A SINGER who once performed as part of the BBC’s house band has been given a new lease on life - as an upcoming television series sees her fronting a band of over-64s at one of the UK’s biggest festivals.
Raised in Rock Crescent, Monk Bretton, Bette Wernick moved to London as a 21-year-old with just a few pounds to her name.
She worked at music magazine Melody Maker while on the hunt for jobs, finding success as a club singer.
As part of the programme, ‘Rock Till We Drop’, 77-year-old Bette is part of a rock band coached by grime artist Lady Leshurr - with another group headed up by Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp.
The four-part series sees the musicians - whose dreams may have been ebbed away over the decades - come together to eventually play the main stage at Isle of Wight Festival.
“I’m a young 70-odd and I feel like I’ve still got a good voice,” said Bette, now living in Cawthorne where she ‘always dreamed of living’.
“I’m very excited about it.
“I was born into poverty, my dad was a miner, in a row of terraced houses with two toilets for the whole street.
“There wasn’t much opportunity in Barnsley, so I left home.
“I met my husband Pete in London and he said I needed to make a demo, and that’s when I got signed by the BBC.”
Bette worked as a BBC house singer throughout the 1970s, and even had a chart hit as part of the Albert Hammond-fronted band The Family Dogg, until 1988 when the couple moved to Australia.
‘Rock Till We Drop’ airs on BBC Two on Tuesday at 9pm.
