Jackie Trent
Jackie Trent (born
Yvonne Burgess on
September 6,
1940 in
Newcastle-under-Lyme) is an
English singer,
songwriter, and occasional
actress.
Trent's first stage appearance was as a ten-year-old ingenue in the pantomime
Babes In The Wood, but her primary interest was a career in pop music. Her first single, "Pick Up the Pieces," was released in
1962, but it wasn't until two record labels and three years later that she scored her first hit, "Where Are You Now?" by
Tony Hatch, who at that time was involved in a highly successful professional collaboration with
Petula Clark.
Clark disliked Trent, who clearly had romantic designs on the married Hatch, so when the duo began co-writing material for her they initially credited the work to Hatch alone. With "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", (
1966), inspired by their affair, they went public with their relationship. A year later, they were married in
Kensington,
London.
Although she recorded numerous singles and albums, both as a solo artist and in tandem with her husband, Trent was clearly a better songwriter than singer. (Her cover versions of several of Clark's recordings indicate she had no distinct style or sound to set her apart from the crowd). In addition to their compositions for Clark, over the years she and Hatch wrote a wealth of material for other artists, including
Frank Sinatra,
Nancy Wilson,
Des O'Connor,
Shirley Bassey,
Vikki Carr, and
Dean Martin.
In the late
1960s, Trent returned to the stage with a
UK tour of the musical
Nell with
Hermione Baddeley.
The
1970s saw Hatch and Trent diversify into the world of
musical theatre. The first of their projects,
The Card, based on
Arnold Bennett's novel, with book by
Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, ran in London's
West End with
Jim Dale and
Millicent Martin in the starring roles. (Coincidentally, Clark had starred in the
1952 film version with
Alec Guinness.) An original cast album was released in 1975. A rewritten version of the show, starring
Peter Duncan and
Hayley Mills, played the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in the 1990s and spawned a new cast album. The second Hatch/Trent musical was
Rock Nativity, with book and lyrics by David Wood. Initiated and produced by
Cameron Mackintosh, it first played in
Newcastle upon Tyne. An updated version of the show toured nationally in
1976 and was broadcast nationally by Scottish TV. A full-length concert version was also recorded at the
Cork Opera House for transmission by
RTE.
In
1978, the couple left the UK for a four-year residency in
Dublin, where they hosted their own TV series
Words And Music and
It's A Musical World, before moving to
Australia in
1982. It was while down under that the couple wrote what might be their most famous composition, the
theme song for the TV soap opera
Neighbours. They separated in
1995, and divorced in
2002.
Following the couple's initial separation, Trent made a hugely successful return to the British stage, touring the country in the musical
High Society. After spending several years in semi-retirement, she toured Australia with a series of concerts in April and May
2004, and is working on material for a new album to be recorded in early
2005.
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Official Website
