Darren Burn

Darren Colin Burn Was Born In The Victoria Maternity Hospital Wood Street Barnet Hertfordshire England On Monday August 28th 1961 The Son Of Colin And Johanna Burn. A Child Prodigy He Showed Great Promise From An Early Age And Was A Child Model By The Age Of Two Years. By The Time He Was Nine Years Old In 1970 He Had Already Appeared In A Large Number Of Television Commercials Most Notably As The Little Boy In The Heinz Baked Beans Commercials And Even A Film "The Insomniac" 1970 . In Early 1972 While A Pupil At The Franklin House School For Boys In Palmers Green North London He Had Passed With Flying Colours An Entrance Exam To The Prestigious City Of London School In Blackfriars. By Early 1973 At The Age Of Eleven Darren Was Living With His Parents Colin Was By Now A Top Executive With EMI And Younger Sister Deborah At 17 Queen Elizabeth's Drive In The Leafy Suburbs Of Southgate Middlesex Now Known As North London A Semi-Detached House That Backed Onto The Beautiful Grovelands Park. By This Time Also He Had For The Past Six Years Been A Choirboy At Christ Church Southgate Where His Unique Singing Talents Had Become Wonderfully Apparent And Where He Had Just Been Promoted To Senior Chorister A Rare Honour Indeed For A Boy Of His Age But Reflecting The Fact That He Was Their Star Turn. In July 1973 When EMI Were Searching For A British Pre-Teen Or Weenybopper Boy Singer To Rival Such Americans As Donny And Jimmy Osmond His Mother Suggested Darren Because Darren Had Already Sung Backing On A Number Of Singles And It Was Taken Up From There. It Was Then That Darren Made What Was Later To Prove A Fatal Mistake For Him. He Left The Choir To Concentrate On His New Singing Career At EMI Something That Can’t Have Gone Down Well At The Time With The Choirmaster And Vicar At Christ Church. And So EMI Plucked The Talented Ex-Choirboy From Obscurity And Spent A Fortune Promoting Him And Launching Him As A Major Record Star. No Expense Was Spared. His Records Were Produced In Studio 2 At EMI’s Abbey Road Studios Under The Auspices Of Eric Woolfson While His Backing Arranged And Conducted By Cy Payne Was The Best That Money Could Buy. His First Single Release "Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart" Released Amid A Blaze Of Publicity On Friday July 20th 1973 Was Beautifully Sung By Darren And His Follow Up Single "Is It Love" Released On Friday November 2nd 1973 Was Even Better At Showcasing Darren’s Fabulous Singing Voice. For A Few Months While The Top Brass At EMI Believed He Could Make A Lot Of Money For Them Darren Was Treated Like Royalty Attending Record Promotion Receptions In Chaeffeur-Driven Limousines Having His Picture And In-Depth Articles About Him In All The Newspapers And Music Magazines Having His First Single Played On Radio One By Tony Blackburn As His Record Of The Week And Even Appearing In A BBC Television Colour Documentary In The "Man Alive" Series Entitled "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" A Fascinating Programme That Covered The Launch Of Darren’s Debut Single In July 1973 As Well As His Memorable First Personal Appearance Live On Stage At The Now Long Gone Sundown Edmonton North London In Front Of Eight Hundred Screaming Fans. Darren In Turn Came Across As The Perfect Little Gentleman Who Would Not Have Been Out Of Place Having Tea With The Queen At Windsor Castle. His Interview With John Pitman In The "Man Alive" Programme Showed Darren To Be A Wonderfully Intelligent Boy For His Age Full Of Enthusiasm For The Project And Full Of Hope For The Future. However Despite All The Expensive Hype Darren’s First Single Reached No Higher Than 60 In The UK Singles Charts And Within A Year Despite The Release Of A Third And Fourth Single In 1974 He Still Failed To Make Any Impact On The Record Charts. The Top Brass At EMI Were Not Pleased And On Darren’s 13th Birthday In 1974 He Was Called Into The Office Of A Senior Executive At EMI And Told Quite Bluntly That His Career Was Over And That He Wasn’t Wanted