The London Times
JOSEF LOCKE's resonant tenor and charismatic
personality ensured him a place at the top of the British
entertainment world of the 1940s and 1950s. A Falstaffian
figure who was no stranger to the law courts, he returned to
the limelight late in life when his exploits formed the basis of
the acclaimed feature film Hear My Song. Still in good voice,
Locke sang before the Princess of Wales at the premiere in
1992, and had the satisfaction of seeing his music
rediscovered by a new generation.
Locke's real name was Joseph McLaughlin. He is said to
have been rechristened by the bandleader turned theatrical
producer Jack Hylton, who found that his charge's original
name was too long to be squeezed on to a bill at the Victoria
Palace. The son of a butcher and cattle dealer, Locke sang
in local churches as a boy. He saw service in the Irish
Guards before joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
His voice had already attracted attention by this stage. As
he toured the local clubs, he acquired the nickname "The
Singing Bobby". He soon set his sights on the mainland, and
embarked on the first of many seasons in Blackpool. He
moved to London in 1944. Taken under the wing of Lew and
Leslie Grade, he built up a radio career and made his
recording debut in 1947, building up a substantial following
with songs such as Rose of Tralee and Hear My Song,
Violetta. The latter was to become his signature tune.
By the early 1950s Locke's commercial successes and his
penchant for operetta had turned him into a ruggedly
sentimental successor to his compatriot John McCormack.
As well as guest performances in television shows including
Top of the Town and Rooftop Rendezvous, he made movie
appearances for the low-budget studio Mancunian, singing
in films such as Holidays with Pay and It's a Wonderful Life
(no relation to the Frank Capra classic).
Josef Locke regularly starred in Royal Command
Performances. He himself commanded impressive fees of
up to £2,000 a night, until his growing problems with the
Inland Revenue came close to derailing his career
altogether. His troubles came to a head in 1958. Owing an
estimated £17,000 and facing possible tax evasion charges,
Locke chose to leave Britain and settle in the Irish Republic.
It took him nearly a decade to discharge his debt.
He later returned to Britain, but by the beginning of the
1970s had settled into retirement in Co Kildare with his
young wife. Along the way, Locke's unconventional lifestyle
produced more than its share of tabloid headlines. In his
heyday he appeared to live the life of a prototypical rock 'n'
roller. A former housekeeper successfully brought a paternity
suit against him in 1957, and Locke was later ordered to pay
for the upkeep of three other children. The rumbustious
entertainer was apparently no stranger to the local police in
Ireland, although in his old age he was said to be content to
while away his afternoon with a pint of stout and a
crossword puzzle.
Peter Chelsom's film Hear My Song was inspired by one of
the more bizarre episodes in Locke's life, when the singer
had found himself being impersonated on television by a so-
called "Mr X". The copycat performer, said to be a former
Christmas-tree salesman, had been taken up by Hughie
Green, the barnstorming host of the TV talent show
Opportunity Knocks, during Locke's enforced absence in
Ireland. Viewers were teased as to whether or not the
impersonator was the genuine article, and he went on to
make a successful living from his new role.
Female fans crowded to see him at stage doors,
unconvinced by his assurances that he was not in fact the
star. Police and tax officials had to be persuaded as well. At
one point the doppelgänger found himself being
impersonated by yet another singer. Years later the rock
singer-songwriter Richard Thompson composed a song,
Josef Locke, based on an encounter in a pub with an
inebriated singer claiming to be the performer.
Chelsom was captivated by Locke's voice after hearing
one of his tapes during a car journey. In his film a nightclub
owner who has already been bamboozled by the lookalike
travels to Ireland to persuade the real Locke (played by the
American actor Ned Beatty) to come out of retirement for
one final show.
With a supporting cast led by Shirley Anne Field and David
McCallum, Hear My Song won ecstatic reviews. Locke sang
Danny Boy at the premiere, cast an admiring eye over
Diana, Princess of Wales, and was ensnared by Michael
Aspel, presenter of the TV show This Is Your Life. Riding on
the success of the film, an EMI compilation of Locke's
vintage recordings - including You Are My Heart's Delight
and I'll Take You Home, Kathleen - gave him a place in the
record books as the oldest performer to reach the Top Ten.
He is survived by his wife Carmel and by his children.
Back to top
Irish Independent
TRIBUTES have poured in for the colourful tenor Josef
Locke, who died yesterday, aged 82.
A huge star of the 1950s and '60s, Locke passed away at a
nursing home in Clane, Co Kildare, close to where he had
lived in retirement.
The tenor once held the title of the highest paid singer
working in Britain. At the height of his fame he could book
acts such as Peter Sellers and Morecambe and Wise as his
supports.
Hugely popular with women audiences, he had hits with
Hear My Song, Goodbye and Blaze Away.
Locke was known as a friend of the late Princess Diana,
who lured him out of retirement in 1992 to sing Danny Boy
at the opening of the film he inspired, Hear My Song.
Last night actor Joe Lynch, well-known to Glenroe fans as
Dinny, recalled how he met Locke in 1942 while they were
both in pantomime in Cork.
``He was a wild man,'' he said, ``An extraordinary man and
gifted with a lovely voice.
``He never took himself too seriously. He did outrageous
things, sometimes on his good friends, but you could never
stay annoyed with him.
``His attitude was `you can like me as I am or you can
lump me'.''
Derry-born songwriter Phil Coulter spoke of Locke's stage
presence, saying:
``The world is full of grey people and Joe was
multicoloured.
``I have seldom seen anyone work a crowd so well, it was
a craft he had,'' said Mr Coulter. ``Of course he had an ego,
but he deserved to have that ego he was a huge performer
and a very astute businessman.''
Irish tenor Louis Browne said of Locke: ``He had the most
beautiful voice. He didn't do what perhaps he should have
done opera.
``But he was a huge success in the variety field and was
loved by people in serious music and variety and by the
general public because he had great powers of
communication with this beautiful quality of voice.''
He was born Joseph McLaughlin in the Creggan area of
Derry. At 16, he enlisted in the Irish Guards and after the
Second World War joined the RUC.
His career started with an audition before variety star,
Jimmy O'Dea. At 6'2'' in height, wearing an overcoat to
cover his police uniform, Locke managed to succeed in the
Belfast audition. Present then was Maureen Potter who
described him then as ``magnificent''.
In 1944 he headed for London and was given a new name
at Victoria Palace. ``I was furious when I saw it up on the
posters but I was told there wasn't room for Joseph
McLaughlin,'' said Locke.
Within a couple of years he was selling a million records in
Britain alone.
Although he often sang in the Albert Hall, he is most
associated with Blackpool, where he was based for 29
years.
1958, he returned to Ireland, leaving Britain due to tax
problems.
In 1986, he underwent a major heart operation but
recovered very well. Back to top
Irish Times
Josef Locke, the Derry-born tenor, died in the early hours
of yesterday morning at the nursing home in Clane, Co
Kildare near where he lived in retirement.
Born Joseph McLaughlin in 1917, Locke will be
remembered as much for his talent as a tenor as for his
larger-than-life character and the various controversies that
dogged him throughout his career.
The Creggan boy was dubbed "The Singing Bobby" after a
stint in the RUC in Enniskillen before his entry into
showbusiness. He went on to become one of the highest-
paid entertainers of the day in Britain, though his finances
were consistently marred by tax problems, which in 1958
resulted in his exile from that country.
Speaking from the EU summit in Finland yesterday, the
Taoi seach, Mr Ahern, expressed sadness at the death. He
was approached by the Spanish delegation at the
conference because Locke's son, Mr Carl McLaughlin, is an
interpreter for the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr José Maria
Aznar. They asked if Mr Ahern could help Mr McLaughlin get
to Ireland in time for the funeral and Locke's son will be
flown back on the Government jet today. Locke got his first
break in the role of Gaylord in a performance of Showboat at
the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in 1943 and followed this with
acclaimed performances at variety venues around the
capital.
With Sir Lew Grade as his agent in Britain he commanded
fees of up to £2,000 per week and throughout the 1940s and
1950s was the brightest star on the variety circuit there. The
combination of his powerful voice, his impressive frame and
his witty one-liners proved irresistible, particularly to his
female fans who packed venues to hear his trademark
songs Blaze Away (We'll Make a Bonfire of our Troubles),
How Could You Buy Killarney and The Last Goodbye.
"It was bloody marvellous," the flamboyant performer told
Gay Byrne during the tribute programme held for him on The
Late Late Show in 1984.
Not quite so marvellous was the scrutiny of tax officials in
England which forced him to leave the country, where,
because of his 19 seasons at the seaside town, he was now
known as Mr Blackpool. On returning to England in 1967 he
is thought to have cleared much of the substantial tax bill.
His career took him around the world, but at home he
purchased a number of pubs and properties. In 1963 he was
given a four-month prison sentence for larceny which was
later successfully appealed.
With Locke confined to Ireland one man, known in the
ensuing court case as Mr X, took advantage of his absence
by styling himself Josef Locke and performing in the cabaret
clubs of Britain. His impersonation was so accurate that
police put Mr X in jail for tax evasion before discovering he
was not the real Josef Locke.
Continuing his reputation as a comeback-king, Locke
retained low-key success throughout the 1970s, but re-
emerged in 1984 after an interview with RTÉ's Mike Murphy.
When at the end of 1980s obscurity beckoned again, his
second renaissance was prompted by the release of a
movie loosely based on his life and times. Hear My Song
was released in 1992 and Locke entered the pop charts for
the first time. But Locke, by now living with wife Carmel in
Co Kildare, was reported as saying he didn't think his life
was worth a movie.
