Mersey Beat - The Carrolls

Eunice Irene Carroll was born in Liverpool on the 28th of May 1944, attended St Francis De Sales School, Walton, and started singing at clubs in the Woolton area while still at school. She first appeared on the 4th of November 1960 as the singer with 'Irene and the Santa Fe's' and she also appeared at the Orrell Park and The Locarno.  Irene, aged 16, had won a singing contest resulting in her becoming resident singer at the Rialto Ballroom in Upper Parliament Street on Wednesday and Friday nights with the Hal Graham Showband. 'The Carrolls Close Harmony' group started as a duo with Irene and her brother Michael who was with 'The Stormers' and then upgraded to a family quartet in the 1960s.

The Rialto Ballroom

After she teamed up with her three brothers to form 'The Carrolls', the group won a recording contract with Polydor and, in the early summer of 1966, released their debut single, the stunning 'Surrender Your Love', penned by Motown's Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. (The song is sometimes confused with Diana Ross's 1971 similarly titled single 'Surrender', and there is certainly a likeness.) The result sounded like an offering from a black American soul singer and later became very popular on Britain's Northern Soul dance scene. 'Surrender Your Love' made Radio Caroline's chart, though not the official UK charts. However, it attracted enough attention to warrant the release of an album, in Romania. Irene took lead vocals on tracks such as 'Sweet Talking Guy' (a version of the US girl group 'The Chiffons' hit) and 'No Regrets' (Edith Piaf's Je ne regrette rien), while her brothers took over on others, including various Beatles covers.

In the UK, the group moved to CBS Records, where they released the single 'So Gently Falls The Rain' in April 1968 and two further singles the same year.
In 1969 the single 'We're In This Thing Together', penned by American soul legend Van McCoy and one on which Irene shared vocals with the boys, later became another in-demand track on the Northern Soul circuit.
After a string of flops, Irene quit the group and adopted the stage name Faith Brown.
 'Lock Me In' became her first solo release. It sounded like a Clodagh Rodgers track, and indeed it had been written by Kenny Young and it turned up on Clodagh's 'Goodnight Midnight' LP.
 However it was as a comedienne and impressionist that she eventually achieved her fame. In 1980, she did an impression of Kate Bush, performing 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Wow'. This impression became a staple of Brown's stage act for a time, and even won her a four-page letter of appreciation from Kate herself.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2016/11/johnny-templer-hi-cats.html