Vince Eager born 4 June 1940

Vince Eager (born Roy Taylor, 4 June 1940, Grantham, Lincolnshire, England)is an English pop singer. He was widely promoted by impresario Larry Parnes, but later quarrelled with him over his commercialising of Eddie Cochran's tragic early death. Eager has since appeared in cabaret and on the West End stage. 

As a teenager, he formed the Harmonica Vagabonds, later the Vagabonds Skiffle Group, with Roy Clark, Mick Fretwell, and bassist Brian Locking. The group reached the final round of a televised "World Skiffle Championship" in 1958, and were offered a residency at the 2 I's Coffee Bar in London. There, they were signed by impresario Larry Parnes, who took Taylor into his stable of performers, and gave him one of his characteristic stage names, Vince Eager. After touring and releasing an EP as Vince Eager & the Vagabonds, Clark and Fretwell returned home. Vince Eager and Brian Locking remained in London, Locking performing with Marty Wilde before joining the Shadows. 

Vince Eager, Gene Vincent & Eddie Cochran

During 1959, Vince Eager was a regular on BBC TV's Drumbeat, often accompanied by the John Barry Seven. In 1960 he was one of the contestants on A Song for Europe. In the semi-final, his song, "Teenage Tears", was ranked last out of six entries for nomination to the Eurovision Song Contest. Vince toured the UK with various package shows, featuring such stars as Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Marty Wilde, Jerry Lee Lewis and Billy Fury. On that fateful Easter Day in 1960 which resulted in the death of Eddie Cochran, Vince was waiting at Heathrow Airport to travel to the US with Eddie and Gene Vincent. Due to the tragic circumstances of the fatal car accident, Vince's trip to America had to be cancelled, so we will never know how successful he might have been. 

                              

Vince began to wonder why he had never received any record royalties. "You're not entitled to any," Larry Parnes told him. "But it says in my contract that I am," Eager protested. "It also says I have power of attorney over you, and I've decided you're not getting any," Parnes replied. When Vince went to a lawyer, he found the contract was watertight and the only thing he could do was refuse to work for four years until it ran out. Which, eventually, was what he did. 

In the years that followed the Parnes era, Vince was kept busy on the British and overseas cabaret circuit, theatre and pantomime. He starred in the Sir Laurence Olivier Award winning West End musical "Elvis" for five years. In 1986 he took up residency in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where, for twelve years, he became a Cruise Director on luxury American cruise ships. In 2001, Vince was joined by Big Jim Sullivan and Wee Willie Harris on a UK tour "Raised On Rock" which told the story of rock'n'roll in Great Britain using music and reminiscences. 

In October 2002, he fulfilled a lifetime's ambition by duetting on stage with his hero, Lonnie Donegan, at the Royal Concert Theatre, Nottingham. Lonnie introduced Vince as the kid who came to see him backstage at the Empire during his first week in variety. "A snotty nose kid with a ukulele in his hand." announced Lonnie. Maybe a snotty nose but no ukulele, recalled Vince, but it made for good theatre. Together, Lonnie and Vince sang "Bring A Little Water Sylvie" and "Midnight Special". A few days later, on Sunday, 3 November, 2002, Lonnie sadly passed away. 

In December 2003 Rollercoaster released "Yea! Yea! It's Vince Eager!", an album covering every aspect of Vince's career from the 1957 recording of "Money Honey" through to the 2003 recording of "No Other Baby". Now residing back in the UK, Eager's career has had something of a resurgence. 

Teaming up with producer and musician Alan Wilson, there have been new recordings some of which have featured Eager's old friends including; Marty Wilde, Albert Lee and Chas Hodges. The resulting album release, titled 788 years of Rock n Roll sold well enough for Wilson's Western Star record label to invite Eager back for another session in 2013. The latest album, Rockabilly Dinosaur was released in 2014. Eager now lives in Nottinghamshire.

In 2018, he featured on the track "Halfway to Paradise" on the newly released Billy Fury album The Symphonic Sound of Fury.

(Edited from Wikipedia & TIMS Blackcat.nl)