Emile Ford

Life and career

Emile Ford came into the world in Castries, Saint Lucia, in the West Indies. His father, Frederick Edward Miller, was a politician from Barbados, while his mother, Madge Murray, worked as a singer and directed musical theatre; her own father had both founded and conducted the St. Lucia Philharmonic Band. After Madge remarried, she took the surname Sweetnam, which has led some to mistakenly report that as Ford’s birth name. Ford attended St Mary’s College in Castries.

In the mid-1950s, he relocated to London with his mother and family, driven partly by an interest in better sound reproduction technology, and he studied at Paddington Technical College. While there, he taught himself to play several instruments: guitar, piano, violin, bass guitar, and drums. Using a shortened version of his name, he stepped into show business at twenty, with his debut public performance at The Buttery in Kensington. His first gig with a backing group took place at the Athenaeum Ballroom in Muswell Hill.

In 1958, he appeared on television programs including The Music Shop, the Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson Show, Oh Boy!, and Six-Five Special. In January 1959, Ford joined forces with his half-brother George Sweetnam-Ford on bass, electric lead guitarist Ken Street, saxophonist Dave Sweetnam-Ford, and drummer John Cuffley to create Emile Ford & the Checkmates. The group performed on the TV show Sunday Serenade for six weeks. They won the Soho Fair talent contest in July 1959 but declined a recording contract from EMI because the label would not let Ford produce their records; instead, they signed with Pye Records.

Their first self-produced single, “What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?”—a song originally cut by Ada Jones and Billy Murray in 1917—hit number one on the UK Singles Chart at the close of 1959 and held that spot for six weeks. Ford became the first Black British artist to sell one million copies of a single.

Did You Know?

• He had synaesthesia, a condition where he could associate or see colours in relation to sound, similar to Jimi Hendrix.
• Ford created a backing track system for stage shows in 1960 that provided a basis for what became known as karaoke.