Fellow Derry man Phil Coulter said yesterday that he had
"a great respect and grudging affection" for Locke. "He was
a consummate entertainer and it would be unfair to judge
him only as a singer . . . he earned his spurs".
The removal will take place from Clane hospital tomorrow
at 6.15 p.m. to St Patrick's and St Brigid's Church, Clane,
arriving at 6.45 p.m. There will be a requiem mass at 11
a.m. on Monday, followed by a cremation at Glasnevin
crematorium in Co Dublin.
BBC online
The well known tenor Josef Locke has died after a long
illness.
Mr Locke, 82, died in hospital in Clane, Co Kildare in the
Republic of Ireland during Thursday night.
The Londonderry born singer became a household name
to a new generation when his life story was featured in the
movie Hear My Song.
The movie featured Ned Beatty in the role of Josef Locke
and also starred Tara Fitzgerald and Northern Ireland actor
Adrian Dunbar.
The Enniskillen born star also co-wrote the film about the
childhood hero who became a good friend.
Paying tribute to Josef Locke, he said he first heard about
the singer from his mother and her friends as he grew up.
"Most of the tenors at the time were Welsh and fat and five
foot two," he said.
"It was an amazing journey to come from Derry and do
what he did."
One of Adrian Dunbar's happiest memories of the singer is
an impromptu performance he gave at the premiere of Hear
My Song.
"He ended up in a very large cinema at Hyde Park Corner
singing live for Princess Diana."
Born Joseph McLaughlin on St Patrick's Day 1917 at
Creggan Terrace in Derry, he enlisted in the British Army
during the Second World War and was the youngest
sergeant to serve in the North Africa campaign.
He was a popular performer throughout the UK and in
Ireland in the 1940s and 50s.
He then fled the UK and dropped completely out of public
life because of a tax debt and made his last public
appearance in the 1970s.
Daily Telegraph
JOSEF LOCKE, the Irish tenor who has died aged 82, was
in the Fifties a hugely popular star of the music hail and
variety theatre until his career in Britain was brought to a
sudden halt by the attentions of the Inland Revenue.
Tall, dapper, roguishly moustachioed, and all of 18 stones,
Locke in his prime resembled a cross between Frans Hals's
Laughing Cavalier and a happy walrus. His act was no less
soothing than his appearance. Attired in white tie and
voluminous tails, Locke would regale his largely female
audiences with reminiscences about the colleens of the
Emerald Isle and a powerfully delivered selection of
sentimental Irish ballads.
These included tunes such as I'll Take You Home Again,
Kathleen, Rose of Tralee, Blaze Away and the song most
associated with him, Hear My Song, Violetta (its melody
largely borrowed from La Traviata). Occasionally he would
expand his repertoire to embrace excerpts from operettas
like My Heart And I, or Italian standards, notably Come Back
To Sorrento and Cara Mia.
At his peak, Locke was earning £2,000 a week, appearing
regularly on the BBC Light Programme, and in a series of
films that included Holidays With Pay (1951). He gave five
Royal Command performances, and those who toured with
him included the young Julie Andrews, the youthful Peter
Sellers and Michael Bentine, and the unknown Morecambe
and Wise. In 1949 he stood in for the great Tito Gobbi at the
Albert Hall when the maestro fell ill.
Then in 1958. at the height of his fame, Locke was
presented with a bill for unpaid surtax of £10,411. This he
declined to pay, and after he failed to attend court in
Blackpool for a public exami
nation in bankruptcy, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Locke promptly fled the jurisdiction to Dublin, where he
protested loudly that he had paid the Inland Revenue
£118,000 since 1950. Moreover, he said, if no deal was
struck over the arrears, he would never sing in Britain again.
The Inland Revenue were not to be swayed by such
threats. Locke duly kept his word, and the only person to
profit from his absence was one Erik Eliefson, a Locke look-
alike who established a lucrative career by impersonating
the Irishman under the sobriquet "Mr X". It was to be 35
years before the real Locke felt it safe to visit England again.
He was born Joseph McLaughlin in Londonderry on March
23 1917. He was
one of 10 children of Catholic parents; his father was a
butcher, cattle dealer and part-time smuggler. "We all took
turns to make the sausages," was how Locke recalled his
childhood, "and we could all sing."
Joseph began giving concerts in churches at the age of
nine, but at 16 added two years on to his age to join the Irish
Guards. He later served in the Palestine Police before
returning to Northern Ireland in 1938 to enter the Royal
Ulster Constabulary. He resumed his singing career and by
the early Forties, under the moniker "The Singing
Policeman" had become a local celebrity.
He gave his first performance in England at the Victoria
Palace, London, in August 1945. The story later given out
was that the impresario Jack Hylton, who was putting on the
concert, discovered that Joseph McLaughlin was too long a
name to fit on the bill poster and so changed the singer's
name to Josef Locke, endowing it with Austro-Hungarian
overtones to suggest a certain sophistication.
By the late Forties, Locke had acquired the brothers Leslie
and Lew Grade as his agents, and with their help he was
soon to be regularly heard on such radio programmes as
Happydrome, which featured the trio "Ramsbottom, Enoch
and Me".
In 1948, Locke toured in the show Passport to Paradise,
and the next year topped the bill at Blackpool's summer
season, as he was to do for several years. By the Fifties, he
was appearing on television in programmes such as Rooftop
Rendezvous,and The Frankie Howerd Show.
After his contretemps with the Inland Revenue, Locke's
fortunes somewhat declined. He continued to fulfil
engagements in Australia, Canada and South Africa, but in
1967 he was made bankrupt with debts of £20,000, although
he claimed to be earning £750 a week.
Locke, who had a fondness for women and a weakness for
white Cadillacs, blamed his troubles on a lack of business
acumen. The following year he was jailed for four months for
stealing documents from the Companies Registration Office
in Dublin Castle, although the sentence was commuted to a
fine on appeal.
By the Seventies, the Grades had managed to straighten
out Locke's affairs, but by then pop music had put an end to
the days of music hall and Locke retired to Co Kildare,
where he remained, largely forgotten (except in his
imagination) for 20 years.
Then in 1992, episodes of his life were recreated for the
film Hear My Song, with Adrian Dunbar and Tara Fitzgerald,
a romantic fantasy in which Locke (played by Ned Beatty
and voiced by the tenor Vernon Midgeley) returned from his
exile to save a Liverpool night-club.
Locke was brought to London for the premiere where he
gave notice that his skill as an entertainer had not faded by
serenading the Princess of Wales with Danny Boy. The
subsequent success of the film prompted the release of a
compilation of Locke's songs, and at 75 he became the
oldest person to enter the Top 10 of the album charts for the
first time.
Josef Locke's first three marriages were dissolved. He is
survived by his children of those marriages and by his fourth
wife, Carmel.
Daily Express
VETERAN singer Josef Locke, as flamboyant and colourful
as any modern day rock star, has died at the age of 82.
The Irish-born tenor became an international celebrity
thanks to his rich rendition of works such as Blaze Away and
Hear My Song - also the title of the 1992 film based on his
eventful life story and which brought him fame all over
again. The charming, cheeky Locke even serenaded
Princess Diana at the film's premiere with Danny Boy.
Born Joseph McLaughlin, he was a leading celebrity when
in 1958 he fled into exile in the Irish Republic to escape the
clutches of tax inspectors. Narrowly avoiding an arrest
warrant, he immediately bought a racehorse - which he
called The Taxman.
Locke died at a nursing home in Co. Kildare.
Daily Mail
FLAMBOYANT tenor Josef Locke, a celebrity over five
decades, has died at the age of 82.
The Londonderry-born star was best known for Hear My
Song - also the title of his film biography - and Blaze Away.
He will also be remembered for his flight from the taxman
which led him to make his home in the Irish Republic, where
he died.
The ex-Irish Guardsman, born Joseph McLaughlin, was
one of the biggest singing stars of the 1950s, making his
name with ballads on radio and record and the variety
theatre stage. He was also an impresario who hired Julie
Andrews at four guineas a week and Eric Morecambe and
Ernie Wise for £35. Before the Goon Show was even
thought of he had signed up Peter Sellers and Michael
Bentine.
He performed 19 seasons at Blackpool to audiences
composed almost entirely of adoring women fans before he
skipped to Ireland in 1958 as the Inland Revenue closed in.
The day after he left, a warrant was issued in Blackpool for
his arrest because he owed £10,500 in income tax.
By then the singer was at a bloodstock sale in Ireland,
paying £790 guineas for two horses, one of which he named
The Taxman.
He remained in Ireland for over 30 years before being
lured back to London - his fight with the taxman behind him -
for the premiere of Hear My Song, in 1992, which introduced
him to a whole new generation.
Diana, Princess of Wales attended the premiere and Locke
serenaded her with a few verses of Danny Boy, danced with
the stars at the celebrity party afterwards - and was then
waylaid by Michael Aspel for This is Your Life.
After Locke fled to Ireland rumours started that he was still
on the English stage, singing under the name of 'Mr X'.
Police eventually arrested 'Mr X' for tax evasion, slapped
him in jail - and then discovered he was not Locke at all, but
an impersonator cashing in on the famous name and voice.
Locke died at a nursing home in Clane, Co Kildare, close
to where he had lived in retirement.
Irish tenor Louis Browne said: 'He was one of the great
Irish entertainers since the war.
'He had the most beautiful voice. He didn't do what
perhaps he should have done - opera.
'But he was a huge success in the variety field and was
loved by people in both serious music and variety and the
general public because he had these great powers of
communication with this beautiful quality of voice.'
