Jimmy Nail
b. 16 March 1954, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne & Wear, England. Never the most natural pop star, the actor Jimmy Nail's efforts in front of a microphone have nevertheless brought him huge UK success. As the son of the boxer and Huddersfield Town footballer, Jimmy Bradford, Nail worked hard on misspending his youth and was expelled from school and was later jailed for football violence. After prison, though, he mended his alcoholic ways and began singing in pubs and clubs. He fronted the band King Crabs, with whom he wore a dress on stage, before embarking on his own songwriting. After a few small acting parts, he received his break when he got the part of the loveable philistine Oz in the widely acclaimed ITV television series, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet? Subsequent acting roles have played upon a gritty, rough-edged demeanour. His musical career took off when his version of Rose Royce's Love Don't Live Here Anymore reached number 3 in the UK chart. However the follow-up single That's The Way Love Is and his debut album flopped, and so he concentrated on his acting career , especially the detective series Spender, which ran for the next seven years. This drama, which Nail co-wrote with Ian LaFrenais, had a musical background. When Nail returned to music it was with the UK number 1 single Ain't No Doubt. However, its follow-up, Laura, failed to breach the Top 50. Nail pressed on with a new television series, Crocodile Shoes, which followed the career of a down-at-heel pub-rocker on his way to Nashville and stardom. The album which accompanied it became the biggest- selling UK release of 1994, and featured guest writers that included Prefab Sprout's Paddy McAloon. The title-track and Cowboy Dreams (whose Top Of The Pops transmission featured an appearance by fellow Newcastle native Sting) also made the UK Top 10.