Adam Faith

Terence Nelhams Wright (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), known professionally as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. As a British rock and roll teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK singles chart with "What Do You Want?" and "Poor Me" (1960). He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the top 5, and was ultimately one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. Acton, Middlesex (now included in London), England, son of coach driver Alfred Richard Nelhams and cleaner Ellen May (née Burridge), formerly wife of Cecil G. Wright, from whom she was separated, but not divorced. Unmarried at the births of all their children, his parents were married in 1953.

Known as Terry Nelhams, he was unaware his name was Terence Nelhams Wright until he applied for a passport and obtained his birth certificate. The third in a family of five children, Nelhams grew up in a council house in a working class area of London, where he attended John Perryn Junior School.

Music career

Faith began his musical career in 1957, while working as a film cutter in London in the hope of becoming an actor, singing with and managing a skiffle group, the Worried Men.

His debut record "(Got a) Heartsick Feeling" and "Brother Heartache and Sister Tears", in January 1958, failed to make the charts. The producer, Stewart Morris, gave him a contract for three shows, extended to the full 22-week run. His contract with His Master's Voice had ended, and he sang one track, "I Vibrate", on a six-track EP released by the Fontana record label. Barry's manager, Eve Taylor, got him a contract with Top Rank, but his only record there, "Ah, Poor Little Baby"/"Runk Bunk" and his pronunciation of the word 'baby' as 'bay-beh' became a catchphrase.

"What Do You Want?" stayed in the charts for 19 weeks, Faith made six further albums and 35 singles, with a total of 24 chart entries,

During the 1970s, Faith went into music management, managing Leo Sayer among others. Faith negotiated an advance for his own comeback album with Warner Bros. Records, using half of it to record the album I Survive (which failed to chart) and the other half to finance Sayer. Faith and his former drummer David Courtney co-produced Sayer's initial hits "The Show Must Go On" and "One Man Band". and television dramas such as the Rediffusion/ITV series No Hiding Place. In 1961, Faith starred in What a Whopper, supported by Sid James, Spike Milligan, Wilfrid Brambell, Carole Lesley and others well known at the time. A comedy about a writer staging a fake sighting of the Loch Ness Monster, it was written by Terry Nation, and had music by John Barry; Faith sang the title song and "The Time Has Come". He also made a last-minute guest appearance in What a Carve Up! (1961) with Sid James and Kenneth Connor.

In 1962, Faith co-starred opposite Donald Sinden and Anne Baxter in the film Mix Me a Person, playing a working-class youth falsely accused of murder. The thriller was rated X-certificate (the modern equivalent would be a UK 18-certificate) by the British Board of Film Censors. Following Faith's 1968 departure from his record label EMI, he concentrated on acting, particularly repertory theatre. After a number of small parts, he was given a more substantial role in the play Night Must Fall, playing opposite Dame Sybil Thorndike. In autumn 1969, he took the lead in a touring production of Billy Liar. Faith starred as the eponymous hero in the early 1970s television series Budgie (LWT/ITV), about an ex-convict.

In 1980, he starred with Roger Daltrey in McVicar, In 1986, he was hired as a financial journalist by the Daily Mail and its sister paper The Mail on Sunday. Faith and business partner, Paul Killik, were the principal investors behind failed UK television station Money Channel. When the channel closed in June 2002, Faith was declared bankrupt, owing a reported £32 million. English film director and producer Michael Winner stated that Faith was his investment adviser, leading to significant losses on two different investments. Faith specifically blamed the bankruptcy on the collapse of the Money Channel, "to which I devoted some seven years of my life ... as a result of its demise my personal financial circumstances became severely affected".

Death Faith had heart surgery in 1986. On 7 March 2003, he became ill after his evening stage performance in the touring production of Love and Marriage at Stoke-on-Trent. Faith died, aged 62, of a heart attack early the next morning, 8 March 2003, at North Staffordshire Hospital in Hartshill. His last words have since become famous and are often quoted: "Channel 5 is all shit, isn't it? Christ, the crap they put on there. It's a waste of space". It was reported after his death that the married star's 22-year-old mistress had been in his hotel room the night he was taken ill.

Discography

Adam (1960) Adam Faith (1962) From Adam with Love (1963) For You (1963) On the Move (1964) I Survive (1974) Midnight Postcards (1993)

Filmography Film

Television