Sandie Shaw

Sandie Shaw is remembered as the slim, leggy, barefoot Princess of Pop during the 'Swinging' '60s.

She was born on 26 February 1947, the only child of Raymond and Rosina Goodrich and raised at their family home in Dagenham, Essex.  At school she was a bright and rebellious student who dreamed of the bright lights of London.  She started singing at 15 with amateur groups around the local teenage dances.  The word soon went round and after winning a local talent competition Sandie was asked to appear in a show in London with Adam Faith.  He was so impressed with her singing, that he arranged for her to be represented by his manager Eve Taylor and she soon secured a recording contract with Pye.

Her first single As Long As You're Happy Baby, released in 1964 did nothing.  Her second release - There's Always Something There To Remind Me - topped the British Hit Parade followed by a further fifteen chart singles including Girl Don't Come; Long Live Love (her second Number 1) and Monsieur Dupont.  She  was also a regular on popular programmes such as Top Of The Pops, Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars. Shaw recorded most of her hit singles in Italian, French, German and Spanish boosting her popularity on the continent. In 1967 she was chosen by the BBC to represent her country in The European Song Contest - and singing Puppet On A String - she landed the coveted first prize and her third Number 1.

During this time Sandie made a huge impact on television audiences with her series called The Sandie Shaw Supplement which formed the blueprint for many subsequent television music shows. 

In 1968 she married the celebrated fashion designer Jeff Banks and her career began to take a back seat to her family life. During the seventies she appeaed in repertory theater in London playing the parts of Joan of Arc in Bernard Shaw's St Joan and Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Having divorced Banks some years previously, Shaw married Nick Powell in 1982. Shaw's husband was a friend of Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records the label to which The Smiths were signed, and several more letters were passed along to Shaw. She eventually agreed to meet Morrissey and ended up recording some of their songs. In April 1984, her version of Hand In Glove (their first single) was released on Rough Trade. The single sold well (20,000 copies in its first three days) and peaked just inside the UK Top 30.

Shaw met her third husband, Tony Bedford, in 1996, having been introduced to him by her family G.P. (Bedford's uncle). Concentrating on her newfound career as a psychotherapist, Shaw opened the arts clinic in 1997 with her third husband to provide psychological healthcare and creative development to those in the entertainment and media industries. The following year she was invited to join the Royal Society of Musicians as an Honorary Professor of Music.