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The death of 60s singer Wayne Fontana has brought back mixed memories of the time he suffered a heart attack on Sheppey.
Jenny Hurkett, who runs the Criterion Theatre in Blue Town with her husband Ian, had booked the veteran pop performer for a show four years ago when he was 70.
She said: "When he played here he was brilliant and was given a standing ovation. But when he came off stage he suffered a heart attack.
"Two ambulances and a paramedic came and he was taken to Medway Maritime Hospital. He had driven himself to Sheppey so Ian and I followed the ambulance with his car keys, phone and belongings to make sure he was OK.
"When we got there I didn’t know which name he used because Wayne wasn't his real name.
"They asked if he was famous and at 1am in A&E I ended up singing his hit songs Game of Love, Pamela, Pamela, and Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um.
"They let us in to see him and he thought this was really funny. He went home the next day and was very grateful that we had been there with him.
"He was a lovely man but a bit of rebel. It's such sad news."
She said: “He had spent a lovely day on Sheppey looking around the centre and had been very funny on stage. His voice was still spot on. But he wasn't the fittest person. I think it is fair to say he had lived life to the full.”
Jenny added: “We also had to notify the Holiday Inn at Rochester where he was staying about what had happened. We weren’t sure if he had booked in as Wayne Fontana or his real name Glyn Geoffrey Ellis!"
Before the show, he had joked: “I’m 70 now and being held together with bits of string and gaffer tape. To imagine I would still be treading the boards at this age is beyond belief. It’s amazing what wine, women and song can do!”
He rose to fame as lead singer with the Mindbenders and had been part of the solid gold 60s UK tour with The Searchers, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, PJ Proby and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.
He died yesterday (Thursday) aged 74 at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport.
