Act 1 & Act 2

Coventry-born John Goodison was a larger-than-life personality seemingly born for the stage, though one of his first tastes of success was as part of the back-room team behind Bay City Rollers' 1975 chart-topper hit Give A Little Love. Yet Goodison deserved a little adoration of his own, and with Big John's Rock'n'Roll Circus, he earned it. Capturing all the freewheeling fun of the fair on his group's first two albums, their 1974 self-titled debut and the following year's Act 2, Big John put his well-drilled ensemble on the map with songs such as the post-glam stomp of Lady (Put The Light On Me) and the self-explanatory Act 2 opener Come To The Circus. The Swinging Blue Jeans' Mike Gregory, renowned session musician Howie Casey and one-time Phil Collins bandmate Gordon Smith all passed through the troupe's ranks; in the centre of it all stood Goodison himself, the consummate ringmaster of a spectacle that was part rock'n'roll fantasy, part variety-show revue, and all pure, unadulterated entertainment