Morgan’s mojo’s back!

Morgan - back on stage

MUSIC: Oldham rock n’ roll singer Morgan Fletcher has got the local gigging circuit buzz back - and vows to “cruise along” as long as his voice will allow.

Fletcher (63) is known to most Oldhamers simply as Morgan after four decades on the scene. Twelve months ago the popular Seventies and Eighties front-man of iconic local band Morgan’s Every Which Way was diagnosed with a cyst on a vocal cord and there were fears the end of his successful career in music could be drawing to a close.

But after surgery and treatment Morgan is back - and he couldn’t be happier: “The cyst wasn’t life-threatening thankfully, though it was livelihood threatening, and it was a bit of a shock,” he said.

“But I’ve been treated wonderfully well and they’ve got me back to around 90 per cent of what I was. I can work with that. It’s wonderful to be back.

Morgan’s operation as last September, and when he tried singing again soon afterwards nothing came out: “It took a while and I had to pull gigs right, left and centre. Thankfully family and friends rallied round and got me through it. The people of Oldham have been absolutely fantastic. The amount of interest in me has been overwhelming.

Morgan’s recovery was taken steadily: “I crept back in, not doing too much on specialist’s advice, but I’m back up to two or three nights a week now. My therapist asked if I might think about changing my genre, maybe try sitting on a stool and doing a bit of crooning. But I want to stay as true to my own style as I can. If I couldn’t have done that, I think I would have packed it in.

“At the moment I’m just cruising along and touch wood, everything is working fine.”

Morgan remains a huge favourite across the borough but in some respects misses the heady days of Every Which Way, which could pack venues up to seven nights a week.

“I miss playing with a band,” he admitted. “You might play the same songs every night with four other lads behind you, but those same songs sound different every night because you might interpret them differently or play a longer intro, or anything. It was so enjoyable.”

Morgan is also delighted his nephew Jake’s band — the Gramotones — seems well on its way to a successful career.


Hear Simon’s chat with Morgan here: