Valerie Avon, writer of Long Live Love
MILLIONS of viewers over Britain will all be crossing their fingers for luck for a 32-years-old blonde Oxshott housewife next month.
She is Valerie Avon, co-writer of “Long Live Love,” the song which won, by 10,000 votes. B.B.C. It’s competition for the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, the final of which is on April 6th at Brighton.
Olivia Newton John calls it “the right song to represent Europe.” Miss Avon agrees.
“It has the kind of big beat. military sound which is very popular on the Continent.” Miss Avon told me. And it deliberately evokes memories of the Salvation Army proclaiming its message of universal love.
“There are echoes in it from my own childhood.” admitted Miss Avon. “I was brought up in Clapham Junction and I well remember the “Sally Annies” band pounding away on the street corner. Mind you, as kids we used to take the mickey out of them. But I feel very grateful to them now and it makes me feel better when their members ring up saying how pleased they are with the song and asking when they can play it.”
Miss Avon (her professional name, “borrowed” from the street where she once lived (her married name is Murtagh) thinks up songs as most women think up their daily menus, and in the same kind of place. “While I am doing the dishes.” or queuing at the butcher’s, ideas and snatches of melody will start humming away in my head, and I try to rush home to get them down. Often they’ve gone by the time I reach the front door.” she said, “or waiting for the bus”
“But the most frustrating experience is when I dream I have composed a smash hit. The music, the words, the singers are all there as real as life. Then I wake up and like so many dreams, the details are forgotten.”
Three is Miss Avon’s lucky number. This is her third try at winning the British contest, and in 1970 and 1971, her compositions came third.
She has been in the music publishing and record business for some years, learning every single aspect about them. She started off with The Avons, a local singing group, before she went to work with a music promotion company. Now she is managing Splinter, the vocal group which was formerly members of the Second Generation, and which has just completed a series in the Rolf Harris show. She also produces records, and two of her songs, “Dance On” with the Shadows, and “In Summer,” with Billy Fury, reached the top of the hit parade.
On April 6th she too will be crossing her fingers, and on one of them will be the special ring. containing her birthday stone, which Splinter gave her, and which, since she has worn it, has brought nothing but good luck.