JOINER — SAILOR — SINGER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 31, 26 January 1940, Page 15

JOINER — SAILOR — SINGER

James Duffy Can Call The Whole World His Home AMES DUFFY is Irish. me He started as a joiner. He continued as a sailor. He was a soldier for a while. All the time he sang. And he’s still singing, still Irish, still something of the sailor, the soldier, the joiner, still faithful to the Church that first tried his young voice, still cheerful. Fortunately, Mr. Duffy is at present comparatively static, and remains suspended in Christchurch, where 3YA is making good use of his voice. Christchurch, and- New Zealand generally, come at the end of a long list of ports of call. As a boy his teachers, the Sisters of Mercy, often chose his voice for solos, at St. Benets, Sunderland. Here he heard a fine tenor singing Gounod’s Sanctus and nothing would do but that some day young James Duffy must grow up and.sing as well. But his mother objected to his going on the stage. when he was 21 years of age and serving his time as a joiner, so he chose what he calls " another love "- the sea. Singing and sailoring, he has travelled far: through Ireland (as a proper Irishman should), England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Holland, Belgium, Canada and the U.S.A., India, China, Japan, Chile, Peru, the Argentine, Brazil, Australia, and now, New Zealand. The Sanctus he has sung many times for people of many nations. "Nice Open Countenance " "Hello, Irish! Come and join us," was the watchword during his touring in the States. Blarneying, he puts this down to his "nice open countenance" (see picture). Singing and sailoring were not everything. He has played Soccer in Russia, Spain, Italy, the States, and Germany. The Spanish, he says, played best. In 1916 -he joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles, who went to Europe without their horses and became infantry. Still the singer, he entertained the troops at concerts in England and the Front. The next year the sea attracted him again. From the Royal Naval Reserve he secured promotion to commissioned rank, was stationed at Gibraltar where the Naval Operatic Society found his voice useful, and was transferred from there to patrol duties off the Scots coast. The end of the wat: found--him-on--convoy work ‘in the North Sea, the hardest work of all. Some-

how he persuaded the sailors to learn several choruses from "H.M.S. Pinafore." First New Zealand Concert A New Zealand audience first heard him when a sailor off the visiting trawler "Futurist" was drowned at Napier. James Duffy organised a concert in what was then to him a strange town and raised nearly £70 for the widow and orphans. All his travels have not stolen from him a hint of the brogue of his Galwayborn parents, or kept the twinkle out of his eye when he has a tale to tell in favour of himself, They Heard Him Through Once, in San Francisco, a gentleman told him he'd liked Duffy's interpretation of a certain song better than John McCormick’s, and would Mr. Duffy let him manage him, and make his fortune for him? In the same city was the tough Mission District, where at one theatre they kept a hook hanging over the stage for the hoisting off of unpopular artists. Liking the hook and to see it in action, the audience favoured a policy of hooting everyone, impartially. James accepted a bet that he. would not sing a song through to this audience. He took the bet and decided to sing "I Hear You Calling Me." — "You'll hear them all right," said the Maestro, almost as if he hoped something would happen, They had’ the hook ready. James walked out on to the stage, in fighting mood. He held up a hand for silence. They heard him through. There will be no eggs or tomatoes’ when he sings next week. He is in’ Monday’s programmes with two brackets of. Irish songs (including "Phil the Fluter") and has four more for Tuesday’ evening.