A MEMBER of 1960s pop sensations Love Affair - who had a number one hit with the song Everlasting Love - has written a song to celebrate his own everlasting union.

Mick Jackson, who was bass player in the successful band, went back to the studio to write and record a song celebrating 50 years of marriage to Patricia, his childhood sweetheart.

Mick, became a global superstar when, in 1968, Love Affair became the youngest group to have a UK number one record. Everlasting Love sent The Beatles’ smash hit Hello Goodbye tumbling down the charts.

He and Patricia, who live in Bingley, began seeing each other when she was 14 and he 17. They became secretly engaged when Mick was playing in the band, which had a huge following.

At the height of the band’s popularity she had to live in the shadows of Mick’s success as the group’s management didn’t want their millions of female fans to know any of them had girlfriends.

Everlasting Love features in Kenneth Branagh’s new film Belfast, starring Jamie Dornan and Dame Judi Dench, and to date over 13 million copies of the song have been bought around the world.

Mick’s new song Christmas Dreams is a tribute to Patricia. Its lyrics include the words ‘It seems clear to me that you and I were just meant to be.”

Mick plays bass guitar and sings on the new track, which also features original Love Affair band member Mo Bacon on drums. Mick said: “From the moment that Patricia and I met all those years ago, I knew we were meant to be together.

“She had to put up with such a lot while I was touring around the world and couldn’t even tell people she was my girlfriend.

“That in itself would have been too much for many girls but we stayed together, got engaged and then married and here we are, still together 50 years later.

“I’ve written many songs over the years about lots of different things, but I realised that the one thing that meant more to me than anything else was my own everlasting love Patricia, so I wanted to write a love song to celebrate the 50 years that we have been married, tell her how I feel and to thank her for all the good times we have had together.

Patricia said: “Mick has always been the one for me and I have continued loving him since we met in 1966, when I was a 14-year-old schoolgirl who thought that exciting lives only belonged to other people.

“He can be a man of few words and his compliments can be rare, but I think everyone will agree that there isn’t a compliment bigger or more lovely than having a love song written for you.”

Bradford-born Mick started his musical career when he left art school as a teenager to become a member of a band offered a summer season at Butlin’s in Filey.

From there he ended up in London, auditioned for Love Affair and found himself performing in front of thousands of screaming fans every night.

“They were crazy days,” he recalled. “We were all so young. The money was great though it is nothing like the amount today’s successful bands are getting. It was also really hard work.”

After Leaving Love Affair Mick, 72, turned his back on fame, quit the music business, moved back to Bradford with Patricia and started a new life in the motor industry. He also had successful careers running his own training and marketing company and as a sports car racing driver.

Christmas Dreams was co-written with friend Dave Johnson, who played guitar and co-arranged the track.

It is available on iTunes and all major music sites from November 11. A video accompanying the song can be seen on YouTube at youtu.be/7Wdbe2pi2zw

Christmas Dreams is by The Mick Jackson Band and is available to download from Apple iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play and Deezer.