Cleethorpes is a seaside resort on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire in the UK with a population of nearly 40,000.
In 1949 Rod Temperton was born there and s a child his father would lay a transistor radio in his crib playing Radio Luxembourg to help him sleep.
In 1974, aged 25, he responded to an advert in The Melody Maker from an American serviceman based in West Germany and they formed the funk/disco band Heatwave.
He wrote Heatwave hits “Boogie Nights” and “Always And Forever” the latter being recalled as having been “written on a Wurlitzer piano at the side of a pile of pungent washing” in reference to Temperton’s modest and decidedly unglamorous flat which was at odds to the slick American disco sounds of his work. Producer Barry Blue recalled: “He had a very small flat, so everything had to be done within one room and he had piles of washing, and had the T.V. on top of the organ.”
Quincy Jones was impressed by the Heatwave album and in 1979 recruited Templeton to rite for Michael Jackson’s first solo album in four years, Off the Wall. Temperton wrote three songs for the album, including “Rock with You”.
By 1982 Temperton had moved to Beverley Hills and wrote another thee singers for Jackson’s next record including the title track “Thriller”.
Other people of note who were born in Cleethorpes include:
The director of The Italian Job (Peter Collinson); in a Pophole-loop, Quincy Jones composed the soundtrack for the film.
The actor who was Betty Spencer in Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave ‘Em (Michele Dotrice) – who married Edward Woodward
The actor was played Mrs Mangle in Neighbours (Vivean Gray)
The actor who portrayed Miranda’s mum in the sitcom by that name (Patricia Hodge)
Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York’s royal dresser, Jane Andrews who was convicted for murder in 2001.
Frontman of 1980s post-punk band The Passage (Richard Witts, now a musicologist).
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