Londonderry-born songwriter Phil Coulter said: 'The world
is full of grey people and Joe was multi-coloured.' Coulter,
whose songs include Congratulations, The Town I Loved So
Well and Puppet On A String, added: 'I have seldom seen
anyone work a crowd so well.'
Daily Mirror
LEGENDARY Irish singer Josef Locke - famous for the
classic hit Hear My Song - has died at the age of 82.
At the height of his global fame, the genial Ulster-born star
was acclaimed as one of the most beautiful tenor voices the
world has known.
He was immortalized in the 1992 film Hear My Song, which
told the remarkable story of his battle with the British
taxman.
It was 1958, after the 19th of his sell-out summer seasons
in Blackpool, when Locke did a moonlight flit just one step
ahead of the authorities.
He fled to the Irish Republic where he was to live as a
fugitive from the Inland Revenue for more than 30 years.
Twenty-four hours after he said a fond and final farewell to
his army of female fans, police issued a warrant for his
arrest.
Locke owed £10,500 In income tax - a fortune In the 50s
But far from alienating his devoted followers, his
roguishness merely added to his allure.
As hapless police searched Blackpool, their quarry was at
a bloodstock sale in Ireland paying 790 guineas for two
horses. He named one The Taxmnan.
Born Joseph McClaughlin in Londonderry, he died at a
nursing home in Clane, County Kildare, near where he spent
a quiet retirement.
Fellow Irish tenor Louis Browne said yesterday: "Josef
Locke was one of the great Irish entertainers.
"He had the most beautiful voice and he never did what he
perhaps should have done which was opera.
"But he was a huge success in the variety field and was
loved by people in both serious music and variety."
Louis added: 'They just don't make 'em like Josef Locke
any more. He was a true character blessed with a beautiful
talent who will be sadly missed."
A new generation was introduced to the Locke legend
when Hear My Song became a worldwide smash. The
singer, who had another chartbuster with Blaze Away, was
played by American actor Ned Beatty.
Filmed near Dublin, the £15million production also starred
Adrian Dunbar, Tam Fitzgerald and ex-Man From Uncle star
David McCallum as the cop who just could not quite get his
man.
Locke was one of the biggest singing stars of the 50s and
a true heart-throb to millions of female admirers.
His audiences were almost all women, swooning at the
first sound of his melodically pitch-perfect tones.
A shrewd businessman not keen on parting with hard-
earned cash, Locke was also a showbiz impresario.
He hired Julie Andrews for four guineas a week and later
signed up Morecambe and Wise for £35.
Locke spotted Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine long
before the Goon Show turned them into stars, and booked
them for stage shows.
He tried to keep his private life secret. But he was as
roguish in private as he was in public.
He was divorced from his first wife Esther in 1946 but soon
married again, to Doreen, who enjoyed the benefits of his
staggering financial success. By
l950 he was earning £1,000 a week - a phenomenal
amount in postwar Britain.
A year later he was paid £100,000 for a concert tour of
America.
But Doreen divorced him in 1951 on the grounds that the
union was illegal. A judge rapped Locke for not properly
dissolving his first marriage.
Within a year he was tying the knot again - this time to
actress Elizabeth "Betty' Barr. Before that marriage ended
he was ordered to pay former housekeeper Margaret
Pfeffer, a 25-year-old German, £1 a week for the upkeep of
her baby son, which a court ruled was Locke's.
He had a long affair and three children with Belfast model
Roberta Agnew and in 1963 was ordered to pay her £2,560
for assaulting her in a furious row.
His last wife was another of his former housekeepers,
Carmel, who attended the Hear My Song premiere with him.
One of his latter-day fans was Princess Diana, whom he
serenaded with a haunting version of Danny Boy. That royal
performance was at the London premiere of Hear My Song.
In old age, Locke resolved his differences with the taxman
in a secret deal said to have been a token few quid.
And at the Hear My Song party, the rogue was in typical
form. After singing to Diana, he danced with all the stars.
And as he left, he was waylaid by Michael Aspel for a This
Is Your Life special.
Back to top
Daily Record
The Legendary tenor Josef Locke, whose life inspired an
award-winning film, has died aged 82.
The star, who was so popular in music halls he was
dubbed "Mr Blackpool", died in a nursing home in Ireland.
His death marked the end of a distinguished career which
started in the 1940s.
Hard-drinking, womanising Locke fled Britain for Ireland in
1964 when
the taxman knocked on his door. But he came out of
retirement in 1992 when his life was featured in the film
Hear My Song.
Josef's private life was as colourful as his stage
performances, during which he wooed audiences almost
entirely composed of women.
Son of a cattle dealer, he was born Josef McLaughlin in
Londonderry
and first sang publicly aged seven.
His first job was as a policemen and when World war II
broke out, he joined the Irish Guards and saw action in
North Africa.
Josef's real love was singing. After the war, he ended up
singing tenor leads in grand opera.
But it was the music halls which put him on the map, Locke
was a
- massive star in the l950s and, at one point, the biggest
theatre draw in Britain. He played a record 19 summer
seasons in a row at Blackpool,
The Pavarotti of his time, Josef stood over 6ft, topped by a
cream stetson, and drove women wild when he swept on
stage with a theatrical cloak swirling about his imposing
figure.
He became famous for songs such as Soldier's Dream, I'll
Take You Home
Kathleen, Danny Boy and Blaze Away.
Josef soon started staging his own shows and once hired
Morecambe and Wise for £35 a week. He also hired Julie
Andrews and Peter Sellers.
He fled Britain after the taxman demanded £10,500 and
packed his belongings without so much as a note of his big
number, Goodbye.
Legend has it the day after a warrant for his arrest was
issued, Josef was at a bloodstock sale in Ireland buying a
horse which he called The Taxman.
After he fled, rumours started that he was still in England,
singing under the name of Mr X.
Police arrested Mr X for tax evasion and put him in jail then
discovered he was not Locke at all, but an impersonator
cashing in on the famous name and voice.
Josef's love life was equally dramatic. The four times
married star wed second wife Doreen before his divorce was
complete.
The couple were struck by tragedy when their eldest
daughter, Moira, died when she was three.
Eight months later, Doreen's three-day old daughter was
found dead.
When their third daughter, Violetta, was born, she inspired
the love ballad Hear My Song, Violetta.
Yet Locke hardly saw his daughter, whom he left when she
was just a tot.
Violetta, now 50, is a school dinner lady in Blackpool.
Doreen lived as a hermit in a Blackpool council house for
years after the marriage ended. Josef wept when he heard
of her death in 1992.
At the time, he was singing at the premiere of Hear My
Song just two miles away.
It was at the same event where Princess Diana helped
Michael Aspel spring a This Is Your LIfe surprise on Josef.
She gave the show permission to snare the star after the
royal premiere.
Josef later said: "It was the most extraordinary night of my
life. I saw the princess roar with laughter."
Hear My Song, starring Adrian Dunbar and Ned Beatty,
was nominated for a BAFTA and won awards within the film
industry.
The movie was only made after director Peter Chelsom
tracked Josef down to get final permission.
He trawled pubs in Ireland but found him in a bar in Spain.
Peter said: "I had to have him. He was the dream-maker."
Josef died in County Kildare, close to where he had lived.
Guardian
"Goodbye, goodbye - I wish you all a fond goodbye."
As he strutted the stage, his glorious tenor soaring to the
back of the "gods" in the north of England's variety theatres,
Josef Locke's tearful and adoring audiences sang along and
waved their handkerchiefs in time to the music. Locke, who
has died aged 82, was an Irish superstar, the Tom Jones of
his day - earning £2,000 a week when £100 was a good
wage for a music hall artist.
His voice could have taken him to the world's great opera
stages, but he chose the more raffish life of a variety bill-
topper, specialising in sentimental ballads such as Hear My
Song, Count Your Blessings and I'll Take You Home Again,
Cathleen, invariably closing his act with stirring audience
galvanisers like Blaze Away or Goodbye. He was
handsome, immaculately tailored and flamboyantly
rogueish, with a trim moustache and a twinkling eye for the
ladies.
Locke based himself in Blackpool, also home to his good
friend, the comedian Frank Randle. Together they I
caroused, brawled and drank through the night, got up to
various romantic escapades and lost fortunes on the horses.
It was, in fact, Locke's offstage antics that created the
legend around him - he happily squandered his vast
earnings, and in 1958 fled back to Ireland with the Inland
Revenue hot on his heels. The day a warrant for his arrest
for unpaid taxes was issued in Blackpool, he was in Kildare,
paying 790 guineas for two horses. He named one of them
The Taxman. The story was told, charmingly but fancifully, in
Peter Chelsom's 1992 film Hear My Song, in which Locke
was played by Ned Beatty. For the premiere, the 75-year-old
singer was persuaded to return to England, where he sang
Danny Boy to Princess Diana. When Chelsom first mooted
the project to Locke, he found the singer only too willing to
add to his legend - at one point the director had to track him
down to a bar in Spain after he disappeared without signing
the contract for clearance rights.
Josef Locke was born Joseph McLaughlin in Derry,
Northern Ireland, the son of a butcher and cattle dealer, one
of 10 children. He sang at churches in the Bogside as a
child, and after a rudimentary schooling joined the Irish
Guards, later serving with the Palestine police before
returning to Ireland in the late 1930s. He then became a
policeman and, performing semi-professionally, was known
as "the Singing Bobby'.
He sought advice about an operatic career from the
greatest Irish tenor of them all, John McCormack, who told
him that his natural showmanship might serve him better on
the popular stage. Again on the advice of McCormack,
Locke went to London to see impresario and bandleader
Jack Hylton, who, impressed, booked him into the Victoria
Palace. It was Hylton who renamed him - Joseph
McLaughlin was considered too long for variety bills.
After some success in London, where he made his first
recordings in 1947, Locke signed with Lew and Leslie
Grade, who realised that his over-the-top style and penchant
for sentimentality might go down better on the northern
variety circuit, and steered him to stardom. Locke delighted
in the world of variety, reveling in his celebrity, wearing only
the best clothes and driving the fastest sports cars, always
accompanied by a glamorous companion.
He also appeared in films for John E Blakeley's
Manchester-based Mancunian company, starring with other
music-hall stalwarts like Randle, Tessie O'Shea and Jewel
and Warriss. Some critics were sniffy about what they saw
as the misuse of a fine voice. "The Londonderry tenor did
indeed possess a fine organ," wrote one, "ruined by
undisciplined bawling and a delivery drenched in
sentimentality"
However, Locke's (mainly female) public thought
otherwise, and there was no sign of a diminution in his
popularity when he suddenly vanished back to Ireland.
Twenty years later, a masked singer, sounding uncannily like
Locke and billed as "Mr X", made some appearances in
British clubs, and it was thought that he had returned
incognito. It turned out not to be the case, although on one
occasion he was flown into Britain to appear on This Is Your
Life - and then flown straight out again before the taxman
could catch him.
The success of the film Hear My Song - Chelsom used the
"Mr X" story as the basis for his heart-warming fantasy -
brought Locke back into the limelight, and an album of his
old recordings became a bestseller. The tax business now
long-forgiven, he continued to sing, mostly in Ireland, until
fairly recently, then retired. He lived the latter part of his life
near Clane, Co Kildare, and is survived by his wife, Carmel,
and a son.
Independent
'GOODBYE, IT'S time I sought a foreign clime," sang Josef
Locke frequently and with feeling but perhaps with never so
much feeling as he did when the income tax man came
calling. Locke promptly quit show business, hopped back to
his homeland, bought a farm, some racehorses and a pub
aptly called the White Horse Inn, and vanished into a
somewhat hearty and hard-drinking retirement
Years later came the comeback, thanks to a delightful if not
totally brilliant film all about him. Or rather, all about a "Mr
X"who certainly sang like Locke, even if he did use Vernon
Midgley's voice and the actor Ned Beatty's face. It even
used the name of one of Locke's most popular hits, "Hear
My Song", as its title, although it left off the name of the lady
listener "Violetta". Was it the truth? Was it fiction? Who
cared - certainly not Locke, who gave the movie his blessing
by appearing at the London premiere and singing "Danny
Boy" to the Princess of Wales, before being whisked off by
Michael Aspel to star as the celebrity in the latest This Is
Your Life. It was the next best thing to a perfect comeback
an ex-star could ever expect to enjoy.
Josef Locke was as Irish as they come, being born Joseph
McLaughlin in Londonderry in 1917. His father was the local
butcher and at the age of nine the boy Joe made his first
stage appearance following a short apprenticeship in a
nearby church choir. He was 16 when he joined the Irish
Guards as a boy soldier serving in the Middie East and duly
rising to the rank of sergeant. Returning home with plenty of
camp concerts under his belt, he became a constable in the
Derry Police. Spare-time singing in his large and truly
powerful tenor voice led him to many a charity concert,
where they billed him as "Ireland's Singing Policeman".
That memorable Irish comedian Jimmy O'Dea ("Mrs
Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe, me boys") saw and heard
McLaughlin, and persuaded him to try his voice at a
showbusiness career. To back his word O'Dea cast him in
Showboat, which he was staging at the Gaiety Theatre in
Dublin. With a brushing up of his
talent under a teacher in Italy, Josef Locke, as he now
called himself, followed through with leading roles in Madam
Butterfly and many another popular operetta.
In 1945 Locke came over to London for the first time and in
August made his stage debut under the impresario Jack
Hylton as singing support to the famous Crazy Gang
(Flanagan and Allen, Nervo and Knox, Naughton and Gold)
at the Victoria Palace. This was the gang's post-war reunion
show, Together Again, and a huge success. The following
summer Locke was signed for his first holiday season at
Blackpool The venue was the Opera House and top of the
bill was George Formby.
After the war he served in the Derry Police. For his first
concerts he was billed as 'Ireland's Singing Policeman'
The two stars, one old the other new, became the best of
friends and Formby took Locke with him on his tour of
Australia during 1947.
Locke returned to Blackpool for a summer show, and was
so popular that for many years after he was a regular
seaside top of the bill. In 1948 he supported the fast rising
double-act of Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss, with vocal
back-up from the Smith Brothers ("Mr and Mrs Smith's Five
Little Boys"). Locke loved the Northern seaside town so
much that he bought a house there and moved in his entire
family. Later he would sell the house to his new chum
George Formby.
It was in 1948 that British flims took notice of Locke and he
was signed to support the Lancashire comedian Frank
Randle in his latest Mancunian production, Holidays with
Pay. The eccentric comic was making one film a year for the
Manchester producer John E. Blakeley, and, although crude
and even amateurish the films made a fortune in the
provinces.
In his first film Locke sang several songs including the
popular Irish ballad "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen", a
great favourite with his variety audiences. In 1949 Locke
return to the Mancunian studio (a converted church) to back
up Randle once again. This film was Somewhere in Politics
and he sang three songs, "Macushia", "Oft in the Stilly
Night" and "Hear My Song Violetta".
Locke's third and final film was again for Blakeley. Entitled
What A Carry On, it predicted if not initiated the long run of
"Carry On" films that would come later. The stars were his
old friends Jewel and Warriss from that bygone Blackpool
show, and, cast as a singing sergeant, Locke had a trio of
ballads
- "Abide With Me", "Ave Maria" and the one which would
become his audience's greatest favourite, "Goodbye", from
White Horse Inn. Whenever he performed this one live he
would rehearse his audience into joining in with the repeated
phrase "Goodbye, goodbye, I wish you all a last goodbye".
Locke's record career began in October 1946 and was
virtually wholly for Colombia. Beginning with "The Holy City"
he recorded no fewer than 98 songs for that label, all at
78rpm of course. Although he recorded regularly for some
10 years, his biggest hits came during the Forties when he
sold more than one million discs. Mixing religious titles
("Silent Night, Holy Night") with Irish favourites ("How Can
You Buy Killarney"), his most popular songs were always the
rowdy ones ("Goodbye", "Blaze Away") which his audiences
could join in.
Locke's variety tours were, it seemed at the time,
unending. They took him right around Britain, across the
American continent, then back to his beloved Blackpool. At
Christmas he would cheerfully play in a pantomime, his first
being Aladdin, in which he supported that eternal "Little
Boy", Jimmy Clitheroe. This took place at the Shakespeare
Theatre in Liverpool in 1947.
Radio starred Locke frequently; among his many credits
were appearances in Variety Fanfare, where he became the
resident vocalist. In 1948 he toured in Paradise on Parade
and the following year tried his hand at management,
presenting his own touring revue. By the Fifties he was
earning over £1,500 a week and in 1952 was chosen to
appear in the Royal Variety Performance staged at the
London Palladium.
In 1955 a special Royal Variety Show was staged in his
adopted home town of Blackpool. Locke, however was not
invited. This so upset him that he promptly sold his house
and his garage business and exported himself and family to
the United States, swearing never to return. But the pull of
home proved too
great for such a dramatic switch, and he returned to
Blackpool for several successive seasons. One such,
staged on the Central Pier in 1970, starred him with the
popular Northern comedian Al Read plus the Eric Winstone
Show Band.
Then came the aforementioned taxman, and once again
Locke left these shores, this time for Ireland and home. Not
exactly a "foreign clime" he sought, but it was certainly
"Goodbye". Until Peter Chelsom's 1992 film, that is, and the
consequent reissue of Locke's once popular songs on CD.
And now at last it is, alas, "Goodbye".
The Examiner
THE music world was last night mourning the death of
flamboyant Irish tenor Josef Locke.
The Derry-born singer and former policeman died in a
nursing home in County Kildare. He was 82.
He had lived in retirement there for some years after going
to live in the Republic because he had been threatened with
prosecution over his tax affairs by the British authorities.
A film based on his colourful career, Hear My Song, was
made in 1992 and was a major box office hit.
Locke, whose real name was Joseph McLaughlin, was the
son of a cattle dealer from Derry.
As a young man, he joined the Irish Guards, was a
sergeant at the age of 18 and was wounded in Palestine. He
later joined the RUC.
But music dominated the life of the former choirboy from St
Eugene’s Cathedral, and he made his operatic debut in
Madame Butterfly at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in 1944.
It marked the start of a remarkable career in which he
became one of the biggest draws at venues like the London
Palladium. He also built up a huge following on the club
circuit.
When Locke appeared on the Kelly Show on Ulster
Television two years ago the station was inundated with
callers requesting his hit songs like I’ll Take You Home
Again, Kathleen and Hear My Song.
The son of the famed singer heard of his fathers death at
the two-day European Union Summit, where he was working
for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Following an approach from his Spanish colleague,
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern quickly agreed to bring Karl
McLoughlin home to Ireland when he leaves for Dublin later
today.
Early yesterday, Mr McLoughlin, who acts as an interpreter
for Mr Aznar, had told the Taoiseach the news from home
‘was not good’.
“Then, I heard the sad news that Mr Locke had died.
“Later, Mr Aznar came up to me and asked if we could help
to get him home to Ireland. Tony Blair offered to take him to
London, but we will get him home,” said Mr Ahern.
