Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

[Spanish moon]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

I stumbled here somehow and feel compelled to set the record straight. Some of what I have read here, and elsewhere, is true and correct, some isn't. I was a pupil at CLS at the same time as Darren, same years, I knew him well. He wasn't part of my crowd at first (I was football team etc) but we become friends through a shared love of music. Forget any notion of him being bullied at school, he was well capable of looking after himself both verbally and physically. Teased? well of course, kids are kids, but it was pretty short lived and soon became a non issue. Our friendship grew, became best mates, I stayed at their house in Southgate, and then Brookmans Park on countless occasions, and he did at mine. We stayed close friends, through thick and thin, until the late eighties I think it's fair to say that nobody - anywhere - knew him better. I don't want to go into any more details on a public forum, but if anyone is interested in the real deal story, please feel free to email me at brudest904@gmail.com.

[DavidRayner]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

Apparently, the BFI have restored all the Man Alive films...including this one from July, 1973, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...for the BBC. But whether they will ever be released on DVD is up to the BBC. In the meantime, the above rather low quality editing copy with a time code on it is all that's available to collectors. I have the full, 52 minutes long version of the programme, from which the above excerpt was uploaded and, in 2009, I offered to send a copy to Darren's family, but they weren't interested.

[yossarian]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

Parts of the video I mentioned can be watched on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgmCc2jMyA

[yossarian]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

I remember Darren Burn very well. In the early seventies a video was circulated in which his beginning career as an emerging kid star was shown. I used this video in my English classes and discussed it with my teenage students who were fascinated seeing one of their age or younger performing. A couple of years later I tried to buy his record, but could not find it anywhere. The other day his name crossed my mind, and I found his tragic story here.
Obviously his parents were the main promoters of his career.

[DavidRayner]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

I have tried to paste them in on here through Photobucket, but they just won't upload (I wonder if that's the reason why no one uploads pictures on here...because they can't). However, if you send me your email address in a private message, I will send them to you by email.

[cpm82]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

Only frames captured from the 1988 BBC People interview when he was 26...three years before his death.

Could you post them David?

[DavidRayner]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

Only frames captured from the 1988 BBC People interview when he was 26...three years before his death.

[cpm82]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

David - do you have any photos of Darren in his later years?

[DavidRayner]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

The interview, a seven minutes section entitled Whatever Happened to Darren Burn? from a July, 1988, BBC Television People programme is not available online, although I have a private DVD-R of it. Darren, then aged 26, looks thin and pale and comes across as a very bitter and self depreciating person. This is intercut with footage from the Man Alive film of him as an eleven year old fifteen years earlier in July, 1973, full of life; enthusiasm; excitement and hope for the future. The stark contrast between these two images of the same person is only too terribly apparent.

[cpm82]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

Is there the 1988 interview with him available online anywhere?

[Richard Dunn]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

I have come across this thread by accident, luck, or what have you. I was Darren's Uncle as younger brother of his mother, and there was only 13 years difference between our ages so became a friend as well until I moved up to the Midlands, he came and visited a couple of times with his long term girlfriend but he was a different man to the teenager and child I knew.

I am more than a little upset with the posts here insulting my sister and my brother in law by some strange almost paedophile fan boy, who has become infatuated with him and his memory, so sees no wrong. I am afraid Darren was a deeply flawed character that showed as a "know it all" as a kid to being insufferable and impossible to reason with in later life, and take my word for it everyone in the family tried.

In one way I am pleased he failed as he would have become even more arrogant and insufferable to deal with had he become a star. I say this to balance the hero worship, he had fine sides to his personality as well but later hard drug use and the thought that everyone owed him a living ruined it. How would any of you react if you felt you had to ban a relative from visiting you as every time he did things disappeared - stolen. I have held and cuddled my mother (his grandmother) who loved him dearly as she cried not knowing how to react when most of her jewellery was stolen to feed his drug habit. It is sad to say it but he became unwelcome in most of our houses within the family. Not for want of trying to get help for him, but his arrogant personality meant that he always knew best and would never listen to anyone.

To blame everyone else for his life was the way that Darren was, it was never his fault. OK he had a rum deal from EMI but so did most people back then even his father, who left EMI very soon after his sons problem with them to take up the job as business manager of the Rolling Stones. Colin (his father) had no control over what happened, EMI initiated everything, all Jo and Collin did was to ask Darren at every stage if he wanted to do it and he was told clearly there was no guarantee of success, it is just life, and life is not always good to you.

At his death he was not alone he had a very loving and caring girlfriend who would have devoted her life to him, but he was too busy feeling sorry for himself to give the care she deserved in return. He had employment doing freelance work for pyrotechnics company with firework displays and building the display fireworks. he had thing he could have taken forward in his life but chose not to.

OK we have a tragic life, but at least he had a chance, he wasn't a Bangladeshi kid with a good voice who was used as forced labour in a clothing factory, or many many other lives far worse and with far worse opportunities than his.

Yes I miss him, he was blood brother and I went through similar thing with drugs but I came out of them and didn't use them as an excuse to hurt my family. Let him rest in peace, this infatuation with the boy / man helps no one and is slightly disturbing from my point of view.

This will be my only and last post in this matter.

