Patrick Comerford
I have been back in Tamworth regularly in recent months, and we passed through Tamworth again twice this week on our way to the ‘Library and Legacy’ exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral … peering out the train window each time between Lichfield and Tamworth for the familiar glimpse of Comberford and Comberford Hall.
Each time I am back in Tamworth, I stop to visit and pray in the Comberford Chapel in the north transept of Saint Editha’s Church and also drop past the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street, now a pub and restaurant. But over the past year I have also imagined how it would be romantic to have dinner in Renato’s Restaurant on Little Church Lane, close to the north side of Saint Editha’s Church.
For many years, the singer Renato Pagliari wooed diners in his son’s restaurant, singing the Renée and Renato hit from the early 1980s, ‘Save Your Love.’
Perhaps you think a 40-year-old song like that over your pasta or lasagne could be more like treacle than Pinot Grigio – or, more kindly, too sweet a return to Top of the Pops in the 1980s. But I like the idea of a red rose and a romantic dinner to the sound in the background of the lyrics:
Save your love my darling, save your love
For summer nights with moon and stars above
A serenade I long to sing you
The reddest rose I always bring you
Save your love for Roma and for me
Darling I will love you endlessly …
Love like ours will last eternally
Renée and Renato had a Christmas No 1 hit in December 1982 with ‘Save Your Love.’
Renato Pagliari, who lived most of his life in the West Midlands and spent many of his retirement days, and evenings, in Tamworth, was born on 28 June 1940 into a large, impoverished family in Blera, a village outside Rome.
From an early age, Renato had a talent for musical talent and as a boy he joined the local church choir. At 17, he won a place in a school for professional waiters, and there he also learned four languages. He became well-known as a singing waiter, happy to burst out into Neapolitan songs and operatic arias, and restaurateurs soon appreciated his ability to draw in diners.
By the early 1970s, he was working in restaurants in England and entertaining diners in the West Midlands. Delighted customers encouraged him to seek club engagements, and in 1975 he entered a regional heat for the ITV talent show ‘New Faces.’
The songwriter Johnny Edward, who had written the song ‘Save Your Love,’ was watching the show and was impressed with Renato’s tenor voice. Johnny Edward teamed up Renato with the Midlands singer Hilary Lester (now Hilary Gibbon), and the two were renamed Renée and Renato.
After many delays and problems, Renée and Renato recorded ‘Save Your Love’ in 1982, and they entered the charts at No 54 that October. Within weeks, their song became the No 1 hit that Christmas.
A year earlier, in 1981, Renato had recorded his version of ‘Just One Cornetto’ in a celebrated Wall’s ice-cream television commercial. Renato’s son, Remo, denies he had provided the voice-over, and nit-pickers quibbled that while the setting was transformed into Venice, the jingle was adapted from ‘O Sole Mio’, a song written in Naples.
Renée was always at pains to stress that Renée and Renato were never ‘an item.’ She never appeared in the celebrated video, and instead a stand-in took her place.
Their follow-up numbers, ‘Just One More Kiss’ and ‘Jesus Loves Us All,’ had little success. But ‘Save Your Love’ was a big enough hit to launch a number of international tours. After four years, Hilary ‘Renée’ Lester joined another group, and when the fame died down she returned to private life. Renato, on the other hand continued working as a solo singer and found regular spots as a singer on cruise ships. He also recorded six solo albums, and had a regular guest spot on the television comedy show ‘Little and Large.’
Renato was a fan of Aston Villa FC and in the early 1990s he was asked by manager Ron Atkinson to sing Puccini’s ‘Nessun dorma’ at half time following a particularly poor first half performance by the team. When he had finished singing, Ron Atkinson told the players, ‘Now that is passion! Go and show me some of that in the second half!’ Aston Villa went on to win that year's League Cup.
Atkinson later boasted that only Luciano Pavarotti could sing ‘Nessun Dorma’ better than Renato.
In his last few years, Renato had regular singing appearances at Renato’s Italian Ristorante in Little Church Lane, Tamworth. Renato’s was run by his son, Remo Pagliari, and claimed to be ‘one of the best Italian restaurants in Tamworth.’
Although Renato was diagnosed with a brain tumour, he could still break into song on the wards during his hospital stays. After battling the tumour for several months, he died at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, on 29 July 2009, aged 69. His funeral took place in Holy Trinity Catholic Church, on Lichfield Road, Sutton Coldfield. Ron Atkinson and singer Tony Christie – and Renée – were among the 700 people at his funeral.
Renato’s Restaurant later become Daquino Cucina Italiana. Under both names it was noted for its Italian cuisine, including seafood pasta, Mediterranean chicken and prawns, tiramisu, ice cream, cheesecake and coffee. Sadly, though, the place closed and the premises are now the Woodshed Burger Co.
But now I’m also wondering whether, in his various restaurant engagements in Tamworth, Renato ever sang in the Moat House too back in the 1980s or 1990s?
Save your love my darling, save your love
For summer nights with moon and stars above
A serenade I long to sing you
The reddest rose I always bring you
Save your love for Roma and for me
Darling I will love you endlessly
Even though you’re far away from me
I can’t forget the words I told you
How it felt to love and hold you
Love like ours will last eternally
Save your love my darling, save your love
For summer nights with moon and stars above
A serenade I long to sing you
The reddest rose I always bring you
Save your love for Roma and for me
Even though it’s been so very long
The memory of our love still lingers on
I can't wait to hold and kiss you
Don't you know how much I miss you
Darling sing for me our lover's song
Salva l’amore cara salva l’amore
Le notte d’estate la luna l’estelle lassu
A serenade I long to sing you
The reddest rose I always bring you
Salva l’amore per Roma e per me
Io ti amo caro, I love you
I can’t wait to hold and kiss you
Don’t you know how much I miss you
Darling sing for me our lover’s song
Save your love my darling save your love
Oh you know that I will
For summer nights with moon and stars above
Oh I love you still
A serenade I long to sing you
The reddest rose I always bring you
Save your love for Roma and for me
