Career
The 'original' Edison Lighthouse was Tony Burrows (lead vocalist), Stuart Edwards (lead guitar), David Taylor (bass guitar), George Weyman (drums) and Ray Dorey (guitar).[2] The group's lone Top 40 hit "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"[1] (1970) was one of four near contemporaneous UK Singles Chart Top Ten hit singles by Burrows under different names, the others being White Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'", The Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding", and Brotherhood of Man's "United We Stand".[3] Burrows was also lead vocalist on the single "Beach Baby" (1974) for another studio only group, The First Class.
"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was Number One for five weeks and sold 250,000 copies in the UK.[2] "Love Grows" raced to the Number One position in its second week on the chart, which was at the time the quickest rise by an act new to the chart.[4] The United States release was in February 1970 and reached Number 4 in the Billboard Hot 100, selling a million copies there by April earning the R.I.A.A. gold disc[2]. In Canada the song reached #3.
After the success of "Love Grows", Burrows left to pursue other projects, and Macaulay, who owned the rights to the Edison Lighthouse name, assembled another group of musicians to record under the name[3]. Members of the group Greenfield Hammer were brought in to perpetuate the image of a real working band[3]. Actor and singer Paul Vigrass replaced Burrows and other members of the re-assembled group were David Kerr-Clemenson (bass guitar), Andy Locke (guitar), Eddie Richards (drums) and Wally Scott (guitar). This second edition of Edison Lighthouse cracked the UK Top 50 with the single "It's Up to You Petula" which got to number 29,[citation needed], but because of the postal strike, returns were not sent in by the record shops , so a higher spot in the charts was not reached. The next single "What's Happening"/ coupled with Take a Little Time, which was written by the band, became a huge hit in Japan and the band received silver discs for it. They then went on to tour Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malasia and Africa, causing a bit of a stir at the time. The single released for the Africa tour was "Reconsider my Belinda" which had huge success in the African continent. The last single released was "Find Mr Zebedee". The band then called it a day after returning from a tour of Europe. Dave Kerr-Clemenson, after touring with White Plains and Andy Locke, went on to form Fast Buck and recorded an album with Jet records for the one and only Don Arden/Sharon's dad and toured the world extensively supporting ELO. Eddie Richards was the drummer in First Class who had a hit with Beach Baby[1][3].
In 2001, Les Fradkin, obtaining the trademark to the name Edison Lighthouse, formed a new group for touring and recording.
The lack of further chart activity leaves the group with transatlantic one-hit wonder status.
[edit] Original band member details Tony Burrows (born 14 April 1942, Exeter, Devon) Stuart Edwards (born 9 June 1946, Maidenhead, Berkshire) David Taylor (born 7 October 1950, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire) George Weyman (born 18 May 1949, Herne Bay, Kent) Ray Dorey (born 22 February 1949, Windsor, Berkshire)
[2]
[edit] Origin of the name
Edison Lighthouse was named after the Eddystone Lighthouse, a lighthouse off the coast of Cornwall.
[edit] See also One-hit wonders in the UK List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart UK No.1 Hits of 1970 List of performers on Top of the Pops One-hit wonders in the United States List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States Number 1 Singles in Ireland 1970 List of Top 25 singles for 1970 in Australia
