We always say that personal number plates are no longer just for the rich and famous and, of course, that is true. Personal registrations are now a commonly seen enhancement on all kinds of cars and a great way to personalise your ride, whoever you are. But society seems to be celebrity-obsessed. Every other TV show is some variant of celebrities in a jungle, celebrities temporarily cohabiting in a bugged house, celebrities cooking, sewing, bothering sharks and so on.
A substantial number of today's celebrities seem to be famous mostly for, well, just for being famous. An absence of traditional skill or talent is no impediment to celebrity. Nevertheless, most people are still much more interested in number plates owned by famous people than they are in the plate on their next-door neighbour's hatchback.
Cynicism aside, there are still people who achieved fame by actually doing something. We recently published a post where we took a look at the cars and number plates owned by some of the UK's best-known business people. This time we'll peek into the garages of the country's musical celebs; after all, our musicians have been collecting cars and number plates for generations, as we'll see.
The OGs
George Formby
This one is a real journey back in time, and a name that will be unfamiliar to a lot of people these days. George Formby may no longer be a household name but in his day he was the highest paid entertainer in Britain.
Born in Wigan in 1904, George was a versatile entertainer but became best known as a film star and a musician. He appeared in a number of popular comedy movies in the 1930s and 1940s in which he sang amusing songs while accompanying himself on a ukulele. The instrument may be very popular now, but Formby was certainly its first real champion in the UK. In addition to his films, George performed on stage and on television.
His financial success was largely due to his wife, Beryl, who was also George's manager. A formidable woman, she was no one's fool and she ensured that George did well out of his showbiz career.
One of the trappings of Formby's success was a procession of nice cars and great personalised number plates. He was a fan of Rolls-Royce cars and owned several of them in succession, all of which, in turn, displayed his GF 1 personal number plates. George also owned a Jaguar Mk 1 that bore the registration number GF 2.
Max Bygraves
Another household name from the 20th century was comedian and singer Max Bygraves. Max's star was rising as George Formby's was setting. Where the latter had become popular through live performances and appearing in films, Max Bygraves' main media were television and record.
Max recorded a series of sing-along albums featuring all kinds of songs, from old music hall favourites, folk songs and pop songs from almost all eras. These albums sold millions.
The scale of Max's fame and success meant that he could indulge himself a little. One manifestation of this occasional indulgence was his Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. Max wasn't a shy type, and made no effort to go incognito when out and about. His eye-catching MB 1 personal number plates made it pretty obvious who owned the car.
Regtransfers bought both the MB 1 registration, and the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit that displayed it, from Max Bygraves in 1998. The car and registration were subsequently sold separately to new owners.
Max emigrated to Australia in 2005, where he passed away in 2012, at the age of 89.
In 2025, Regtransfers acquired the MB 1 registration once again. At the time of writing, this famous plate is for sale on our website.
Engelbert Humperdinck
Singer Engelbert Humperdinck's musical career took off during the 1960s with the popular ballads Release Me and The Last Waltz. Born Arnold George Dorsey, the man who became Engelbert adopted the name of a German classical composer as his stage name.
His popular music success in Britain and America led to frequent television work and Engelbert was given his own show in both the UK and the USA.
Engelbert Humperdinck began a farewell tour of Australia in 2024.
Regtransfers visited Engelbert at his home in Leicestershire in 2005. We had been approached by Engelbert's wife, Patricia, for help with her quest to find a private number plate as a birthday gift for her husband. Engelbert already owned the perfect registration to represent his stage name, EH 1. Patricia wanted a plate that would refer to his birth name. Regtransfers found the initials plate 25 AGD, which Patricia duly purchased.
When we visited Engelbert at home, we were lucky to snap some excellent photographs of his striking blue Rolls-Royce Corniche, with its excellent EH 1 plates.
A change of tempo
The Beatles
In the 1960s pop music took on a different character. The ballads that had proven so successful for artists like Engelbert Humperdinck were soon somewhat overshadowed by the new music that was evolving from the rock and roll and skiffle of the previous decade.
Undoubtedly the most famous of the new breed of pop stars were the four members of The Beatles. With two innovative songwriters in John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and their equally inventive producer, George Martin, The Beatles had a world-beating team that would take Britain and America by storm.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr soon made enough money to have their pick of cars, houses and pretty much anything else. As one might expect from four young men, cars were indeed amongst their more notable purchases. The Beatles, collectively, got through so many cars and number plates that we couldn't possibly cram a meaningful selection into this article. Fortunately, we have already published a substantial piece covering The Beatles' cars and number plates in some detail.
Eric Clapton
Photo courtesy of Tom Hartley Jnr Ltd.A contemporary of The Beatles, and a friend of George Harrison, Eric Clapton became one of the world's most celebrated guitarists. Like his peers, guitarists Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Peter Green, Clapton first found a degree of fame in a band context. In Clapton's case that was as a member of The Yardbirds and, subsequently, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
Later, Eric Clapton teamed up with bass player and vocalist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker to form the power-trio supergroup Cream. The Cream era was followed by a solo career that continues to the present day.
