Actors - Normie Rowe

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Normie Rowe

	Actors - Normie Rowe

Norman 'Normie' Rowe (b.Feburary 1st 1947) is an Australian singer and actor. He grew up in Northcote, a suburb of Melbourne and attended Westgarth Primary School and Northcote High School.

Normie had already sung in the local church choir and performed in a high school band when at the age of 14 he appeared at his music school’s concert and was spotted by the concert’s compere, prominent Melbourne radio personality Stan Rofe who later became his mentor. Stan was impressed by Normie's talent and arranged for him to work with local dance promoter Kevin McClellan. He began performing regularly at Melbourne dances and discos, backed by instrumental groups like The Thunderdbirds, The Impostors and finally The Playboys, who became his permanent band until 1967. After leaving high school in 1963, Normie had joined the PMG. Normie worked as a trainee technician, but in late 1964 his long hair became an issue with his employers, and in the face of a "cut it or quit" ultimatum, he left the PMG to become a professional entertainer. Working on the Melbourne dance circuit, he was soon a popular draw and it wasn't long before he was picked to become a regular on Melbourne pop TV shows like Teen Scene and The Go!! Show.

Between the years 1965 and 1967 he had a string of pop hits, such as Shaking all over, Que sera sera and It aint neccessarily so becoming amongst Australia's favourite pop idols and becoming the first Melbourne recording artist to achieve a national Australian No.1. In 1967 he travelled to England to furthur his career. Although he did not succeed on the charts he was able to create four songs, produced by Nicky Hopkins, including Woman, It's not easy and Ooh, la la which were the highpoint of his career in terms of singing and record production.

In 1968, after returning from England he was drafted into military or national service for two years. He later served one year in Vietnam. Though he is still proud of his service and has become a leading advocate and spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans, he claims that 'national service ruined my career'.

After his career flagged he married his first wife Sue and had two children. In 1974 tragedy struck when his eight year old son was run over. This eventually led to a breakdown in his marriage and moving to Surfers Paradise where he still lives.

In 1984 he joined the Australian cast of 'Les Miserables' playing the lead role of 'Jean'.

He currently is still in show business playing the round of 60s pop and rock revival shows.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Normie Rowe ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Normie Rowe; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay