HE SANG ON THE BEAT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 92, 28 March 1941, Page 7

HE SANG ON THE BEAT

Kenneth Neate Went From Police Force To Concert Platform

K ENNETH NEATE, the young Australian tenor now touring New Zealand with Oscar Natzke, doesn’t like to be described as "The Singing Policeman." Not that he is ashamed of having been in the police forcehe spent five enjoyable years there -but he thinks it may prejudice the public against him as a serious artist. After all, it is difficult to reconcile Richard Crooks the operatic tenor with Richard Crooks "the Singing Iceman." Neate, who stands over six feet, and is developed in proportion, must have been the sort of policeman who would put an arm-bar on a "rough-neck," bundle him into a taxi and take him along to a police station with a smile and an off-hand manner, just as though he were helping an old lady across the street. In other words, he has a pleasant personality, and it is this as well as his robust voice which makes him popular with his audiences. School-teaching First He was born in the Newcastle mining district, which is, incidentally, one of

the musical centres of Australia. He cannot claim any inherited musical talent, but he does point out that one Charles Neate was director of the London Academy of Music in 1812 and was one of Beethoven’s closest friends. It may not mean a thing, he says, especially as Charles Neate had no connection with his own family, but it does show that the name is not without lustre, Neate finished his education in the middle of the depression. After an abortive attempt at school-teaching, he tried his hand at selling on commission. Attempting to join the policetforce in Sydney, he found that he was under the stipulated weight of 12 stone 6lbs., and went farming and "jackarooing" to build up his physique. He was five years in the police force, and had the usual experiences of a young constable. He was beat constable in reputedly tough quarters of Sydney, such as Surrey Hills, chased speeding motorists on a motor-cycle, was a station sergeant, and did plain-clothes work. It was while he was in the force that he began taking his singing seriously. Probably he sometimes sang on the beat. Anyway, he was a member of the Police Choir and a soloist when it made a newsreel short which has since been released all over the world.

Brownlee Picked Him He had some tuition from Dino Borgioli, an Italian tenor who visited Australia, but it was John Brownlee, now singing at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, who first drew attention to the young policeman’s voice. Soon afterwards came an offer of a ten-weeks contract singing at the Prince Edward Theatre. Then the ABC gave him an audition and leading parts in presentations of Lohengrin and Madame Butterfly. This was a little over a year ago, and since then he has been exceptionally busy. He appeared as soloist at orchestral concerts given by Antal Dorati, who visited New Zealand as conductor of the Russian Ballet Orchestra, he toured Australia with Maria Markan, the Icelandic soprano, and he appeared at Professor Schneevoight’s orchestral concerts.. When Natzke was in Australia the two met and decided to tour Canada and U.S.A. together. They had also discussed a holiday in New Zealand before leaving for America, but the holiday became a strenuous tour under the guidance of Dan O’Connor. " Abo" Music Kenneth Neate refuses to specialise, varying his programmes to suit most tastes. He sings operatic arias, lieder,

English art songs and ballads, and anything interesting he comes across among modern compositions. Among the most novel songs he has sung in New Zealand are a group of Australian Aboriginal chants, lullabies and laments. These are genuine Aboriginal music, not Europeanised after the manner of most Maori music, and have been ‘collected and arranged by Dr. H. O. Lethbridge, a medical man who lives in the Maranoa district near the Queensland border,