Jean Westwood, formerly of The Breakaways has asked me to post the sad news of the passing of songwriter Mike Hawker.
"Tragically, on Sunday evening 4th may 2014, I lost my best friend Mike Hawker. He had battled extensive cancer a few years ago, plus full blown diabetes, but last month he had to have Major Heart surgery, with a double by-pass and an aortic valve replacement.
He was sent home a week ago, but deteriorated rapidly and died unexpectedly on Sunday evening. As you can imagine the whole family are devastated, he was 77 years old.
We met in 1960 and married in 1961 after which he wrote "I only wanna be with you", for me.
I thought that Dusty's fans may be interested in hearing of his passing.
He was a lovely man, kind, gentle, loyal and funny, I don't know how I am going to live without him, we were still very much a part of each others lives. Our children Sarah and Andrew, and Grandchildren Jack, Sam & Jessica Jean will miss him dreadfully.
I don't have anymore info as it is so soon, but I will be coming over for his funeral,. I hope that some of our contemporaries will pay their respects to him if they see a Facebook post.”
Jean Westwood
Mike Hawker co wrote, with Ivor Raymonde, hits for Helen Shapiro (Walking Back To Happiness, You Don’t Know (with john Schroeder), before penning some of Dusty’s pivotal material in the first years of her solo career. They wrote I Only Want to be With You, Stay Awhile, Your Hurting Kind Of Love (embedded below), and I Wish I’d Never Loved You.
I would like to extend our deepest condolences to Mike’s family, friends, and of course to Jean.
Simon Bell.
We now have details of Mike’s funeral:
Tuesday May 20th at 14:20, at Kingston Crematorium, Bonner Hill Road, Kinston upon Thames KT1 3EZ
No flowers, but donations can be made to Cancer Research via funeral director -Frederick W Paine, 182 High St., New Malden, Surrey KT3 4ES
BBC RADIO 2’s Sounds of The Sixites is expected to pay tribute to Mike in the coming weeks. The programme airs between 08:00 & 10:00 on Saturday mornings.