Any More. Reportedly This Led To A Row Between Darren And The Executive That Ended With Darren Being Thrown Out Of The Office. This Had A Devastating Effect On Darren And He Began To Go Off The Rails From That Moment On Even To The Extent Of Coming Home From School Drunk…yes At HIS Age! One Huge Mystery Here Is Why Darren's Father Colin Burn Also A Top Executive At EMI Didn't Take His Son To One Side And Break The News To Him Gently As A Father Should Have Done Instead Of Leaving The Job To Another Very Insensitive Executive. After That Darren Quickly Faded Back Into Obscurity Later Abandoning His Education At The City Of London School At The Age Of 16 When He Could Have Stayed There Until He Was 18 And Then Gone On To University. By The Late 1970s His Father's Influence In The Business Saw Darren Getting A Job In The Production Side Of The Record Business As Tape Operator In The Round House Recording Studios At Saffron Hill London. David Kemp One Of His Studio Colleagues At The Time Says That Darren Was Not An Engineer - Just A Mucked Up Hyperactive Intelligent Kid Working As A Tape-Op Due To His Father's Contacts In The Industry. This Job Lasted Until The Early 1980s For Darren. In 1988 John Pitman Sent To Interview Darren For The "Whatever Happened To..?" Section Of BBC Television’s "People" Programme Tracked Him Down To A Flat In Grosvenor Terrace Southwark South London Where Now Living Alone He Was A 26 Years Old Unemployed Computer Programmer Suffering From Depression And Taking Medication For It. Pitman Found Darren A Pale Shadow Of The Bright And Bubbly Little Boy Of Fifteen Years Earlier. “It Didn’t Work Out Particularly Well” He Told Pitman. “It Didn’t Make Any Money For EMI Or For Me. I Mean I Went Through That Experience And I Had The Power Of A Major Record Company Behind Me And It Didn’t Work Out. It Left Me With A Feeling Of Failure. It Was A Very Strange Thing For A Young Child To Go Through.” The Whole 1973 Venture Had Adversely Affected Him In The Long Run. When His Records Failed To Sell His Schoolmates At The City Of London School Started Calling Him “Top Of The Flops” Which Had Really Hurt Him. He Was Obviously Unhappy And Not Very Pleased With The Way Things Had Turned Out For Him. He Appeared To Be Blaming His Parents Especially His Mother For The 1973 Disaster At EMI. His Last Words On Camera Were “I Certainly Wouldn’t Allow One Of My Children To Do That…should I Ever Have Any.” When The Interview Went Out On National Television Darren Was Reportedly Very Upset By The Way It Was Edited And The Way He Was Portrayed In It...As A Failure And A Down And Out Shuffling Aimlessley Around The Streets Of South London And Spending His Days Brousing In Record Shops. Three Years After That Interview On Wednesday October 30th 1991 Darren By Now A Registered Heroin Addict Was Found Dead On The Bathroom Floor Of His Flat. He Had Written A Suicide Note And Taken An Overdose Of His Dothiepin Anti-Depressant Tablets. It Was A Most Unpleasant Death For Him. The Overdose Poisoned Him And Made Him Very Ill And He Choked On His Own Vomit. Any Person In His Mental State Should Have Had Someone With Them At All Times Of The Day And Night But He Died All Alone. At The Inquest At Southwark Coroner's Court In January 1992 The Coroner Recorded A Verdict That Darren Had Killed Himself. It Was A Terrible Tragedy And A Very Sad Loss Of A Wonderful Unique And Talented Person. Darren’s Funeral And Cremation Were Held At Enfield Crematorium In North London On Monday November 18th 1991 And His Ashes Later Scattered At The Base Of A Group Of Oak Trees In Grovelands Park. This Was Done By His Family Both Because He Had Spent Many Happy Hours In The Park As A Young Boy And Because He Loved Big Trees. Today With The Benefit Of Hindsight And Knowing Now How Life Would Eventually Turn Out For This Wonderful And Very Talented Youngster Watching The Bubbly And Happy Eleven Years Old Darren In The Man Alive Film Is A Very Sad Experience. Biography Written By David Rayner. read less