How the Press reported Josef’s death
The London Times
JOSEF LOCKE's resonant tenor and charismatic
personality ensured him a place at the top of the British
entertainment world of the 1940s and 1950s. A Falstaffian
figure who was no stranger to the law courts, he returned to
the limelight late in life when his exploits formed the basis of
the acclaimed feature film Hear My Song. Still in good voice,
Locke sang before the Princess of Wales at the premiere in
1992, and had the satisfaction of seeing his music
rediscovered by a new generation.
Locke's real name was Joseph McLaughlin. He is said to
have been rechristened by the bandleader turned theatrical
producer Jack Hylton, who found that his charge's original
name was too long to be squeezed on to a bill at the Victoria
Palace. The son of a butcher and cattle dealer, Locke sang
in local churches as a boy. He saw service in the Irish
Guards before joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
His voice had already attracted attention by this stage. As
he toured the local clubs, he acquired the nickname "The
Singing Bobby". He soon set his sights on the mainland, and
embarked on the first of many seasons in Blackpool. He
moved to London in 1944. Taken under the wing of Lew and
Leslie Grade, he built up a radio career and made his
recording debut in 1947, building up a substantial following
with songs such as Rose of Tralee and Hear My Song,
Violetta. The latter was to become his signature tune.
By the early 1950s Locke's commercial successes and his
penchant for operetta had turned him into a ruggedly
sentimental successor to his compatriot John McCormack.
As well as guest performances in television shows including
Top of the Town and Rooftop Rendezvous, he made movie
appearances for the low-budget studio Mancunian, singing
in films such as Holidays with Pay and It's a Wonderful Life
(no relation to the Frank Capra classic).
Josef Locke regularly starred in Royal Command
Performances. He himself commanded impressive fees of
up to £2,000 a night, until his growing problems with the
Inland Revenue came close to derailing his career
altogether. His troubles came to a head in 1958. Owing an
estimated £17,000 and facing possible tax evasion charges,
Locke chose to leave Britain and settle in the Irish Republic.
It took him nearly a decade to discharge his debt.
He later returned to Britain, but by the beginning of the
1970s had settled into retirement in Co Kildare with his
young wife. Along the way, Locke's unconventional lifestyle
produced more than its share of tabloid headlines. In his
heyday he appeared to live the life of a prototypical rock 'n'
roller. A former housekeeper successfully brought a paternity
suit against him in 1957, and Locke was later ordered to pay
for the upkeep of three other children. The rumbustious
entertainer was apparently no stranger to the local police in
Ireland, although in his old age he was said to be content to
while away his afternoon with a pint of stout and a
crossword puzzle.
Peter Chelsom's film Hear My Song was inspired by one of
the more bizarre episodes in Locke's life, when the singer
had found himself being impersonated on television by a so-
called "Mr X". The copycat performer, said to be a former
Christmas-tree salesman, had been taken up by Hughie
Green, the barnstorming host of the TV talent show
Opportunity Knocks, during Locke's enforced absence in
Ireland. Viewers were teased as to whether or not the
impersonator was the genuine article, and he went on to
make a successful living from his new role.
Female fans crowded to see him at stage doors,
unconvinced by his assurances that he was not in fact the
star. Police and tax officials had to be persuaded as well. At
one point the doppelgänger found himself being
impersonated by yet another singer. Years later the rock
singer-songwriter Richard Thompson composed a song,
Josef Locke, based on an encounter in a pub with an
inebriated singer claiming to be the performer.
Chelsom was captivated by Locke's voice after hearing
one of his tapes during a car journey. In his film a nightclub
owner who has already been bamboozled by the lookalike
travels to Ireland to persuade the real Locke (played by the
American actor Ned Beatty) to come out of retirement for
one final show.
With a supporting cast led by Shirley Anne Field and David
McCallum, Hear My Song won ecstatic reviews. Locke sang
Danny Boy at the premiere, cast an admiring eye over
Diana, Princess of Wales, and was ensnared by Michael
Aspel, presenter of the TV show This Is Your Life. Riding on
the success of the film, an EMI compilation of Locke's
vintage recordings - including You Are My Heart's Delight
and I'll Take You Home, Kathleen - gave him a place in the
record books as the oldest performer to reach the Top Ten.
He is survived by his wife Carmel and by his children.
Back to top
Irish Independent
TRIBUTES have poured in for the colourful tenor Josef
Locke, who died yesterday, aged 82.
A huge star of the 1950s and '60s, Locke passed away at a
nursing home in Clane, Co Kildare, close to where he had
lived in retirement.
The tenor once held the title of the highest paid singer
working in Britain. At the height of his fame he could book
acts such as Peter Sellers and Morecambe and Wise as his
supports.
Hugely popular with women audiences, he had hits with
Hear My Song, Goodbye and Blaze Away.
Locke was known as a friend of the late Princess Diana,
who lured him out of retirement in 1992 to sing Danny Boy
at the opening of the film he inspired, Hear My Song.
Last night actor Joe Lynch, well-known to Glenroe fans as
Dinny, recalled how he met Locke in 1942 while they were
both in pantomime in Cork.
``He was a wild man,'' he said, ``An extraordinary man and
gifted with a lovely voice.
``He never took himself too seriously. He did outrageous
things, sometimes on his good friends, but you could never
stay annoyed with him.
``His attitude was `you can like me as I am or you can
lump me'.''
Derry-born songwriter Phil Coulter spoke of Locke's stage
presence, saying:
``The world is full of grey people and Joe was
multicoloured.
``I have seldom seen anyone work a crowd so well, it was
a craft he had,'' said Mr Coulter. ``Of course he had an ego,
but he deserved to have that ego he was a huge performer
and a very astute businessman.''
Irish tenor Louis Browne said of Locke: ``He had the most
beautiful voice. He didn't do what perhaps he should have
done opera.
``But he was a huge success in the variety field and was
loved by people in serious music and variety and by the
general public because he had great powers of
communication with this beautiful quality of voice.''
He was born Joseph McLaughlin in the Creggan area of
Derry. At 16, he enlisted in the Irish Guards and after the
Second World War joined the RUC.
His career started with an audition before variety star,
Jimmy O'Dea. At 6'2'' in height, wearing an overcoat to
cover his police uniform, Locke managed to succeed in the
Belfast audition. Present then was Maureen Potter who
described him then as ``magnificent''.
In 1944 he headed for London and was given a new name
at Victoria Palace. ``I was furious when I saw it up on the
posters but I was told there wasn't room for Joseph
McLaughlin,'' said Locke.
Within a couple of years he was selling a million records in
Britain alone.
Although he often sang in the Albert Hall, he is most
associated with Blackpool, where he was based for 29
years.
1958, he returned to Ireland, leaving Britain due to tax
problems.
In 1986, he underwent a major heart operation but
recovered very well. Back to top
Irish Times
Josef Locke, the Derry-born tenor, died in the early hours
of yesterday morning at the nursing home in Clane, Co
Kildare near where he lived in retirement.
Born Joseph McLaughlin in 1917, Locke will be
remembered as much for his talent as a tenor as for his
larger-than-life character and the various controversies that
dogged him throughout his career.
The Creggan boy was dubbed "The Singing Bobby" after a
stint in the RUC in Enniskillen before his entry into
showbusiness. He went on to become one of the highest-
paid entertainers of the day in Britain, though his finances
were consistently marred by tax problems, which in 1958
resulted in his exile from that country.
Speaking from the EU summit in Finland yesterday, the
Taoi seach, Mr Ahern, expressed sadness at the death. He
was approached by the Spanish delegation at the
conference because Locke's son, Mr Carl McLaughlin, is an
interpreter for the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr José Maria
Aznar. They asked if Mr Ahern could help Mr McLaughlin get
to Ireland in time for the funeral and Locke's son will be
flown back on the Government jet today. Locke got his first
break in the role of Gaylord in a performance of Showboat at
the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in 1943 and followed this with
acclaimed performances at variety venues around the
capital.
With Sir Lew Grade as his agent in Britain he commanded
fees of up to £2,000 per week and throughout the 1940s and
1950s was the brightest star on the variety circuit there. The
combination of his powerful voice, his impressive frame and
his witty one-liners proved irresistible, particularly to his
female fans who packed venues to hear his trademark
songs Blaze Away (We'll Make a Bonfire of our Troubles),
How Could You Buy Killarney and The Last Goodbye.
"It was bloody marvellous," the flamboyant performer told
Gay Byrne during the tribute programme held for him on The
Late Late Show in 1984.
Not quite so marvellous was the scrutiny of tax officials in
England which forced him to leave the country, where,
because of his 19 seasons at the seaside town, he was now
known as Mr Blackpool. On returning to England in 1967 he
is thought to have cleared much of the substantial tax bill.
His career took him around the world, but at home he
purchased a number of pubs and properties. In 1963 he was
given a four-month prison sentence for larceny which was
later successfully appealed.
With Locke confined to Ireland one man, known in the
ensuing court case as Mr X, took advantage of his absence
by styling himself Josef Locke and performing in the cabaret
clubs of Britain. His impersonation was so accurate that
police put Mr X in jail for tax evasion before discovering he
was not the real Josef Locke.
Continuing his reputation as a comeback-king, Locke
retained low-key success throughout the 1970s, but re-
emerged in 1984 after an interview with RTÉ's Mike Murphy.
When at the end of 1980s obscurity beckoned again, his
second renaissance was prompted by the release of a
movie loosely based on his life and times. Hear My Song
was released in 1992 and Locke entered the pop charts for
the first time. But Locke, by now living with wife Carmel in
Co Kildare, was reported as saying he didn't think his life
was worth a movie.
