The John Norman Four (Manchester)
- John Norman - lead vocals
- Frederick 'Freddie' Garrity Jnr - cheap guitar (1958)
Manchester group The John Norman Four included John Norman on lead vocals and 21-year-old Freddie Garrity on a cheap guitar (b. Frederick Garrity Jnr, Saturday, November 14, 1936, 123 Crescent Road, Crumpsall, Manchester 8, Lancashire, England d. Friday, May 19, 2006, Hospital, Ysbyty Ifan near Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales).
At the time of his birth Garrity was living at 11 Chandley Street, Ancoats, Manchester 4. Garrity and was the eldest son of miner, general labourer, later dye-mixer Freddie Garrity Snr and Elise Clynes. He had a younger brother Derek Garrity (b. 1939, 11 Chandley Street?, Ancoats, Manchester 4, Lancashire, England d. October 2020, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain). He grew up in Glynn Gardens, West Didsbury, Manchester 20 and went to Yew Tree Secondary School where he played football for the school team as he was a talented schoolboy footballer. He later had trials with Burnley and trained with Manchester City and Manchester United football clubs.
Garrity was also stepped in his city's popular entertainment tradition. After leaving school at 15 in 1951, he signed on for an engineering apprenticeship that would have lasted seven years had his musical talent not begun to emerge. He started to practice his guitar skills on the shop floor of the Turbine Factory and show them off at staff dances. He was later a shoe salesman, a brush salesman and then a milkman.
A fanatical Manchester United fan, he began to get pub gigs. Then during the first year of his apprenticeship, he won a local talent contest in 1956 at The Locarno Ballroom, Sale with an Al Jolson song 'April Showers.' His prize for winning was an electric razor, even though he hardly shaved.
Garrity had been in The Red Sox (Skiffle Group) with his younger brother Derek Garrity. Garrity's fiancée Josie Tideswell (b. Josephine Ida Tideswell, 1943) prevailed upon him to leave the group in 1958 to sing with the less demanding John Norman Four. Within weeks, he had joined The Kingfishers, who in Late 1959 became The Dreamers and in March 1962 mutated into Freddie and the Dreamers.
Info courtesy John H Warburg 1/12/2023