6 7www.thestar.co.uk Saturday, September 26, 2015THE STAR Saturday, September 26, 2015 www.thestar.co.uk THE STAR

RETRO RETRODOWN MEMORY LANE With Peter Tuffrey petertuffrey@rocketmail.com

Peter is a local historian based in Doncaster, was Keeper of Fine and Decorative Arts at Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery from 1975 until 1995 and has produced more than 70 publications. If you have any suggestions for the future he would love to hear from you.

eventually join several bands, including the Bryan Jones Combo and Musical Ride.

Neil was often out seven nights a week until the early hours and then back at work in the morning to put in a shift at his dad’s shop.

Wanting to perform on stage in yellow jackets, Neil and his bandmates quickly discovered that they were dif-ficult to obtain.

“We located a shop in Leicester that had four yellow jackets and a shop in Liverpool that had one,” recalled Neil. “It was very difficult to wear what you wanted to on stage.”

By 1972, trade was slow-

Last of the Summer Wine characters Compo and Nora in Stagewear costumes

Norman Wisdom and Neil Crossland of Stagewear

The Platters proud to be associated with Stagewear

Grumbleweeds costumed by Stagewear

Neil Crossland of Stagewear with Rick Wakeman

Stagewear Goldthorpe opening with Little and Large as Laurel and Hardy

The Searchers in Stagewear suits

Neil Crossland with photos of some of his creations

They wear it well... Neil’s top costumes for the starsFrom a small corner of South Yorkshire, Neil Crossland’s Stagewear Unlimited company has splashed colour across the entertainment and pop world for the last 40 years.

From Michael Jackson to Nora Batty, Rick Wakeman to Nor-man Wisdom, and from a griz-zly bear to a stripper’s snake, he’s kitted them all out with colourful, imaginative cus-tom-made costumes.

Always with a tape meas-ure draped around his neck and scissors in hand, Neil, quite remarkably, reached 30 before launching the com-pany.

Born in Barnsley during 1946 to an accomplished ac-cordion player, teacher and music shop owner, Neil passed his 11-plus to attend Longcar Central School.

He was not academical-ly inclined but competent at woodwork and on leaving school one teacher quipped to his parents: ‘He will always make a living with his hands.’ How right that was to be.

After spending two years as a driver’s mate at Redfearn Brothers’ Glass works he joined the family run music shop in the centre of Barnsley around 1963. His eldest broth-er, Barry, and sister, Hazel, were already working there.

This was at a time when the so-called British Beat Boom was gathering pace and every-body wanted to buy a Gibson, Fender or Gretsch electric guitar and amplifier to form a band and be as successful as the Beatles or Rolling Stones.

Having passed his driving test, Neil was largely tasked to make deliveries. But, when working in the shop he found time to learn to play guitar and

ing down in the Barnsley mu-sic shop and Neil’s father was ready for retirement and suf-fering from ill health.

The business was taken over by Kitchens of Leeds who also had other stores in the north. To put it tactfully, Neil’s sales techniques were quickly at odds with the new company’s policies. So, on leav-ing, he worked in Doncaster at Tommy Fever’s Professional Music Centre. By this time Neil was managing bands instead of playing in them.

Neil’s bands found, as he had done earlier, sourcing stage gear was extremely dif-ficult. This prompted him,

in 1974 to take a leap into the dark and establish Stagewear Unlimited in a shop on Goldthorpe High Street. For the opening ceremony he persuaded Syd Little and Ed-die Large to appear dressed as Laurel and Hardy.

Initially, Neil drove around and bought a selection of cheap garments off the peg but quickly found that bands and individuals wanted made to measure outfits and to their own designs.

Neil found a team of about 10 eager local female outwork-ers to make up the clothes but they shied away when it came to cutting out material for the

various creations.“Everyone was frightened

to make a mistake,” said Neil, “so I had a go myself. First I pulled apart one of my own shirts and made a template, then one my dad’s and broth-er’s. I quickly got the hang of it and made templates for oth-er sizes by buying up shirts from Oxfam shops. I also made templates in the same way for trousers, jackets and coats.”

Local people, especial-ly women, would appear at the shop and ask him to al-ter, repair or make clothes for them, but he has largely kept to making stagewear for male entertainers and per-

formers. One of Neil’s first customers at Goldthorpe was Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers fame.

Neil only ever advertised once and that was in his first year in business. After that, trade grew steadily and in-cluded making outfits for club acts, male voice choirs and many, many celebrities. They included the Grumbleweeds, 1960s singers The Bachelors and Craig Douglas and comics Jimmy Cricket, Duggie Brown and Charlie Williams.

Competition in supplying stagewear outfits came from Colin Wilde in Carnaby Street, London, but Neil on many oc-

casions was able to offer more competitive prices for south-ern customers who trekked up north.

On one occasion a circus performer, Peter Jolly, pulled up outside the Goldthorpe shop in a van and said he want-ed a gold studded collar for a grizzly bear. Neil explained he would need the animal’s neck measurement and was told the bear was in a cage in the back of the van.

“I took one look at the bear and handed the tape meas-ure to the performer. There was no way I was going anywhere near the bear,” laughed Neil.

As business boomed Neil needed to move and eventual-ly settled in an ex-undertaker’s premises in Bolton-on-Dearne during 1985. Highlights of the ensuing years were making five jackets for Michael Jack-son, dressing Boyzone, mak-ing outfits for the cast of Last of the Summer Wine, Emmer-dale, and Heartbeat as well as costumes for cruise ship shows and West End theatres.

Although he did not often make women’s costumes, Jo

Brand was an exception and she was provided

with a policewoman’s u n i f o r m f o r

a p a n t o -m i m e . Neil has a l s o

made outfits for Christine Coles, dubbed the female Chubby Brown.

Neil admits one of his most bizarre costumes was for a fe-male stripper’s snake. Holly, from Wrexham, asked Neil to create a feather boa that could fasten with Velcro to conceal the python. Then, in her act, when she draped it round the necks of members of the audi-ence, she would pull open the fastening to reveal the snake and shock punters.

Neil was proud to make costumes for Norman Wis-dom, one of his boyhood he-roes. “It gave me a real buzz meeting Norman, being in-vited to his home and having a meal with him,” said Neil who over the years has expe-rienced tremendous enjoy-ment from his job, met many nice showbiz people and has countless funny stories to tell. He also pays tribute to wife Maureen who has always kept ‘the books’ up-to-date for him.

In spite of three cancer scares, a heart attack, one heart by-pass and a smashed leg in a motorway accident, Neil has no thoughts of retire-ment.

He uses an old showbiz cli-che to say ‘the show must go on’.