Pop Musicians who lived in the Wood

 

Keith Richards

 

Billy Fury

 

1 Cavendish Avenue

 

Boy George

 

Sir Paul McCartney

St Johns Wood has attracted a number of pop musicans as a place to live,  perhaps because of the Abbey Road recording studios.

In the 1960s Keith Richards, rock musician and song writer for the Rolling Stones, lived in Carlton Hill.   Born 18 December 1943, he  is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. He has been described as  the creator of “rock’s greatest single body of riffs” on guitar and was ranked  fourth on  a list of 100 best guitarists in 2011.

Billy Fury, born Ronald Wycherley in 1940, married Lisa  Voice (née Rosen) and lived at 18 Cavendish Avenue (where there is a plaque to him-see photo).

 After achieving a handful of hit singles in 1959, Billy went on to have another twenty three in the 1960s, but he suffered from heart problems and was forced to become much less active. Despite ongoing trouble with his heart, he continued to work through until his death in 1983.

 In January 1983 he collapsed after a recording session with a heart attack and was taken to St Marys Hospital where he died, at the early age of 42. The funeral service took place in St Johns Wood Church.

Boy George (born George Alan O’Dowd in 1961) is a singer, song-writer and DJ.  In the late 1970s he lived for a short time in Abercorn Mews and was a part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the late 1970s – early 1980s.

Sir James Paul McCartney CH MBE(born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He gained worldwide fame as the bass guitarist and singer for the rock band the Beatles, widely considered the most popular and influential group in the history of popular music.  . He has written, or co-written, 32 songs that have reached number one on the Billboard list. His song writing partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history.  After the group disbanded in 1970, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda  and Denny Laine.

In 1966 he moved into Cavendish Avenue with Jane Asher. He later married Linda Eastman who sadly died in 1998. In 2002 he married Heather Mills but they were divorced in 2008.  In 2011 he married Nancy Shevell.  He still lives in Cavendish Avenue.