Fellow Derry man Phil Coulter said yesterday that he had
"a great respect and grudging affection" for Locke. "He was
a consummate entertainer and it would be unfair to judge
him only as a singer . . . he earned his spurs".
The removal will take place from Clane hospital tomorrow
at 6.15 p.m. to St Patrick's and St Brigid's Church, Clane,
arriving at 6.45 p.m. There will be a requiem mass at 11
a.m. on Monday, followed by a cremation at Glasnevin
crematorium in Co Dublin.
BBC online
The well known tenor Josef Locke has died after a long
illness.
Mr Locke, 82, died in hospital in Clane, Co Kildare in the
Republic of Ireland during Thursday night.
The Londonderry born singer became a household name
to a new generation when his life story was featured in the
movie Hear My Song.
The movie featured Ned Beatty in the role of Josef Locke
and also starred Tara Fitzgerald and Northern Ireland actor
Adrian Dunbar.
The Enniskillen born star also co-wrote the film about the
childhood hero who became a good friend.
Paying tribute to Josef Locke, he said he first heard about
the singer from his mother and her friends as he grew up.
"Most of the tenors at the time were Welsh and fat and five
foot two," he said.
"It was an amazing journey to come from Derry and do
what he did."
One of Adrian Dunbar's happiest memories of the singer is
an impromptu performance he gave at the premiere of Hear
My Song.
"He ended up in a very large cinema at Hyde Park Corner
singing live for Princess Diana."
Born Joseph McLaughlin on St Patrick's Day 1917 at
Creggan Terrace in Derry, he enlisted in the British Army
during the Second World War and was the youngest
sergeant to serve in the North Africa campaign.
He was a popular performer throughout the UK and in
Ireland in the 1940s and 50s.
He then fled the UK and dropped completely out of public
life because of a tax debt and made his last public
appearance in the 1970s.
Daily Telegraph
JOSEF LOCKE, the Irish tenor who has died aged 82, was
in the Fifties a hugely popular star of the music hail and
variety theatre until his career in Britain was brought to a
sudden halt by the attentions of the Inland Revenue.
Tall, dapper, roguishly moustachioed, and all of 18 stones,
Locke in his prime resembled a cross between Frans Hals's
Laughing Cavalier and a happy walrus. His act was no less
soothing than his appearance. Attired in white tie and
voluminous tails, Locke would regale his largely female
audiences with reminiscences about the colleens of the
Emerald Isle and a powerfully delivered selection of
sentimental Irish ballads.
These included tunes such as I'll Take You Home Again,
Kathleen, Rose of Tralee, Blaze Away and the song most
associated with him, Hear My Song, Violetta (its melody
largely borrowed from La Traviata). Occasionally he would
expand his repertoire to embrace excerpts from operettas
like My Heart And I, or Italian standards, notably Come Back
To Sorrento and Cara Mia.
At his peak, Locke was earning £2,000 a week, appearing
regularly on the BBC Light Programme, and in a series of
films that included Holidays With Pay (1951). He gave five
Royal Command performances, and those who toured with
him included the young Julie Andrews, the youthful Peter
Sellers and Michael Bentine, and the unknown Morecambe
and Wise. In 1949 he stood in for the great Tito Gobbi at the
Albert Hall when the maestro fell ill.
Then in 1958. at the height of his fame, Locke was
presented with a bill for unpaid surtax of £10,411. This he
declined to pay, and after he failed to attend court in
Blackpool for a public exami
nation in bankruptcy, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Locke promptly fled the jurisdiction to Dublin, where he
protested loudly that he had paid the Inland Revenue
£118,000 since 1950. Moreover, he said, if no deal was
struck over the arrears, he would never sing in Britain again.
The Inland Revenue were not to be swayed by such
threats. Locke duly kept his word, and the only person to
profit from his absence was one Erik Eliefson, a Locke look-
alike who established a lucrative career by impersonating
the Irishman under the sobriquet "Mr X". It was to be 35
years before the real Locke felt it safe to visit England again.
He was born Joseph McLaughlin in Londonderry on March
23 1917. He was
one of 10 children of Catholic parents; his father was a
butcher, cattle dealer and part-time smuggler. "We all took
turns to make the sausages," was how Locke recalled his
childhood, "and we could all sing."
Joseph began giving concerts in churches at the age of
nine, but at 16 added two years on to his age to join the Irish
Guards. He later served in the Palestine Police before
returning to Northern Ireland in 1938 to enter the Royal
Ulster Constabulary. He resumed his singing career and by
the early Forties, under the moniker "The Singing
Policeman" had become a local celebrity.
He gave his first performance in England at the Victoria
Palace, London, in August 1945. The story later given out
was that the impresario Jack Hylton, who was putting on the
concert, discovered that Joseph McLaughlin was too long a
name to fit on the bill poster and so changed the singer's
name to Josef Locke, endowing it with Austro-Hungarian
overtones to suggest a certain sophistication.
By the late Forties, Locke had acquired the brothers Leslie
and Lew Grade as his agents, and with their help he was
soon to be regularly heard on such radio programmes as
Happydrome, which featured the trio "Ramsbottom, Enoch
and Me".
In 1948, Locke toured in the show Passport to Paradise,
and the next year topped the bill at Blackpool's summer
season, as he was to do for several years. By the Fifties, he
was appearing on television in programmes such as Rooftop
Rendezvous,and The Frankie Howerd Show.
After his contretemps with the Inland Revenue, Locke's
fortunes somewhat declined. He continued to fulfil
engagements in Australia, Canada and South Africa, but in
1967 he was made bankrupt with debts of £20,000, although
he claimed to be earning £750 a week.
Locke, who had a fondness for women and a weakness for
white Cadillacs, blamed his troubles on a lack of business
acumen. The following year he was jailed for four months for
stealing documents from the Companies Registration Office
in Dublin Castle, although the sentence was commuted to a
fine on appeal.
By the Seventies, the Grades had managed to straighten
out Locke's affairs, but by then pop music had put an end to
the days of music hall and Locke retired to Co Kildare,
where he remained, largely forgotten (except in his
imagination) for 20 years.
Then in 1992, episodes of his life were recreated for the
film Hear My Song, with Adrian Dunbar and Tara Fitzgerald,
a romantic fantasy in which Locke (played by Ned Beatty
and voiced by the tenor Vernon Midgeley) returned from his
exile to save a Liverpool night-club.
Locke was brought to London for the premiere where he
gave notice that his skill as an entertainer had not faded by
serenading the Princess of Wales with Danny Boy. The
subsequent success of the film prompted the release of a
compilation of Locke's songs, and at 75 he became the
oldest person to enter the Top 10 of the album charts for the
first time.
Josef Locke's first three marriages were dissolved. He is
survived by his children of those marriages and by his fourth
wife, Carmel.
Daily Express
VETERAN singer Josef Locke, as flamboyant and colourful
as any modern day rock star, has died at the age of 82.
The Irish-born tenor became an international celebrity
thanks to his rich rendition of works such as Blaze Away and
Hear My Song - also the title of the 1992 film based on his
eventful life story and which brought him fame all over
again. The charming, cheeky Locke even serenaded
Princess Diana at the film's premiere with Danny Boy.
Born Joseph McLaughlin, he was a leading celebrity when
in 1958 he fled into exile in the Irish Republic to escape the
clutches of tax inspectors. Narrowly avoiding an arrest
warrant, he immediately bought a racehorse - which he
called The Taxman.
Locke died at a nursing home in Co. Kildare.
Daily Mail
FLAMBOYANT tenor Josef Locke, a celebrity over five
decades, has died at the age of 82.
The Londonderry-born star was best known for Hear My
Song - also the title of his film biography - and Blaze Away.
He will also be remembered for his flight from the taxman
which led him to make his home in the Irish Republic, where
he died.
The ex-Irish Guardsman, born Joseph McLaughlin, was
one of the biggest singing stars of the 1950s, making his
name with ballads on radio and record and the variety
theatre stage. He was also an impresario who hired Julie
Andrews at four guineas a week and Eric Morecambe and
Ernie Wise for £35. Before the Goon Show was even
thought of he had signed up Peter Sellers and Michael
Bentine.
He performed 19 seasons at Blackpool to audiences
composed almost entirely of adoring women fans before he
skipped to Ireland in 1958 as the Inland Revenue closed in.
The day after he left, a warrant was issued in Blackpool for
his arrest because he owed £10,500 in income tax.
By then the singer was at a bloodstock sale in Ireland,
paying £790 guineas for two horses, one of which he named
The Taxman.
He remained in Ireland for over 30 years before being
lured back to London - his fight with the taxman behind him -
for the premiere of Hear My Song, in 1992, which introduced
him to a whole new generation.
Diana, Princess of Wales attended the premiere and Locke
serenaded her with a few verses of Danny Boy, danced with
the stars at the celebrity party afterwards - and was then
waylaid by Michael Aspel for This is Your Life.
After Locke fled to Ireland rumours started that he was still
on the English stage, singing under the name of 'Mr X'.
Police eventually arrested 'Mr X' for tax evasion, slapped
him in jail - and then discovered he was not Locke at all, but
an impersonator cashing in on the famous name and voice.
Locke died at a nursing home in Clane, Co Kildare, close
to where he had lived in retirement.
Irish tenor Louis Browne said: 'He was one of the great
Irish entertainers since the war.
'He had the most beautiful voice. He didn't do what
perhaps he should have done - opera.
'But he was a huge success in the variety field and was
loved by people in both serious music and variety and the
general public because he had these great powers of
communication with this beautiful quality of voice.'
