JOE BROWN, himself a No1 chart topper, who knew him well: "He was our Michael Jackson. He had a strong stage presence and tremendous talent. If he could have kept his head together he would have been very, very, famous. I've no doubts about his talent, he was the best of us all."

GEORGIE FAME, one of Britain's leading musicians who backed him as a young man: "He was a great rocker who taught me to sing harmony when I didn't even know what that was. He was a great peroformer and a marvellous talent. His early death was one of the great tragedies of show business."

HAL CARTER, Larry Parnes deputy: " He was a genius, a hell of a talent, but like a lot of geniuses he had a couple of flakes missing. He wanted to get on and do things but he didn't know what, and it made him so flustrated that he just hit out."

DUFFY POWER, fellow musician and flatmate: "Dickie had the ability to do anything. He could have walked it. On stage he was an education, but he hated pop and wanted to do something more demanding. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let him.