Matt Monro

Nicknamed the "Cockney Sinatra", George Martin named Matt Monro as the best singer he ever worked with, while music critic Fred Dellar described him in Mojo magazine in 2010 as "Britain's finest interpreter of standards". Monro was born Terry Parsons in north London in 1930, to Alice and Frederick. He had three brothers, Arthur, Reg and Harry and a sister, Alice. It was a tough childhood, his father died when he was three and after his mother became ill, he was fostered out for two years. Leaving school at 14, he tried a succession of jobs without sticking at any of them for very long, before National Service beckoned at age 18 and Matt became a tank driving instructor in the army and was posted to Hong Kong. He had sung in public from an early age, notably at the local Tufnell Park Palais, and in Hong Kong he took to entering local talent contests, winning several. In fact, he became so successful he was eventually barred from competing. Instead they gave him his own radio show, Terry