The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore.

Following the sad news yesterday of the death of Scott Walker many people have paid tribute to him on social media by sharing the Walker Brothers song from 1966 called The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore. Even the BBC played it on the TV News last night. It is a great song. It was first recorded by Frankie Valli and was a bit of a flop but when the Walker Brothers re-recorded it with a Phil Spector type wall of sound arrangement it reached Number 1 in the UK charts in March 1966. I like the song, but whenever I hear it, I am reminded of a very grisly tale.

One evening in March 1966 two men entered the Blind Beggar pub on Whitechapel Road in Whitechapel in the East End of London. One of them was George Cornell and the other was an associate by the name of Albie Woods. George Cornell was well known in London’s gangland as an ‘enforcer’ for a notorious gang called The Richardsons. It was outside the Blind Beggar that William Booth gave his first sermon which led to the creation of the Salvation Army but the events that followed on that fateful March night 53 years ago were far from Christian. Cornell and Woods ordered two Light Ales and sat on stools at the bar. The barmaid put a song on the record player which was the latest hit by the Walker Brothers.

They were approached by Ronnie Kray and another man by the name of Ian Barrie. There had been a feud between the Richardson's and the Kray's since an incident the previous Christmas at the Astor Club when Cornell had referred to Ronnie as ‘a fat poof’. This caused a gang war which resulted in the death of Richard Hart, a Kray gang associate at Mr Smith’s Club in Catford. Ronnie was out for revenge. When he was approached, George Cornell sneered and said sarcastically, "Well, just look who's here". In order to tell the barmaid and the other clientele it was time to scarper, Barrie fired his gun into the ceiling while Ronnie calmly walked towards George, took out a 9 mm Mauser, and shot him once in the top of the forehead, above his right eye. The bullet went straight through his head and hit the record player which got stuck in a groove and repeated over and over ‘The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore, anymore, anymore’.

George was taken to hospital where he died a few hours later. Ronnie and Barrie made a sharp exit to a waiting car. They were seen both outside and inside the pub by several witnesses, but nobody would testify to the police about what had happened. It was to be 3 years until Ronnie Kray was finally found guilty of George’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. His brother Reggie was also found guilty and sent down for life for murdering Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie, who was killed the year after Cornell. Ronnie died in Broadmoor Hospital in 1995 and Reggie in 2000 just a few weeks after being released. They were probably the most notorious brothers in British criminal history. That is why I can’t listen to The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore without being reminded of the terrible events of that night in The Blind Beggar.