Gold

Glam rock singer Alvin Stardust was born Bernard William Jewry on 27 September 1942 in Muswell Hill – but spent his childhood in Mansfield, Notts where his mother had a boarding house.

He started playing the guitar as a schoolboy and was a boarder at Southwell Minster Collegiate Grammar School (now the Minster School).

His first musical break came in the early 60s when, as lead singer for Shane Fenton and the Fentones but he became a household name as Alvin Stardust in the 70s.

His debut song My Coo Ca Choo rose to number two in the UK Singles Chart. With his trademark rockabilly quiff, sideburns and black gloves, he went on to become a musical theatre star appearing in productions of Godspell, The Phantom of the Opera and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Gold is a dense lustrous yellow precious metal which has been highly valued through human history.

 An ounce (28 grams) can be beaten out to around 17 square metres in extremely thin sheets called gold leaf.

Gold workmanship in nearly perfect conditions survives from ancient Egyptian, Minoan, Assyran and Etruscan civilisations.