Eric

You won't know Eric but there was a time when he was, well, "known" for a while. Saw him today on the bus going into Cardiff. Looked a lot older than when he used to go to the local pub quite a few years ago. Older but not frail; a bit bandy now and a bit wobbly perhaps. Knew who he was straight away but I don't think he remembers me.
Claim to fame? He used to be a singing partner to Shirley Bassey in one of the clubs she sang at in Tiger Bay, Cardiff - where policemen went in two's at least. Pretty rough area then. Not now: it's been transformed into The Cardiff Bay with a great body of water like a large lake held back from the sea by a sort of lock so that ships can enter and leave at various times of day. Boats on the lake and, surrounding it, cafes and restaraunts, all good ones, some classy, some quite cheap but not "cheapy" or "greasy spoon". A few clubs there still but none, I believe, like the one/s Miss Bassey used to sing in.
She was good then and I suppose she got better. According to Mark Steyn, who writes a daily blog which covers politics and show business, she was the best singer of the James Bond films' opening songs. She did more than one I believe.
I nearly got to interview her once a long time ago but her agent (or somebody in charge) said no.
I should have tried earlier in her career when she was singing in that club in Cardiff. With Eric
Saw him later in the day in Cardiff; he was with a very attractive woman not as old as him, who is eighhtyish; she was about fifty eight I guess. No wonder he was wearing his best jacket. Maybe, later on, he'd serenade her with some of the old Perry Como numbers he was so fond of.