Monday, July 20, 2009

Popobit: Gordon Waller

Gordon Waller, the Gordon out of Peter And Gordon, has died, it has been announced.

Born in Braemar, Gordon met Peter Asher while the pair were at Westminster private school. Waller tempted Asher away from jazz and blues, and the pair soon started playing music together. Originally going as Gordon and Peter, the names got reversed and the pair got picked up by EMI. A song from Paul McCartney, A World Without Love, set them up nicely - they knocked the Beatles off the top of the UK chart and had the biggest-selling single in the US in 1964.

Success didn't last long, though, and - after a couple of years sharp decline - the duo split in 1968. Waller's attempts at a solo career struggled - there were some unloved releases, and a spell in musicals - before he figured that the money was behind the scenes and he swapped to music publishing.

Peter And Gordon reunited for the occasional date in the last few years, and Waller had been playing solo material live. In 2007, he toured a Beatles tribute show.


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