Gracie. Fields Sings New Zealand Songs

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 428, 5 September 1947, Page 23

Gracie. Fields Sings New Zealand Songs

WO songs she learned in New Zealand during her tour of 1945, Alfred Hill’s Waiata Poi, and the Maori farewell song, Now is the Hour, were sung by Gracie Fields in the 2YA Variety Magazine the other evening. They were received on shortwave from the BBC and re-broadcast. Before the songs, ‘Gracie Fields told BBC listeners that she had been very impressed with the Maori music she heard in this country. The Maoris, she said, appeared to be something like the Welsh people-they loved singing. She mentioned the movements of the poi dance, but added, "I can’t do it; I’m

getting a bit past that now." Before _she sang Now is the Hour she expressed the hope that all England would learn it. She had éung it, she, said, in New Zealand, Australia, and all through America, Gracie Fields is back with the BBC ‘after an absence from broadcasting of four years, starring in a special series . of weekly’ wpro-

grammes called Gracie’s Working Party, with emphasis on the working. These programmes are intended to introduce ‘on the air Britain’s workers off duty, with all their native talent as entertainers, pianists, dance band players, instrumentalists, comedians, singers and more. ‘ After launching the new series from Rochdale, Gracie Fields’s home, the intention was to broadcast from large halls in Liverpool, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Middlesbrough, and Newcastle, Although half of the programmes come from the North of England, major in-

dustrial areas in other parts of the country will be covered before ©. the series ends in London, " , These programmes are the result of _ Much planning and careful preparation. The BBC negotiated with Gracie Fields in America, and the BBC ' producer’ responsible .for the programmes travelled to Capri to discuss. details with

her.,The records of thousands of BBC auditions were combed and where insufficient talent was forthcoming in a particular district, special auditions were held. The BBC’s searchers found talent in cotton operatives from Rochdale mills, steel workers from Sheffield factories, men and women from the woollen mills of Huddersfield, "Geordies" from the Tyneside shipyards, and housewives everywhere: The acts considered vari from a solo on a musical saw to a vast choral society of workers.