Barry St John

Big soulful voice BORN 1943

Born in Glasgow, Eliza Thomson sang in her late teens in West Germany with Bobby Patrick’s Big Six – whose saxman Alex Young would later front Beatles faves Grapefruit, and whose siblings Angus, Malcolm and producer George would find success with AC/DC. Going solo with a new sobriquet, her cover of nuclear war vignette Come Away Melinda was a UK Top 50 hit in 1965, while Everything I Touch Turns To Tears would eventually fill Northern soul dancefloors. Her soulful solo album, According To St. John, was released in 1968. She later sang with Alexis Korner and Long John Baldry, and joined The Les Humphries Singers in 1972, embarking on a session career which saw her appear on The Dark Side Of The Moon, as one of the four female voices on Time, and recordings by Elton John, Bryan Ferry, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, Memphis Slim, SAHB, Viv Stanshall, Mott The Hoople, Jorge Ben and Whitesnake. Later in life she worked in law.

Clive Prior