[DavidRayner]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

Darren Burn fans will be interested to know that the colour short film "The Insomniac", in which he featured when he was nine years old in 1970 and which has not been seen since its original cinema release, will be released by the BFI on both Blu-Ray and DVD on September 23rd, 2013 as an extra with the film "Sleepwalker". Both Blu-Ray and DVD discs will be in the same case and also available from amazon uk. It will be very interesting for me to see how he looked at a different age to how he appeared in the BBC Television 'Man Alive' film from 1973 and also at an age when he was famous as the 'Heinz Baked Beans Boy' in the nationally shown ITV film commercials.

[DavidRayner]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

The main problem with EMI, especially in the early 1970s, was that it was a very big company with its fingers in many pies, including film production; the manufacture of televisions; radios and other electrical equipment and many other things besides records. I feel sure that you are right in what you say, they just didn't respect their recording artistes as they should have done and certainly had no idea how to handle and promote Darren Burn properly. In fact, I don't think that there were many people high up in the company who loved music and records as much as they should have done and the company has certainly been going down hill for some years now, mainly for the reasons you state. Mind you, the way they treated Darren, I'm glad to to hear of their deserved demise. The fact that Darren's father Colin was a top executive of the company at that time only makes the tragedy of Darren worse.

[fatpizzaman]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

They say "what goes around comes around" and "karma is a b.itch". A few weeks ago, EMI Records finally bit the dust itself. It has now been bought up by Universal Music, except for the Parlophone label which got taken by Warner Music.

EMI Records was once dubbed "The Greatest Recording Organisation In The World" in the 1960s, and indeed for the next couple of decades it was at the top of the chain of the major labels.

After the Britpop bandwagon crashed in the late 90's, EMI started to gradually flounder. Its offices at Manchester Square were relocated, and it sold its prized company trademark HMV to become a standalone retail chain. The HMV logo used to be synonymous with EMI being its main flagship rock, pop and classical label until 1968 when EMI closed it off to contemporary acts before Morrissey briefly revived it for his solo work from 1988 - 1993.

I could see the writing on the wall for EMI for some time. The Beatles sued the label over unpaid royalties and Paul and Ringo subsequently leaving the label to sign with Universal's labels Hear Music and Hip-O respectively. Eventually long-time best selling artists like Kate Bush, Queen, and Radiohead left the label to sign elsewhere. Ironically, the current No.1 single in the UK charts is on EMI's Positiva/Virgin label maybe as a last hoorah for the company.

It goes to show that no matter how big your company is, if you don't take care of what you've got or treat your artists or clients like human beings instead of just a number then you will eventually take a mighty fall. Not trying to be preachy here but the Bible warns "Love of money is the root of all evil" and "Greed is a form of idolatry".

If only those words were inscribed on every businessperson's heart, and if only EMI had adopted those policies back in the 60's and 70's it would still be in the league of the majors. Now we only have three left: Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music. Wonder which one will be next to go?

[DavidRayner]

Re: Darren Burn - Bubblegum kid of tragedy

Another interesting magazine interview from nearly forty years ago.

Record Mirror centre page spread, Saturday, August 25th, 1973.

DARREN – SUPERKID.
By Sue James.

Could Britain have at last found the answer to America’s Donny in the latest young singer to appear on the pop scene – twelve year old Darren Burn? His first record is Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart, the song that was a big hit for Gene Pitney a few years back. I went along to EMI records to have a chat with Darren to find out if he sees himself as another Donny and why that particular song was chosen to launch him into the pop world. Not very far away from where he gave the interview were Darren’s mother and father. His father works at EMI. Apparently, Darren wasn’t feeling too good and apologised if he might appear a bit slow as he didn’t get to bed until three thirty the morning before and woke up again at seven. Such are the hazards of the pop business.

On the day of the interview, Darren was dressed casually in a pair of maroon trousers and a green T-shirt and for someone who is not yet into his teens and a relative newcomer I found him very much in control of things and displaying a shrewdness beyond his twelve years. Was it a sudden decision for him to break into the pop business and how did it all happen? "I’ve wanted to make a record for some time. I was offered the opportunity about four years ago, but at that time I didn’t want to, so I turned it down." Darren used to sing for his church choir which he has just left and he has had some previous recording experience of doing backing on a couple of records. He’s no newcomer to television, either. You might remember him as one of the boys on those famous baked beans adverts.

Why was Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart chosen as his first single? Although it’s a very likeable song, it’s not one that is instantly commercial. "Well, I was going to record something like Venus In Blue Jeans, but my producer decided on something a bit more sophisticated. We recorded about four songs altogether in the studio, but Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart was the one that was chosen." One of the songs done in the studio was I Got You Babe, which he sang with his young sister, Deborah. I wondered how he felt about people looking on him as the British version of Donny Osmond. "Well, I’d rather be thought of as Darren Burn rather than another Donny Osmond, though it’s inevitable that I will be compared with him." Michael Jackson is the singer that Darren admires most, and he numbers Blue Mink, The Moody Blues and Barclay James Harvest among his other favourites. "and of course, The Beatles. I don’t like progressive music."

Does he find that the making of a pop record and all that goes with it, interfere with his school and personal life? "No, the record was planned to coincide with my summer holidays so that I would be free to promote it." Darren recorded his second single last week…this time, an upbeat dancing number and he may be doing an LP. So it looks like we’ll be hearing a lot more of him in the future, but he said: "I’d like to carry on as long as it lasts, but I wouldn’t like to take up singing as a living. I’d like to become a heart surgeon." Then he joked: "that’s why the record’s called Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart."