Rod Allen (The Fortunes) - 31st March 1944 - 10th January 2008

Here is another of my archive interviews with celebrities to mark their birthdays. March 31st would've been the birthday of Rod Allen from sixties/seventies band The Fortunes. He was born in Leicester, where his parents were shopkeepers. The Fortunes first came to prominence in 1965, when "You've Got Your Troubles" broke into the US and UK Top 10s. Afterwards, they had a succession of hits including "Here It Comes Again" and "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again"; continuing into the 1970s with more globally successful releases such as "Storm in a Teacup" and "Freedom Come, Freedom Go". In this excerpt he begins by talking about how his interest in popular music was fired by skiffle, in particular by the voice and guitar of Lonnie Donegan, whose fan club he joined at the age of 12.