British singer-songwriter Jackie Trent, who topped the British charts and wrote most of Petula Clark’s biggest hits, died on Saturday after a long illness at the age of 74.
A short statement was published on her website:
On Saturday 21st March – Jackie Trent the singer and songwriter passed away at 10:30am (CET) in hospital in Cuitdella, Menorca after a long illness.
Her husband Colin and her children Michelle & Darren were by her side.
Trent was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England to a musical household that set her off on an early path to stardom.
At the age of 9, she won a national poetry competition and, at 11, took the top prize in the Carol Lewis and His Discoveries Talent Show.
Jackie Trent and her first husband Tony Hatch relocated to Australia in the 1980s. They composed the theme song for the long-running TV soap-opera Neighbours. Originally the show was to be called Ramsay Street but changed to Neighbours to match the Trent and Hatch song.
Trent and Hatch separated in 1995 and divorced in 2002. Jackie married Colin Gregory in 2005 and lived in Spain.
