23 April: Roy Orbison

This date in 1936 was the birthdate of Roy Orbison. 10 things you might not know about the Big O.

1. He was born in Texas. His father was an oil-field driller, and his mother enjoyed painting and writing poetry.

2. He got the music bug aged six, after being given a Guitar for his birthday. His father and brother taught him to play it, and Orbison would later say, "I was finished, you know, for anything else". At school, he wasn’t good at sports and would play the guitar by himself during breaks rather than play with the other kids.

3. At 13, he was in a band called Wink Westerners. At 19, he’d dropped out of college to pursue a musical career and was in a band called Teen-Kings, who recorded a song called Ooby Dooby, which would later become Orbison’s first hit.

4. He wrote songs for other artists, including the Everly Brothers hit Claudette. Claudette was the name of Orbison’s first wife, who tragically died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 25. That wasn’t the only tragedy in his life. A few years later, two of his sons died in a house fire. Incidentally, the property was sold to Johnny Cash, whose house on the site also burned down.

5. His natural hair colour was platinum blond, which he hated and so dyed it black from a young age. He wasn’t blind, but did have bad eyesight for which he had to wear thick glasses, making him quite self-conscious about his appearance. He wore his trademark dark glasses to combat stage fright.

6. He was a huge fan of Star Trek and would often play the original series' theme song at the beginning of his shows.

7. He made one film, The Fastest Guitar Alive, in 1967. The part had been offered first to Elvis Presley, who turned it down.

8. The look of Marvel Comics supervillain Doctor Octopus is said to be based on him.

9. Later in his life he was in another band called The Traveling Wilburys. His band mates were Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne from Electric Light Orchestra and Tom Petty.

10. He earned the nicknames 'the Caruso of Rock' and 'the Big O'. Orbison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

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