Getting to know Cliff Richard
View(s):Sri Lanka resident, Royston Ellis, has just had a new book published in the UK about the time he toured with Cliff Richard. The book, Cliff
Royston Ellis with Cliff Richard in Sri Lanka 2007
Richard and The Shadows, a rock ‘n’ roll memoir, is a true account of the early years of Cliff Richard’s career.
It is based on two books that Royston Ellis wrote at the time about his friendship with Cliff Richard and touring with him and his group, The Shadows, from 1959. In his foreword to the book, Sir Cliff Richard, has written: “I hope you will enjoying reading and discovering (or remembering) how it all began for us 55 years ago.”
The story of Cliff Richard and The Shadows during the early, innocent days of pre-Beatles, pre-Led Zeppelin rock and roll has one person in common, Royston Ellis. He was then a rock and roll beat poet who performed his poems as ‘rocketry’ backed by The Shadows, The Beetles (it was Royston who convinced them to spell their name with an “a”) and Jimmy Page, later to found Led Zeppelin.
Royston Ellis, the author of over 60 novels, biographies and travel guides published in the UK and USA, has lived in Sri Lanka for 35 years, and Cliff Richard visited him when he performed here in 2007. The book includes many new anecdotes and rare photographs. In its first week of publication it shot into the amazon.co.uk Top Ten list of pop biographies.