Eric Clapton became a lifelong Ferrari fan seeing a Ferrari owned by Beatles guitarist George Harrison. One famous photograph shows Clapton wearing a Rolex watch, leaning against the rear of a Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta bearing the registration number RU 15. It's clearly a tough life for a struggling rockstar!
John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer
Eric Clapton's fellow Yardbirds alumnus, guitarist Jimmy Page went on to form a new band with vocalist Robert Plant, bass player John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. Initially called The New Yardbirds, the group renamed themselves Led Zeppelin and went on to become one of the most famous hard rock/blues rock bands in the world.
All the members of Led Zeppelin acquired their fair share of nice cars, but drummer John Bonham was a particularly, and famously, enthusiastic driver and collector of cars. In addition to the usual luxury cars such as Rolls-Royce, John's collection included some pretty exotic and eccentric examples, including a six-wheeled Jeep pickup truck and the car for which 'Bonzo' Bonham is probably best-known, the wonderfully ridiculous 'Instant T'. This car, constructed in San Francisco by American hot-rodding legend Andy 'The Rodfather' Brizio, was based on the famous Ford Model T automobile. Hot rods that derived from the Model T roadster body are known as 'T-buckets'. Bonham's Instant T had a custom paint and a chrome-plated Chevrolet V8 engine. The car was brought back to Britain, and it subsequently appeared in the band's concert movie The Song Remains the Same. The UK registration number assigned to the Instant T was RKR 455G.
Bonham was also a fan of the British brand Jensen Motors. He owned several examples including a Jensen FF upon which he displayed his JB 12 personal number plates.
Turning it down a little
Nick Mason
Pink Floyd was another of Britain's most famous musical exports and songs like Wish You Were Here, Another Brick in the Wall and Comfortably Numb are well-known even by people who have never knowingly listened to progressive rock or psychedelic rock music.
Drummer of the now-disbanded Floyd, Nick Mason, is yet another Ferrari fanatic. His car collection may not be one of the world's biggest but it must, surely, be one of the most exclusive. Few other collectors have amassed such an array of automotive superstars.
Among his fleet of Ferrari's, Nick Mason owns the jewel in the crown, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. As if that weren't enough, the registration that Mason has assigned to the car is one of the most perfect matches one could wish to find: 250 GTO.
The Ferrari reportedly cost Nick Mason £37,000 in 1977. Recent estimates have put the car's current value at up to £50 million.
Jay Kay
The front man of acid-jazz and funk band Jamiroquai is yet another supercar lover. In fact, if it goes fast there's a good chance that Jay Kay has owned it at one time or another. When he was once asked which was his favourite, he replied that it was his 1968, royal blue Porsche 911 S.
Among the notable cars he either owns or has owned are a green Ferrari LaFerrari, a blue Ferrari Enzo, a classic Lamborghini Miura, a Ferrari 275 GTB/4, a 1973 2.7 Porsche Carrera RS and a Lamborghini SE30 Diablo. Many of his cars have appeared in his music videos.
We interviewed Jay in 2020 when we visited him to deliver his new JAY 1K personal number plates, just one of several private registrations he has bought from us over the years.
The classics
Russell Watson
There have been many singers who have successfully bridged the gap between classical and popular music. More than a century ago, Enrico Caruso and, subsequently, Mario Lanza brought operatic tones to the ears of working people through the medium of records and, in Lanza's case, movies. Since then, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Alfie Boe and others have continued the mission.
Tenor Russell Watson is one of the most accessible of these musical conciliators. A genuine working class Lancashire lad, Russell has never wanted to be a 'posh' singer. He has released albums of both operatic and pop music and enjoyed success with both. An affable and accessible chap, he is also a familiar face on all manner of television shows.
Regtransfers had the considerable pleasure of spending some time with Russell when we delivered his new T3 NOR number plates to him in 2012. As well as a very pleasant chat, we were able to snap some great photos of Russell with his new registration on his Aston Martin.
Vanessa-Mae
Vanessa-Mae is, perhaps, unusual amongst classically trained violinists in also being a former competitive skier (but can she do both at once?).
Like Russell Watson, Vanessa-Mae has enjoyed popularity with fans of both classical and popular music. As a child her performance repertoire was largely the music of heavyweight composers like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. By 1995 she had released a pop music album that went on to sell millions of copies.
Her violin playing has appeared on albums by top pop stars such as Janet Jackson, she has played as an interval artist at the Eurovision Song Contest and, in 2017, three of her albums appeared on Classic FM's list of the 300 best selling classical albums in the 25 years that the station had been running.
When Regtransfers interviewed Vanessa for The World of Personal Number Plates in 2010, she let us in on a secret: Vanessa-Mae doesn't actually listen to that much classical music. At the time she expressed a preference for Prince and Michael Jackson!
Our visit wasn't just for the pleasure of meeting Vanessa-Mae; we were also actually working, as we had to deliver the new V1 MAE number plates for her Audi RS6 Avant.
