Article 7
1965 SILVER DISC STAR TRIES AGAIN
Remember Crispian St Peters, the local boy who had shooting star success in the mid '60's with two hit records? Since those chart-topping days things have not been too good for Swanley-born Crispian.
A parade of misses followed his hits, "You Were On My Mind," and "The Pied Piper." Work began dropping off and the money stopped coming in.
Finally in 1970, the pressure of rising from obscurity to stardom and back again told on Crispian and he was admitted to the Joyce Green Hospital suffering from a nervous breakdown.
He is still having anti-depressant injections but is back on the road again and looking for success.
The song he hopes to make his comeback with, "Do Daddy Do," was self penned. No date has been fixed for it's release but in the meantime he sings in pubs and clubs.
£25 A NIGHT
He now sings with his backing group, Friends. The money they earn, £25 a night, split three ways, is a far cry from the £300 a night he received when "You Were On My Mind" reached No. 2 in the charts.
The five years leading to and including his success brought him £20,000. "For five years work it was not much. I'm still paying tax on it. Instead of investing the money I spent it, enjoying myself," he told me.
Crispian was born in Swanley 34 years ago. He lived in Goldsel Road and went to St Mary's School and Swanley County Secondary. In those days his name was Robin Peter Smith.
After leaving school at 15 he had a variety, the first of which was as projectionist at the old Century Cinema, Dartford.
He joined the Hard Travellers Skiffle Group and eventually became the lead singer. They played locally and he stayed with them until joining the army in 1959.
In the army he was half of a duo called the Two Tones and in 1961, when he was demobbed, the two went north to tour the clubs.
WORKS JOB
Eventually he got "fed up" and came back to Swanley took a job in a metal works at Crayford and formed a rock and roll trio called Peemix.
They attracted some attention and under the name Beat Formula Three recorded "At This Moment."Although they sang it on the pop television programme "Ready, Steady, Go" it did not sell very well.
But it was Crispian who interested the agents and promoters so he went solo. His next record was a flop, but in 1965 came the big breakthrough with "You Were On My Mind."
When he first heard the song he hated it. "I thought it was terrible," he told me. But his version sold 250,000 copies and earned him a Silver Disc.
The success led to a tour of one night stands throughout Britain and trips to Germany and Belgium.
His next record, "The Pied Piper," reached No 4 in Britain and No 3 in the United States. He then went on tour in the 'States and Australia where the record hit No 1.
DROP IN MONEY
However, his follow-up record, "Changes," flopped and only just made the Top 50. With the decline in disc sales came the drop in money.
Tired out and fed up, Crispian did less and less work. The less he did the more depressed he became until he ended up in hospital in October 1970.
He has been married for three-and-a-half years. He has a two-year-old daughter, Samantha, and his wife, Colette, is expecting another baby in May.
They live in a pleasant, detached house in Kingsdown, although it is not the £50.000 mansion Crispian envisaged buying when the money flowed in.
A seven year gap from the top is a long time in the fickle pop world but Crispian hopes that 1973 will be the year when he is back on people's minds.
C.C. Kentish Times 15/2/73.
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