"I recollect that afternoon at the age of four when I found myself singing as I played out in the fields of Hightown, Liversedge. In those days, the only household entertainment enjoyed by every British family was the radio and the melodic strains of Vera Lynn, Alma Cogan, Ruby Murray and Bing Crosby etc. Singing and whistling were something that everyone did; some more than others.
In fact, come to think of it, I never once came across the path of a milkman, postman, bobby on the beat or working mate who didn't whistle while they worked until I'd reached my late teens. Even fearful people whistled to warn off the evil spirits and 'lookouts' for the police patrol! There was even a daily radio programme produced in December 1939, entitled 'Whistle while you work', which was described at the time as a BBC Home Service programme of gramophone records for early workers.
I remember the very first group that I was part of. It was called 'The Windybank Wailers' and was made up of Tony Walker, Peter Lockwood (now deceased), Geoffrey Munt and me; all residents of Windybank Estate. I recall the day that we decided who would take the role of lead singer. I won; not because I had the best voice, but the loudest. And besides, I was also the gang leader of Eighth Avenue and the corner of Third Avenue. Oh, and I was also the only group member without an instrument to play!
Over my youthful years, I found my natural singing voice and as I won one singing competition after another between the ages of ten years and twenty-one, there was a time when I genuinely felt that it was only a matter of time before some recording impresario would 'discover me' and reveal my talent to the pop world. This was the era of Elvis Presley, Cliff Richards, Tommy Steele and Marty Wilde; and there was, I believed, always room for me to find a slot beside these British greats.
I went to Canada for a couple of years in December 1963 and as I sailed across the choppiest of Atlantic Oceans on the 'S.S. Sylvania', I arrogantly believed myself to be the best singer ever to leave British shores. I naturally entered the ship's talent contest with every expectation of walking off with the $500 first prize. I found that to be announced the 'runner up' in the contest and awarded a prize of $100 to be no less a disappointment than to have been beaten by a seven-year-old cutie with a dimpled chin, who was the spitting image of a budding Shirley Temple with the sugary voice to match!
Being the best singer in Canada, naturally, my first job was as one of the singers in 'The Last Chance Saloon' in Montreal. Little did I realise at the time that such an establishment was one of the places a 'past it' singer ended their career days and didn't start them. I was the best singer of the five singers that the establishment had on offer during the first month I was there, and being English merely added to my nightly popularity with the ladies and curiosity with the chaps.
Within a short time, I'd forgotten about having lost out to the budding Shirley Temple on the 'S.S Sylvania' and took solace in discovering that I was the best singer in my present location; that was until a chap from Arkansaw, Wisconsin (whose name I made a point of quickly eradicating from my memory bank), sharply reminded me that I wasn't the best singer in the world! I quickly learned that as far as 'The Last Chance Saloon' was concerned, I'd never have top billing there again while the Wisconsin cowboy and his country and western voice outshone mine!
So I left 'The Last Chance Saloon' and apart from one weekend in a Scarborough pub some forty years later when my three sisters handed me a karaoke microphone and persuaded me to sing a Neil Diamond number, I have never sung outside the bathroom or my home since. But I was good when I was four; really I was, and even Shirley Temple would have been a runner up!" William Forde: May 9th, 2017.