Ian Handford: Pop singer who represented UK in Eurovision ran bar in Bay

Clodagh Rodgers was born on March 5, 1947 at Warrenpoint, County Down in Northern Ireland.

She started singing at the age of 13 and made her television debut in September 1962 at the age of 16 when appearing as a guest on the Adam Faith show on BBC TV.  

She chose to sing Let's Jump the Broomstick and then made three singles for the Decca company before later moving to EMI Columbia label in 1965.  

Her father was Louis Rodgers, a dance hall promoter and he arranged for her to sign to Decca which meant that all her first singles were then produced by Shel Talmy. None of them became a hit in the British pop charts.

Throughout her career Clodagh would enjoy life and between the years 1961 and 2015 she married twice. Much later in her career she discovered Torbay with her second husband and they would purchase and then run a wine bar/restaurant at Bishops Place in Paignton.

Meanwhile, during the 1960s she became a popular face on television and also appeared in the musical films Just for Fun and It's All Over Town. Having then moved away from Decca and joined EMI records in 1965, their first single, Stormy Weather, released in 1966, was followed by many others although again none of them made the British pop charts.  In spite of this she became the United Kingdom's representative in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Northern Ireland. This time she chose to sing Jack in the Box and this came fourth.

Though the BBC had officially entered her as the British entrant at the time they were concerned about having a Roman Catholic Irish woman being put forward to sing in Northern Ireland. In fact Clodagh did receive death threats from the IRA, who chose to name her “a traitor” for appearing on behalf of the United Kingdom.

Later that year Jack in the Box was issued as yet another single and immediately came fourth again, this time in the British pop charts.

During the late sixties Clodagh flew to Nashville, Tennessee in response to the ever-popular Jim Reeves' personal invitation to come and feature on his show in 1968.  

Apparently he had seen her perform during an Irish tour early that year and had immediately recognised her as a rising star, stating that Clodagh had what he called “a promising career ahead”.

He wished to feature her before her career had took off. Only too pleased to oblige, she appeared in Jim's show at The Grand Ole Opry before immediately returning to the UK, to marry for the first time.

She married Johnney (John) Morris and although she dismissed any thought of that “promising career ahead” suggested by Reeves, Johnney soon became her manager, which is what likely kept the marriage intact for 11 years. They would have one child although inevitably as still seems to happen today with entertainment stars, their marriage was destined to end and divorce was made absolute in 1979.

Although still her manager, Johnney ensured Clodagh appeared on the BBC2 Honeybus show, a musical programme where she introduced her song Colour Me Pop,  a song picked up by the producer and songwriter Kenny Young.  Now it would be Kenny that changed her life forever. Johnney was still acting manager when she switched record companies again, this time signing a three-year contract with RCA in 1968. They would  produce two new singles but both failed to make an impression on the pop charts.

It was  Kenny who created all future songs, which ended the long run of failures. He soon wrote a hit and much as Jim Reeves predicted when saying she had a promising career ahead, her career  took off instantly, as I show in part two next week.