Hi, I am hoping this message reaches Eric Woolfson. He may remember that I contacted him at the email address he gave on this site a year ago (an email address that no longer works) asking him if it was true what I had heard, that Darren Burn, the eleven years old boy recording artiste who's records Eric produced at EMI during 1973-1974 had taken his own life in 1991. I heard from Eric through a person named Sally that Eric was unaware of this and that he hadn't seen Darren since the 1970's. It has taken me a long time to track down information about what became of Darren Burn and I have been doing a lot of digging...not easy for a private individual living 140 miles away from London and this is what I have discovered.
It is, unfortunately, true, that he is no longer with us. In 1991, at the age of 30, Darren was working as a computer programmer. He was unmarried and he lived alone at Flat 7, 146, Grosvenor Terrace, London, SE5. He was being treated for depression and was taking Dothiepin tablets prescribed for him. On October 30th, 1991, he was found dead in his flat. An autopsy confirmed that he had died from Dothiepin poisoning (he had taken an overdose). An inquest was held at Southwark Coroner's Court, South London, on January 15th, 1992 and the Coroner recorded a verdict that Darren had killed himself. So now, we all know for sure. Sorry to be the bearer of such sad news.
In July, 1973, Eric and Darren were featured in a colour filmed documentary in the BBC's Man Alive series called "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in which scenes were shown of Eric and Darren recording a record (Concrete and Clay) in what was probably EMI's Abbey Road studios in London. Also there were scenes of Eric rehearsing Darren in Darren's lounge at his family home in Southgate, for Darren's first personal appearence on stage, which took place on Saturday, July 28th, 1973, at the Sundowner Disco in Silver Street, Edmonton (formerly the Gaumont Regent cinema and now long since demolished) and also scenes of Eric rehearsing Darren on the stage before the customers were let in.
I am so lucky in that I have a privately obtained VHS video of this programme and it's fascinating to watch. Eric and Darren get on very well together. In one part, Eric instructs Darren to keep smiling during his performance. "Even if it's a meloncholy song, keep smiling", advises Eric. As an eleven year old, Darren, the ex-church choirboy from Southgate, looks and sounds so happy and so full of hope for the future. It's so very sad to watch it now, knowing what eventually became of him.
The "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" programe was first transmitted on BBC2 on the evening of Wednesday, October 24th, 1973, when Darren had just turned 12. His parents, Colin and Jo, were also in the programme and they obviously thought the world of their son and were very proud of him. They must have been devastated when they lost him. Does anyone know what became of Darren's parents? In 1973, Colin Burn was an executive at EMI.
I did, of course, mean to type the Gaumont Regal cinema in Edmonton, not the Regent. But there's no way of editing a message on this forum once it's been posted.
Re: Eric's 1973-1974 production for EMI of Darren Burn records
March 20 2007, 9:21 AM
Hi, Tony, sorry, but I haven't got the equipment to make a copy of it for anyone. But I'd make you a copy if I could. The copy I was given was the only one the person who gave it to me had. However, I am hoping that the BBC will eventually release this programme on DVD, as it is a fascinating documentary of how, in 1973, a huge company like EMI went about plucking an eleven years old church choirboy from obscurity and promoting him, at enormous cost, into what they hoped would become the British answer to Donny Osmond. It also shows how records were made at that time, with Eric both in the control gallery supervising the recording and going down into the studio to advise Darren inbetween takes, of ways to improve his performance. The backing track was laid down first by some of the greatest musicians in the industry and then this was played back as Darren sung to it. So, no orchestra or backing musicians in the studio while he was laying down his vocal track. The programme also took viewers inside the EMI pressing plant at Hayes in Middlesex, to see Darren's first single being pressed by the thousand and shipped out to the record stores.
EMI, taking account of inflation, spent around £2 million pounds promoting Darren. But despite all the hype and the fact that the records were beautifully sung by Darren and superbly produced by Eric, they never took off...although his first single, "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart" backed with "True Love Ways" (EMI 2040, released on Friday, July 20th, 1973), did manage to get into the bottom of the singles charts.
John Pitman was the original BBC reporter on the 1973 programme and fifteen years later, in 1988, he went back to interview Darren, by then a 26 years old unemployed computer programmer, unmarried and living alone in a flat in Southwark, for the Where Are They Now? section of BBC Television's "People" programme. Pitman found Darren a shadow of his former self. Thin, pale, looking depressed and ill and on medication. A complete contrast to the bubbly, full of life and full of hope for the future eleven year old of fifteen years earlier. Darren acknowledged that EMI had spent a lot of money on him and that neither he nor EMI had gotten any financial return on the investment. When his records failed to sell, his schoolmates began calling him "Top of the Flops", which had hurt him terribly. He felt that he was a failure and was obviously not very pleased with the way things had turned out. The pride and self confidence in himself that he exhibited in 1973 were gone. Three years after the 1988 interview, he killed himself by taking an overdose of his anti-depressant tablets. An absolute tragedy of the first order and a tragic waste of a wonderful, intelligent and unique person.
Many thanks for those super images, Kirk. I, also have the original demo copy and picture sleeve from July, 1973 and it's good that images of the cover with Darren's image on it can be shared among those who may be too young to remember the 1970's, a time of some great record productions.
UPDATE: Following much detective work by myself and others, we have finally found the address of the up-market semi-detached house in Southgate, north London, where Darren and his family lived at the time of the BBC's Man Alive programme being filmed in July, 1973 and where Eric can be seen and heard rehearsing Darren in the lounge for his first public stage appearance at the Sundown, Edmonton. It was 17, Queen Elizabeth's Drive, Southgate, N14 6RG. The house is still there and photographs of it taken on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008, show it to have hardly changed at all in the 35 years since 1973.
Because of remarks spoken and footage seen in the programme, I always believed that the house backed onto a large park and it does...Grovelands Park. Unfortunately, when I contacted Eric about it, he couldn't remember the exact location of the house, which is understandable after so many years and this was why the detective work continued.
As for the Sundown, Edmonton, formerly the huge, 3,000 seater Gaumont Regal cinema on the corner of Fore Street and Silver Street, where, in the Man Alive film, Eric can be seen and heard rehearsing Darren on the stage before the audience were let in to see him perform on the morning of Saturday, July 28th, 1973, well, it was demolished in November, 1985. A terrible waste of a wonderful 1930's art deco building. The stage that Eric and Darren can be seen on during the Man Alive film, had also seen in the past, personal appearances by the likes of Frank Sinatra; Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, as it was a top venue in north London. A supermarket now occupies the site.
When I contacted Eric, he told me that his memory of Darren was of a delightful; charming and talented young man who showed tremendous promise at a very early age. I told Eric that I envy him so much for having met and worked with Darren. What a wonderful memory for him to have...even amidst the sadness of knowing what a tragic end Darren finally came to.