Clinton Ford; OBITUARY.

CLINTON Ford was not, in the strictest sense of the word, a Liverpool singer.

But his family and professional ties with the city were so strong that he surely qualifies as one of the extraordinarily talented group of popular musicians that emerged from Liverpool in the post-war years.

He was born Ian Harrison in Salford, to a family that had moved from Liverpool a few years earlier.

It was a musical family, with his mother a pianist accompanying silent films and his father a singer with a repertoire of music hall songs that he passed on to his son.

National Service in the 1950s saw him based in that most musical of cities, Vienna, and it was here that he discovered country and western music.

Back in Britain, he took his first steps in showbusiness as a Redcoat at Butlins in Pwllheli, adopted the name of Clinton Ford, and made his first visit to the Cavern Club in Liverpool.

The Cavern had only just opened, with the Merseysippi trad jazz band one of the regulars. Ford soon started singing with the Merseysippi, at the beginning of a professional partnership that was to last nearly 50 years.

He made his first recordings about that time, with the 1959 disc Old Shep making a brief appearance in the charts.

From around the same time he became a regular broadcaster on the old Light Programme, later transformed into Radio 2. He was championed by the presenter Brian Matthew, one of his closest friends, with a repertoire from country and western through the music hall songs learned from his father.

In television his career started in the 1960s with an appearance with Ken Dodd, and he went on to work with people like Billy Cotton and on shows like The Good Old Days.

He carried on recording prolifically, never notching up a big hit but earning a loyal following with numbers like Fanlight Fanny and Run to the Door.

He restricted his appearances from the 1970s.

Clinton Ford, singer Born, November 4, 1931; died, October 21, 2009