Londonderry-born songwriter Phil Coulter said: 'The world
is full of grey people and Joe was multi-coloured.' Coulter,
whose songs include Congratulations, The Town I Loved So
Well and Puppet On A String, added: 'I have seldom seen
anyone work a crowd so well.'
Daily Mirror
LEGENDARY Irish singer Josef Locke - famous for the
classic hit Hear My Song - has died at the age of 82.
At the height of his global fame, the genial Ulster-born star
was acclaimed as one of the most beautiful tenor voices the
world has known.
He was immortalized in the 1992 film Hear My Song, which
told the remarkable story of his battle with the British
taxman.
It was 1958, after the 19th of his sell-out summer seasons
in Blackpool, when Locke did a moonlight flit just one step
ahead of the authorities.
He fled to the Irish Republic where he was to live as a
fugitive from the Inland Revenue for more than 30 years.
Twenty-four hours after he said a fond and final farewell to
his army of female fans, police issued a warrant for his
arrest.
Locke owed £10,500 In income tax - a fortune In the 50s
But far from alienating his devoted followers, his
roguishness merely added to his allure.
As hapless police searched Blackpool, their quarry was at
a bloodstock sale in Ireland paying 790 guineas for two
horses. He named one The Taxmnan.
Born Joseph McClaughlin in Londonderry, he died at a
nursing home in Clane, County Kildare, near where he spent
a quiet retirement.
Fellow Irish tenor Louis Browne said yesterday: "Josef
Locke was one of the great Irish entertainers.
"He had the most beautiful voice and he never did what he
perhaps should have done which was opera.
"But he was a huge success in the variety field and was
loved by people in both serious music and variety."
Louis added: 'They just don't make 'em like Josef Locke
any more. He was a true character blessed with a beautiful
talent who will be sadly missed."
A new generation was introduced to the Locke legend
when Hear My Song became a worldwide smash. The
singer, who had another chartbuster with Blaze Away, was
played by American actor Ned Beatty.
Filmed near Dublin, the £15million production also starred
Adrian Dunbar, Tam Fitzgerald and ex-Man From Uncle star
David McCallum as the cop who just could not quite get his
man.
Locke was one of the biggest singing stars of the 50s and
a true heart-throb to millions of female admirers.
His audiences were almost all women, swooning at the
first sound of his melodically pitch-perfect tones.
A shrewd businessman not keen on parting with hard-
earned cash, Locke was also a showbiz impresario.
He hired Julie Andrews for four guineas a week and later
signed up Morecambe and Wise for £35.
Locke spotted Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine long
before the Goon Show turned them into stars, and booked
them for stage shows.
He tried to keep his private life secret. But he was as
roguish in private as he was in public.
He was divorced from his first wife Esther in 1946 but soon
married again, to Doreen, who enjoyed the benefits of his
staggering financial success. By
l950 he was earning £1,000 a week - a phenomenal
amount in postwar Britain.
A year later he was paid £100,000 for a concert tour of
America.
But Doreen divorced him in 1951 on the grounds that the
union was illegal. A judge rapped Locke for not properly
dissolving his first marriage.
Within a year he was tying the knot again - this time to
actress Elizabeth "Betty' Barr. Before that marriage ended
he was ordered to pay former housekeeper Margaret
Pfeffer, a 25-year-old German, £1 a week for the upkeep of
her baby son, which a court ruled was Locke's.
He had a long affair and three children with Belfast model
Roberta Agnew and in 1963 was ordered to pay her £2,560
for assaulting her in a furious row.
His last wife was another of his former housekeepers,
Carmel, who attended the Hear My Song premiere with him.
One of his latter-day fans was Princess Diana, whom he
serenaded with a haunting version of Danny Boy. That royal
performance was at the London premiere of Hear My Song.
In old age, Locke resolved his differences with the taxman
in a secret deal said to have been a token few quid.
And at the Hear My Song party, the rogue was in typical
form. After singing to Diana, he danced with all the stars.
And as he left, he was waylaid by Michael Aspel for a This
Is Your Life special.
Back to top
Daily Record
The Legendary tenor Josef Locke, whose life inspired an
award-winning film, has died aged 82.
The star, who was so popular in music halls he was
dubbed "Mr Blackpool", died in a nursing home in Ireland.
His death marked the end of a distinguished career which
started in the 1940s.
Hard-drinking, womanising Locke fled Britain for Ireland in
1964 when
the taxman knocked on his door. But he came out of
retirement in 1992 when his life was featured in the film
Hear My Song.
Josef's private life was as colourful as his stage
performances, during which he wooed audiences almost
entirely composed of women.
Son of a cattle dealer, he was born Josef McLaughlin in
Londonderry
and first sang publicly aged seven.
His first job was as a policemen and when World war II
broke out, he joined the Irish Guards and saw action in
North Africa.
Josef's real love was singing. After the war, he ended up
singing tenor leads in grand opera.
But it was the music halls which put him on the map, Locke
was a
- massive star in the l950s and, at one point, the biggest
theatre draw in Britain. He played a record 19 summer
seasons in a row at Blackpool,
The Pavarotti of his time, Josef stood over 6ft, topped by a
cream stetson, and drove women wild when he swept on
stage with a theatrical cloak swirling about his imposing
figure.
He became famous for songs such as Soldier's Dream, I'll
Take You Home
Kathleen, Danny Boy and Blaze Away.
Josef soon started staging his own shows and once hired
Morecambe and Wise for £35 a week. He also hired Julie
Andrews and Peter Sellers.
He fled Britain after the taxman demanded £10,500 and
packed his belongings without so much as a note of his big
number, Goodbye.
Legend has it the day after a warrant for his arrest was
issued, Josef was at a bloodstock sale in Ireland buying a
horse which he called The Taxman.
After he fled, rumours started that he was still in England,
singing under the name of Mr X.
Police arrested Mr X for tax evasion and put him in jail then
discovered he was not Locke at all, but an impersonator
cashing in on the famous name and voice.
Josef's love life was equally dramatic. The four times
married star wed second wife Doreen before his divorce was
complete.
The couple were struck by tragedy when their eldest
daughter, Moira, died when she was three.
Eight months later, Doreen's three-day old daughter was
found dead.
When their third daughter, Violetta, was born, she inspired
the love ballad Hear My Song, Violetta.
Yet Locke hardly saw his daughter, whom he left when she
was just a tot.
Violetta, now 50, is a school dinner lady in Blackpool.
Doreen lived as a hermit in a Blackpool council house for
years after the marriage ended. Josef wept when he heard
of her death in 1992.
At the time, he was singing at the premiere of Hear My
Song just two miles away.
It was at the same event where Princess Diana helped
Michael Aspel spring a This Is Your LIfe surprise on Josef.
She gave the show permission to snare the star after the
royal premiere.
Josef later said: "It was the most extraordinary night of my
life. I saw the princess roar with laughter."
Hear My Song, starring Adrian Dunbar and Ned Beatty,
was nominated for a BAFTA and won awards within the film
industry.
The movie was only made after director Peter Chelsom
tracked Josef down to get final permission.
He trawled pubs in Ireland but found him in a bar in Spain.
Peter said: "I had to have him. He was the dream-maker."
Josef died in County Kildare, close to where he had lived.
Guardian
"Goodbye, goodbye - I wish you all a fond goodbye."
As he strutted the stage, his glorious tenor soaring to the
back of the "gods" in the north of England's variety theatres,
Josef Locke's tearful and adoring audiences sang along and
waved their handkerchiefs in time to the music. Locke, who
has died aged 82, was an Irish superstar, the Tom Jones of
his day - earning £2,000 a week when £100 was a good
wage for a music hall artist.
His voice could have taken him to the world's great opera
stages, but he chose the more raffish life of a variety bill-
topper, specialising in sentimental ballads such as Hear My
Song, Count Your Blessings and I'll Take You Home Again,
Cathleen, invariably closing his act with stirring audience
galvanisers like Blaze Away or Goodbye. He was
handsome, immaculately tailored and flamboyantly
rogueish, with a trim moustache and a twinkling eye for the
ladies.
Locke based himself in Blackpool, also home to his good
friend, the comedian Frank Randle. Together they I
caroused, brawled and drank through the night, got up to
various romantic escapades and lost fortunes on the horses.
It was, in fact, Locke's offstage antics that created the
legend around him - he happily squandered his vast
earnings, and in 1958 fled back to Ireland with the Inland
Revenue hot on his heels. The day a warrant for his arrest
for unpaid taxes was issued in Blackpool, he was in Kildare,
paying 790 guineas for two horses. He named one of them
The Taxman. The story was told, charmingly but fancifully, in
Peter Chelsom's 1992 film Hear My Song, in which Locke
was played by Ned Beatty. For the premiere, the 75-year-old
singer was persuaded to return to England, where he sang
Danny Boy to Princess Diana. When Chelsom first mooted
the project to Locke, he found the singer only too willing to
add to his legend - at one point the director had to track him
down to a bar in Spain after he disappeared without signing
the contract for clearance rights.
Josef Locke was born Joseph McLaughlin in Derry,
Northern Ireland, the son of a butcher and cattle dealer, one
of 10 children. He sang at churches in the Bogside as a
child, and after a rudimentary schooling joined the Irish
Guards, later serving with the Palestine police before
returning to Ireland in the late 1930s. He then became a
policeman and, performing semi-professionally, was known
as "the Singing Bobby'.
He sought advice about an operatic career from the
greatest Irish tenor of them all, John McCormack, who told
him that his natural showmanship might serve him better on
the popular stage. Again on the advice of McCormack,
Locke went to London to see impresario and bandleader
Jack Hylton, who, impressed, booked him into the Victoria
Palace. It was Hylton who renamed him - Joseph
McLaughlin was considered too long for variety bills.
After some success in London, where he made his first
recordings in 1947, Locke signed with Lew and Leslie
Grade, who realised that his over-the-top style and penchant
for sentimentality might go down better on the northern
variety circuit, and steered him to stardom. Locke delighted
in the world of variety, reveling in his celebrity, wearing only
the best clothes and driving the fastest sports cars, always
accompanied by a glamorous companion.
He also appeared in films for John E Blakeley's
Manchester-based Mancunian company, starring with other
music-hall stalwarts like Randle, Tessie O'Shea and Jewel
and Warriss. Some critics were sniffy about what they saw
as the misuse of a fine voice. "The Londonderry tenor did
indeed possess a fine organ," wrote one, "ruined by
undisciplined bawling and a delivery drenched in
sentimentality"
However, Locke's (mainly female) public thought
otherwise, and there was no sign of a diminution in his
popularity when he suddenly vanished back to Ireland.
Twenty years later, a masked singer, sounding uncannily like
Locke and billed as "Mr X", made some appearances in
British clubs, and it was thought that he had returned
incognito. It turned out not to be the case, although on one
occasion he was flown into Britain to appear on This Is Your
Life - and then flown straight out again before the taxman
could catch him.
The success of the film Hear My Song - Chelsom used the
"Mr X" story as the basis for his heart-warming fantasy -
brought Locke back into the limelight, and an album of his
old recordings became a bestseller. The tax business now
long-forgiven, he continued to sing, mostly in Ireland, until
fairly recently, then retired. He lived the latter part of his life
near Clane, Co Kildare, and is survived by his wife, Carmel,
and a son.
Independent
'GOODBYE, IT'S time I sought a foreign clime," sang Josef
Locke frequently and with feeling but perhaps with never so
much feeling as he did when the income tax man came
calling. Locke promptly quit show business, hopped back to
his homeland, bought a farm, some racehorses and a pub
aptly called the White Horse Inn, and vanished into a
somewhat hearty and hard-drinking retirement
Years later came the comeback, thanks to a delightful if not
totally brilliant film all about him. Or rather, all about a "Mr
X"who certainly sang like Locke, even if he did use Vernon
Midgley's voice and the actor Ned Beatty's face. It even
used the name of one of Locke's most popular hits, "Hear
My Song", as its title, although it left off the name of the lady
listener "Violetta". Was it the truth? Was it fiction? Who
cared - certainly not Locke, who gave the movie his blessing
by appearing at the London premiere and singing "Danny
Boy" to the Princess of Wales, before being whisked off by
Michael Aspel to star as the celebrity in the latest This Is
Your Life. It was the next best thing to a perfect comeback
an ex-star could ever expect to enjoy.
Josef Locke was as Irish as they come, being born Joseph
McLaughlin in Londonderry in 1917. His father was the local
butcher and at the age of nine the boy Joe made his first
stage appearance following a short apprenticeship in a
nearby church choir. He was 16 when he joined the Irish
Guards as a boy soldier serving in the Middie East and duly
rising to the rank of sergeant. Returning home with plenty of
camp concerts under his belt, he became a constable in the
Derry Police. Spare-time singing in his large and truly
powerful tenor voice led him to many a charity concert,
where they billed him as "Ireland's Singing Policeman".
That memorable Irish comedian Jimmy O'Dea ("Mrs
Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe, me boys") saw and heard
McLaughlin, and persuaded him to try his voice at a
showbusiness career. To back his word O'Dea cast him in
Showboat, which he was staging at the Gaiety Theatre in
Dublin. With a brushing up of his
talent under a teacher in Italy, Josef Locke, as he now
called himself, followed through with leading roles in Madam
Butterfly and many another popular operetta.
In 1945 Locke came over to London for the first time and in
August made his stage debut under the impresario Jack
Hylton as singing support to the famous Crazy Gang
(Flanagan and Allen, Nervo and Knox, Naughton and Gold)
at the Victoria Palace. This was the gang's post-war reunion
show, Together Again, and a huge success. The following
summer Locke was signed for his first holiday season at
Blackpool The venue was the Opera House and top of the
bill was George Formby.
After the war he served in the Derry Police. For his first
concerts he was billed as 'Ireland's Singing Policeman'
The two stars, one old the other new, became the best of
friends and Formby took Locke with him on his tour of
Australia during 1947.
Locke returned to Blackpool for a summer show, and was
so popular that for many years after he was a regular
seaside top of the bill. In 1948 he supported the fast rising
double-act of Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss, with vocal
back-up from the Smith Brothers ("Mr and Mrs Smith's Five
Little Boys"). Locke loved the Northern seaside town so
much that he bought a house there and moved in his entire
family. Later he would sell the house to his new chum
George Formby.
It was in 1948 that British flims took notice of Locke and he
was signed to support the Lancashire comedian Frank
Randle in his latest Mancunian production, Holidays with
Pay. The eccentric comic was making one film a year for the
Manchester producer John E. Blakeley, and, although crude
and even amateurish the films made a fortune in the
provinces.
In his first film Locke sang several songs including the
popular Irish ballad "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen", a
great favourite with his variety audiences. In 1949 Locke
return to the Mancunian studio (a converted church) to back
up Randle once again. This film was Somewhere in Politics
and he sang three songs, "Macushia", "Oft in the Stilly
Night" and "Hear My Song Violetta".
Locke's third and final film was again for Blakeley. Entitled
What A Carry On, it predicted if not initiated the long run of
"Carry On" films that would come later. The stars were his
old friends Jewel and Warriss from that bygone Blackpool
show, and, cast as a singing sergeant, Locke had a trio of
ballads
- "Abide With Me", "Ave Maria" and the one which would
become his audience's greatest favourite, "Goodbye", from
White Horse Inn. Whenever he performed this one live he
would rehearse his audience into joining in with the repeated
phrase "Goodbye, goodbye, I wish you all a last goodbye".
Locke's record career began in October 1946 and was
virtually wholly for Colombia. Beginning with "The Holy City"
he recorded no fewer than 98 songs for that label, all at
78rpm of course. Although he recorded regularly for some
10 years, his biggest hits came during the Forties when he
sold more than one million discs. Mixing religious titles
("Silent Night, Holy Night") with Irish favourites ("How Can
You Buy Killarney"), his most popular songs were always the
rowdy ones ("Goodbye", "Blaze Away") which his audiences
could join in.
Locke's variety tours were, it seemed at the time,
unending. They took him right around Britain, across the
American continent, then back to his beloved Blackpool. At
Christmas he would cheerfully play in a pantomime, his first
being Aladdin, in which he supported that eternal "Little
Boy", Jimmy Clitheroe. This took place at the Shakespeare
Theatre in Liverpool in 1947.
Radio starred Locke frequently; among his many credits
were appearances in Variety Fanfare, where he became the
resident vocalist. In 1948 he toured in Paradise on Parade
and the following year tried his hand at management,
presenting his own touring revue. By the Fifties he was
earning over £1,500 a week and in 1952 was chosen to
appear in the Royal Variety Performance staged at the
London Palladium.
In 1955 a special Royal Variety Show was staged in his
adopted home town of Blackpool. Locke, however was not
invited. This so upset him that he promptly sold his house
and his garage business and exported himself and family to
the United States, swearing never to return. But the pull of
home proved too
great for such a dramatic switch, and he returned to
Blackpool for several successive seasons. One such,
staged on the Central Pier in 1970, starred him with the
popular Northern comedian Al Read plus the Eric Winstone
Show Band.
Then came the aforementioned taxman, and once again
Locke left these shores, this time for Ireland and home. Not
exactly a "foreign clime" he sought, but it was certainly
"Goodbye". Until Peter Chelsom's 1992 film, that is, and the
consequent reissue of Locke's once popular songs on CD.
And now at last it is, alas, "Goodbye".
The Examiner
THE music world was last night mourning the death of
flamboyant Irish tenor Josef Locke.
The Derry-born singer and former policeman died in a
nursing home in County Kildare. He was 82.
He had lived in retirement there for some years after going
to live in the Republic because he had been threatened with
prosecution over his tax affairs by the British authorities.
A film based on his colourful career, Hear My Song, was
made in 1992 and was a major box office hit.
Locke, whose real name was Joseph McLaughlin, was the
son of a cattle dealer from Derry.
As a young man, he joined the Irish Guards, was a
sergeant at the age of 18 and was wounded in Palestine. He
later joined the RUC.
But music dominated the life of the former choirboy from St
Eugene’s Cathedral, and he made his operatic debut in
Madame Butterfly at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in 1944.
It marked the start of a remarkable career in which he
became one of the biggest draws at venues like the London
Palladium. He also built up a huge following on the club
circuit.
When Locke appeared on the Kelly Show on Ulster
Television two years ago the station was inundated with
callers requesting his hit songs like I’ll Take You Home
Again, Kathleen and Hear My Song.
The son of the famed singer heard of his fathers death at
the two-day European Union Summit, where he was working
for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Following an approach from his Spanish colleague,
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern quickly agreed to bring Karl
McLoughlin home to Ireland when he leaves for Dublin later
today.
Early yesterday, Mr McLoughlin, who acts as an interpreter
for Mr Aznar, had told the Taoiseach the news from home
‘was not good’.
“Then, I heard the sad news that Mr Locke had died.
“Later, Mr Aznar came up to me and asked if we could help
to get him home to Ireland. Tony Blair offered to take him to
London, but we will get him home,” said Mr Ahern.
How the Press reported
Josef’s death
