Background
Born in Rhyl, North Wales, and named after his father, Bickerton grew up in Kirkdale, Liverpool.
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Wayne Bickerton
Edit Profileexecutive songwriter record producer
Career
He became well known, with Tony Waddington, as writer and producer of a series of United Kingdom chart hits in the 1970s for The Rubettes, and as a leading figure in Society of European Stage Authors and Composers – one of the three major American performing rights organisations. As well as sharing most of the singing, Bickerton and Waddington became songwriters for the group, which toured mainly in Germany and the United States, before they left in 1966. Bickerton then became a record producer at Deram Records, responsible for albums by Giles, Giles & Fripp (the forerunner to King Crimson) and World of Ounces
He also worked with Petula Clark and Tom Jones.
He later joined Polydor Records, becoming A&R chief and producing the band Mongrel. At the same time, he and Waddington continued writing songs together.
One of the most successful was "Nothing But A Heartache", recorded by American girl singing group The Flirtations, which reached Number. 34 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, Number.
31 on the Canadian RPM Magazine charts, and is now regarded as a northern soul classic.
lieutenant was later covered by Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. During this period, he and Waddington also came up with the idea for a rock "n" roll musical. They co-wrote and produced a demonstration recording of a song, "Sugar Baby Love", originally intending to submit it for the Eurovision Song Contest but instead offering it to Showaddywaddy, who turned it down.
Bickerton and Waddington then offered it to the demo musicians, provided that they would become an actual group.
The musicians agreed, became The Rubettes, and "Sugar Baby Love" became a United Kingdom #1 hit in 1974, also reaching Number. 37 in the United States charts and Number.
25 in Canada. They set up their own record label, State Records, which diversified in 1979 into owning Odyssey Studios and a new office building at Marble Architecture in central London, later sold to the radio station Jazz FM. Bickerton moved into the upper reaches of the wider music industry, initially as an executive of the Performing Right Society in England, where he worked from the late 1970s, eventually as Chairman and acting Chief Executive.
He also became Deputy Chairman of The University of Liverpool Institute of Popular Music. In 1997, he became an executive at Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, as Chairman of Society of European Stage Authors and Composers International, and was also awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Laws) by the University of Liverpool.
He died on 28 November 2015, aged 74.
