Gall from Luxembourg, singing an even more contemporary song written by Serge Gainsbourg. She also sang the theme tune of the BBC television series Adam Adamant Lives!.
After the chart success of "I Belong", Kirby recorded more than a dozen more singles between 1965 and 1967, but they all failed to chart.[9] She continued to make television appearances, and her 1974 appearance on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club TV variety show is available to watch on YouTube.[10]
During the 1970s Kirby's singing career was eclipsed by a turbulent personal life, but she made occasional television appearances and performed a few live concerts on the "nostalgia circuit". On 31 December 1976, she performed her hit song "Secret Love" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee.
In December 1983 she gave one last concert in Blackpool, then retired from show business altogether.[11]
Post-retirement
She did not perform in public after her retirement, but an amateur recording of Kirby singing the song "He", made about 2005, is available online[12].Interest in Kirby and her work continued long after she stopped performing[13] particularly among gay men, for whom she was something of an icon.[14] In her last decade, she recorded short greetings for her official website,[15] and a 2005 biography was adapted into a 2008 stage show about her life, called Secret Love.
The Daily Express reported in 2008 that plans for a new filmed interview had been abandoned,[16] but later reports confirmed that the interview had been filmed, and it was subsequently included on a DVD compilation released the following year. She also gave an interview to the Express in 2009, billed as her first in 26 years, although a previous one had been published in 2006[citation needed] , which included recent photographs.[17]
Following the 2009 interview, the Sunday Express reported that some previously unreleased recordings would be made available on CD in 2010, and that Kirby had been approached to appear on Desert Island Discs.,[18] although neither the programme nor the CD has appeared.
Personal life
Kirby met Ambrose in her teens and, despite the 42-year age gap and him having an estranged wife at the time,[5] began a relationship with him which lasted until his death in 1971.[19] In the 2009 interview, she said she had had an affair with Bruce Forsyth during this time.[19]Kirby was married briefly to writer and former London policeman Frederick Pye in the 1970s.[2][3] Following her bankruptcy in 1975, and a court case following an arrest over an unpaid hotel bill, she was referred to St Luke's psychiatric hospital in London in 1979.[11] Following her discharge, she had a live-in[11] lesbian relationship with a fan, Laraine McKay, and said that they intended to marry. McKay was imprisoned for fraud and forgery.[19][20] In the early 1980s, Kirby had relationships with musician David Cross[21] and lawyer Alan Porter.[22][23].
Kirby was diagnosed with schizophrenia[19] and was in poor physical and mental health for much of her life. Following her retirement, she lived in a series of apartments and hotels in West London, settling in an apartment in Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, surviving on state benefits and some royalties, many of which went missing,[16][24] and maintaining what has been called a "Garbo-esque" seclusion. Very shortly before her death, Kirby moved to Brinsworth House in Twickenham.
One of Kirby's nieces, Sarah, is married to Mark Thatcher and another, Claudia, became Lady Rothermere after marrying Viscount Rothermere.[25]
Death
Kirby moved to Brinsworth House, a retirement home for entertainers, in May 2011, and died there a few days later on 19 May 2011. According to a message from a relative posted on a fan webiste, Kirby suffered a heart attack[26], but this has not been officially confirmed.She is survived by her sister, Pat, and her brother, Douglas.[5]
Hits
Year | Title | Chart positions | ||||||||
1963 | "Dance On" | 11 | ||||||||
4 | ||||||||||
1964 | 10 | |||||||||
"You're The One" | 17 | |||||||||
1965 | "I Belong" | 36 | ||||||||
Note: Kirby had one charted single on the US Billboard Hot 100. "The Way Of Love" peaked at #88 in 1965; Cher also recorded the track.[28]
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