Welcome to another South East London hyper-local blog - The Charlton Champion kicks off with a list of 10 great things about SE7. Well if they ever get round to a top 10 of Charlton singers, a space must surely be reserved for Marty Wilde. Born in Blackheath as Reginald Leonard Smith in 1939, he lived in Greenwich and went to Halstow Road Primary School and then Charlton Central Secondary Modern School. He started his own band, Reg Smith and the Hound dogs, before he was signed up - and renamed - by Larry Parnes as one of the wave of late 1950s English rock'n'roll singers.
Marty is also, of course, the father of Kim Wilde - and co-wrote the great Kids in America. Less well-known is his less successful attempt to reinvent himself in the early 1970s as glam-rocker Zappo. Yes, that's him, pictured below.
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