Frederick Garrity, singer and songwriter, born November 14 1936; died May 19 2006
With his band, the Dreamers, the minor British pop legend Freddie Garrity, who has died aged 69, enjoyed a chart run on both sides of the Atlantic during the Merseybeat boom of the early 1960s. But Garrity, who had suffered from emphysema in recent years, never made it to the top of the UK pop charts, though he did have two No 2s.
The comic capers that became their trademark were developed during a club residency in Hamburg. Though Freddie was the front man, the Dreamers did not just skulk behind him, but engaged too in trouser-dropping, slapstick and other clowning. For aspiring pop stars, they were an odd bunch; a podgy bass player, a drummer who resembled a door-to-door salesman, one guitarist sporting curious sunglasses and the other prematurely bald.
Alan Clayson Monday May 22, 2006 The Guardian LINK
