Josef Locke

In 1992 the Peter Chelsom film Hear My Song was released, a fantasy based on the notion of Locke returning from his Irish exile to complete an old love affair and save a Liverpool-based Irish night-club from ruination, with Locke played by Ned Beatty. The self-titled album released by Nuyorican Soul in 1996 (check date) included original tracks as well as cover versions of songs by the performers they were working with, such as Sweet Tears (Roy Ayers), and Runaway, originally sung by Lolleatta Holloway with the Salsoul Orchestra, here sung by India, featuring musicians from the original recording of 1985. Kildare, emerging for the occasional charity concert and reappearing in Blackpool in 1968, making his last public appearance in the 1970s. Musicians who took part in this project include Vince Montana, Roy Ayers, George Benson, Jocelyn Brown, Tito Puente, and members of the Salsoul Orchestra. When his differences with the tax people were eventually settled, Locke retired to Co. Their Nuyorican Soul project sees them working extensively with real (as opposed to sampled or synthesized) musicians, in a variety of styles including Latin, disco, jazz, etc. Eventually he fled the country for Ireland, where he lay low for several years. They have also produced music together under the names Kenlou and Nuyorican Soul.

In 1958 after appearing in five Royal Variety Performances, and while still at the peak of his career, the British tax authorities began to make substantial demands that Locke declined to meet. Masters At Work (MAW) are house music producers and remixers Kenny Dope Gonzalez and Little Louie Vega. They first worked together using the name (which had originally been used by mutual friend Todd Terry) in 1990. His other songs were mostly a mixture of Irish ballads such as I'll take you home again Kathleen, Dear old Donegal and Galway Bay, excerpts from operettas including The Drinking song, My Heart and I, and Goodbye, along with familiar Italian favourites such as Come back to Sorrento and Cara Mia. In 1947, too, Locke released Hear my song, Violetta, which became forever associated with him. He was signed to the Columbia label in 1947, and his first releases were the two Italian songs Santa Lucia and Come back to Sorrento.

He made his first radio broadcast in 1949, and subsequently appeared on TV programmes such as Rooftop Rendezvous, Top of the Town, All-star Bill and The Frankie Howerd Show. The renowned Irish tenor John McCormack (1894-1948) advised him that his voice was better suited to a lighter repertoire than the operatic one he had in mind, and urged him to find an agent -- thus he found the noted impresario Jack Hylton (1892-1965) who booked him, but couldn't fit his full name on the bill, thus Joseph McLaughlin became Josef Locke. Known as The Singing Bobby, he became a local celebrity before starting to work the UK variety circuit, where he played 19 seasons in the northern English seaside resort of Blackpool. He started singing in local churches in the Bogside at the age of seven, and as a teenager added two years to his age in order to enlist in the Irish Guards, later serving abroad with the Palestine Police, before returning in the late 1930s to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Born in Londonderry, now in Northern Ireland, he was the son of a butcher and cattle dealer, and one of nine children. Josef Locke was the stage name of Joseph McLaughlin (23 March 1917 - 15 October 1999), a tenor singer who was enormously popular in Britain and Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s.