“I left the theatre tingling from head to foot. I’ve never experienced anything like it in all my years as a music critic. If this guy’s playing doesn’t bring a lump to your throat you are dead from your feet up. Dont miss this show. It’s an experience you will never forget and one you will want to see and hear over and over again”.
The Stage & Television To-Day
“He’s a magical musician who has changed the audience’s live concert experiences forever. Don’t miss the chance to see him. He truly deserves the undisputed title of “King of the Music”
Las Vegas Press
Book Description
When a young Irishman called Jackie Farn arrived in London with just £40 in his pocket to break into the English showbusiness scene, he never realized that within a few months, he would find himself working on the same bill with such famous names as Ken Dodd, Max Bygraves, Dusty Springfield, Shirley Bassey, Val Doonican, Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdink.
He was already a household name in his native Ireland with hundreds of radio and TV shows to his credit. But in 1964 he came to London armed only with his musical talent and his unique custom made “Cordovox” electronic accordion which in his talented hands could sound like a full concert orchestra.
His success was immediate. He succeeded in winning a recording contract with E.M.I, had a name change to Valentino, starred in Sunday concerts and Summer seasons at Blackpool, Great Yarmouth, and Torquay for Sir Bernard Delfont and Sir Harold Fielding as well as appearing at venues all over the world from London’s Royal Albert Hall to the Hollywood Bowl.
TV shows followed including The Black and White Minstrel Show, The Val Doonican Show, International Cabaret from the Talk of the Town and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Club. He became friends with stars like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Johnny Ray, Dusty Springfield, Frank Carson, John Lennon, Liberace and Sammy Davis Jnr, the list is endless.
Huge success followed in America and around the word and after his debut in Las Vegas the press there christened him the King Of The Music, a title he has used ever since. His never before told story covers his incredible life working and living with many famous entertainers and gives a unique and fresh insight into their private lives as well as the politics, hard knocks, jealousies, trials and tribulations, not to mention the many laughs in the wonderful world that’s called showbusiness.
