A POPULAR singer who ‘oozed personality’ has died, aged 76.

John Shorrock, who lived in Harwood Street all his life, was perhaps best known by his stage name during his time leading the Johnny Vincent Trio in the 1960s.

The father-of-four died last week, 15 months after being diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Mr Shorrock leaves behind his wife of 53 years June, children Diana, Lisa, Craig and Dane, nine grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. He had a tenth grandchild, Matthew Boardman, who died in 2012. He also had nine siblings, seven of whom are still alive.

Mrs Shorrock, 72, a retired childminder, said: “We always said we would have a big family as we both love children. John was a lovely father and the children all adored him.”

Mrs Shorrock said her husband enjoyed socialising and had a lot of friends. She said: “He lit up a room and was always the centre of attention. He oozed personality, which is why he was such a wonderful performer.

“John would go off into town on a Saturday morning and I would give him a small list of stuff to get and he would be gone hours because he would bump into people.”

Mrs Shorrock met her husband in the late 1950s when her father, John Reid, was teach-ing him to sing. She said: “I said to my dad, ‘he is terrible’, and he told me he would do okay, and he was right. Eventually we got together, and we used to sing together.”

Mr Shorrock’s musical talent was passed on to son Craig, who sings in popular local band Cherrybomb.

Ernest Law-Riding performed with Mr Shorrock in The Johnny Vincent Trio and was a lifelong friend. He said: “John was a good singer and, along with George Ainsworth, we formed the band. We became quite good and almost turned pro, but then we got families and had to turn to proper work. We parted company as a band in 1969 but we remained close friends. He was a very good man”

In recent years, the pair performed together at the annual World’s Biggest Coffee Morning events at Blakey’s, in Blackburn. Mr Shorrock was a fork lift truck instructor for 30 years at Crown Paints. He was a Rovers season ticket holder and used to run amateur football club New Gardeners.