| Birth Name: | Johnny Theakston |
| Alias: | Shane Fenton |
| Birth Date: | 1944 |
| Birth Place: | Mansfield, Nottinghamshire |
| Death Place: | Mansfield, Nottinghamshire |
| Genre: | rock and roll |
| Past Member Of: | Shane Fenton and the Fentones |
Johnny Theakston, AKA Shane Fenton (1944–1961) was an early rock and roll singer who was the original lead singer to perform under the Shane Fenton stagename in his band Shane Fenton and the Fentones. Theakston would have been the face of the band, but with his early death aged seventeen, his friend, Bernard Jewry, assumed the Shane Fenton name.
Theakston originally sang skiffle music, but changed to rock and roll when the genre started to emerge. Johnny wanted to adopt an American sounding name, and became Shane Fenton. The Shane part was from the western, Shane. The Fenton part came from a local printing firm. His backing groups would then be known as The Fentones. He befriended Bernard Jewry who became a roadie for them and occasionally sang on stage with Johnny.[1]
In 1961, the band sent a demo tape to Parlophone. They were offered an audition, but a few days before the audition was to take place, Jewry entered Johnny's house, and seeing how ill Johnny looked, Bernard agreed to step in for him at a gig. Theakston fell severely ill, and was rushed to hospital, where he died two days later, aged seventeen. Bernard later recalled: "I found him sitting on the settee in the lounge, with blankets wrapped all around him, very ill and too weak to stand."[2]
His cause of death was heart failure. His heart had been weakened since contracting Rheumatic fever as a child.[3]
Because the BBC had given a slot on the Saturday Club radio show, they were unable to disband, and they continued with Jewry on lead vocals. Requested by Theakston's mother, Bernard took Johnny's stagename, and continued as Shane Fenton and the Fentones. Shane Fenton and the Fentones would have four songs in the UK charts between 1961 and 1962. Their best known song, Cindy's Birthday, went to number 19.[4]