Glen Mason born 16 September 1930

Glen Mason (16 September 1930 – 25 August 2014) was a Scottish-born singer of popular music.

Glen Mason was born Tom Lennon in Stirling, Scotland, UK, on 16 September 1930.

After three years in the mines, Mason spent eleven months at the Forth Vale Rubber Works, six months in the Army and fifteen months with a dry-cleaning firm. He appeared on the stage for the first time in a local amateur revue, "The Shipmates", singing "You Made Me Love You".

In the spring of 1951, he was offered his first professional engagement, with a three-month summer show at St. Andrews. After that, Glen had several appearances at Scottish theatres and in 1952 sang in another summer show at Montrose, also doing Sunday-night concerts in Arbroath. He headed next to London where, after some months, got a job in cabaret and sang for two weeks at the Churchill Club.

Norman Newell, manager for the Philips recording company noticed Mason and after an audition recorded Mason's first two tracks, "The Whistling Kettle and the Dancing Cat" and "Dixieland Tango". Mason introduced him to producer George Martin, and Martin made the Scottish singer "sound American" in his versions of U.S. hits "Glendora" and "Green Door".

 

                              

They were amply advertised ("Glendora" was described as a record that "really rocks) but, competing with the Perry Como and Jim Lowe originals, they failed to chart, with "Green Door" peaking at #24. Mason also enjoyed success in the UK with his single "Shadrack" in 1961.

About this time Glen shared a flat with fellow entertainer Ronnie Carroll, and they pretended they had a long-running feud. Glen  came third in a national competition to represent the United Kingdom in Eurovision in 1959. Mason later appeared many times on radio and TV, in shows such as Mid-day Music Hall and Variety Parade. In 1960, he appeared, along with Jack Jackson and Jackson's son Malcolm, in the Michael Winner-directed musical-variety film Climb Up The Wall and worked with Winner again in his 1962 films Behave Yourself and The Cool Mikado.

The last time Glen was seen on TV was interviewing the many faces of Dick Emery on "Christmas Night With The Stars" in 1964. He later recorded 4 sides for Polydor records during 67/68 and one record for EMI  as part of  The Caddies with Henry Cooper, Tony Dalli, Bruce Forsyth, Kenny Lynch, Ed Stewart, and Jimmy Tarbuck in 1976. After which his trail goes cold until 2010 when a double CD was released of all of Glen’s recorded material. Many of Glen’s celebrity friends and family attended the CD launch party, including Kenny Lynch.

 

Mason in old age stayed in the Southborough Nursing Home, Surrey, where he was often entertained by young musicians whose repertoire included Mason songs. He died from natural causes on 25 August 2014.   (Compiled mainly from Wikipedia)