A cautionary tale of ambition, ineptitude and fraud featuring a current Emmerdale star. Uncovered by our singing detective correspondent Angus Young.
From The Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen to Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, 1977 was a year to remember for music fans. It also marked a high point for singing TV detectives with David Soul taking time off from Starsky and Hutch to reach Number One with Silver Lady. Two years earlier, Telly Savalas had also topped the charts with a cover of the Bread song ‘If’ while playing the lollipop-loving New York cop Kojak. Surely the time was right for one of Britain’s best-known TV tough guys to follow in their footsteps?
In the 1970s, Patrick Mower was never off the telly. He followed up his breakthrough role as a ruthless assassin in the spy series Callan to star as a detective in the hard-hitting police drama Special Branch before playing the main no-nonsense detective in Target, the BBC’s answer to The Sweeney. In addition, he was also a regular face on celebrity panel shows, adverts and films such as Black Beauty.
Then, in 1977, the actor who once auditioned to play James Bond revealed he was launching a pop career. In a newspaper interview he revealed he had been waiting for the right song to come along and now it had – a love ballad called My Imagination. Not only that, he said he hadn’t just leapt at the first offers to come his way from record companies keen to cash in on its popularity on the box. Instead, he’d signed up with an obscure label in Hull called Koala Records.
It seemed a strange choice, The Beverley Road-based label didn’t exactly have a roster of big name artists on its books. Instead, its less than extensive back catalogue included debut albums by two never-to-be-heard-of-again folk groups and a LP of Christmas carols sung by the York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir and pupils from a primary school in Bradford. The signing of Mower seemed to mark a shift in direction for the label. As well as his debut single, Koala also scheduled a new single release by New Faces finalist Eve Adam at the same time.
However, things didn’t go quite as planned as revealed in a subsequent story in The People under the headline: Patrick Singing The Blues. “The record was never released and I haven’t received a penny from it,” said Mower. Producer Tommy Sanderson wasn’t a happy man either, blaming a lack of promotion by Koala “It was a lovely song and Patrick has a nice, gentle voice – not like his tough TV image,” he added.
Mower wasn’t the only star let down by the label. The People also discovered magician Paul Daniels had suffered a similar experience having recorded a song for Koala. “I made a sad ballad called Do A Little Magic For Me with a send-up of Perry Como’s Magic Moments on the flip side but the record was never released. It was a pity because it wasn’t bad at all,” said Daniels.
According to the story, “real-life detectives” were now looking into the company’s affairs. Owner and managing director Richard Mackenzie said: “We found financial irregularities and immediately called in the fraud squad. The matter is still under investigation.” He claimed the label’s problems had surfaced at the same time as Mower’s debut single was due to be released. “The books are still being sorted out but Patrick won’t be getting much because fewer than 1,000 discs were sold. We were quite happy to persevere and wait for another suitable song but he appeared to lose interest.”
Four years later Mackenzie was jailed for six months at the end of four-week trial at Doncaster Crown Court after being found guilty of four dishonesty charges relating to Koala and other business ventures. During the trial, the jury heard Koala’s creditors were owed around £6,000 when it eventually ceased trading. A former Conservative councillor in Hull, he was also disqualified from being a company director for five years. Passing sentence, Judge John Henham said Mackezie had used his undoubted talents to deceive others.
Today ‘70s TV tough guy Mower is still on the box playing ageing lothario Rodney Blackstock in the hit soap Emmerdale. The last time I saw Mackenzie a couple of years ago he was representing a convenience store owner at a city council licensing committee hearing into allegations of illegal cigarettes being sold under the counter. As for My Imagination, it’s now a rare collectible slice of vinyl with original copies currently being advertised on Ebay with a £25.23 price tag.