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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 814, 4 March 1955, Page 24

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FLYING WITH. THE R.F.C,

LYING with the Royal Flying Corps in Britain and France was an exciting time for Reg Kingsford during the First World War. He tells listeners about those days in a series of talks which will be broadcast from 2XN each Sunday at 9.4 p.m., beginning on March 13, Reg, who is now one of Nelson’s leading citizens, went overseas with the first N.Z.E.F. in 1915, and had

his first taste of war when his troopship, the Marquette, was torpedoed in the

Aegean Sea. He survived that experience and went on to serve in Greece and Egypt. In 1916 he was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in France. He graduated from the R.F.C. School at Queen’s College, Oxford, and served as a pilot on Zeppelin patrols over England until December, 1917, when he joined No. 100 Night Bomber Squadron in France. After the war he became an instructor with 191 Squadron with the rank of Acting-Flight Commander. -He returned to Nelson and bought a photographic business, and is still practising. Among his many. activities in ‘the ‘Cathedral City he has been a foundation member and past president of the Rotary Club, patron of the Boy Scout Association, and deputy-chairman of the Cawthron Trust Board. He took leading parts in the now extinct Nelson Operatic Society, has produced plays for the Nelson Repertory Society, and is a past president of the New Zealand Institute of Photographers. Reg Kingsford is the author of two books published in Lon-don-WNight Raiders of the Air and With the Earth Beneath. His son Peter, captain of a night bomber in the Second World War, was kilied at Tobruk. The titles of Reg Kingsford’s talks give some idea of what listeners are going to hear: "Fledglings Get Their Wings," "Hunting’ Airships," "Joining a Famous Squadron," "We Pay the Enemy Some Visits," "The Luck of the Game," and "The Last Bomb is Dropped."

FOR PIANO STUDENTS

FEW weeks ago we mentioned that a series of programmes by Herbert Kinsey and Olive Bloom were to be broadcast. Professor Kinsey was an examiner for the Royal Schools of Music last year, and his six programmes cover (with piano illustrations by his wife,

Olive Bloom), the 1955 syllabus of the Associated Board examinations. They will, therefore, be of the greatest interest to piano students throughout the country.

and: they are to be broadcast three times during the year. The first broadcast of the

series begins from all YAs and YZs at 5.45 p.m. on Monday, March 7, and the programmes will continue at the same time on Wednesdays and Mondays. They will be heard from-the X- stations in succeeding weeks. Stations 1YA and 2YA will repeat the series beginning on June 8> and 3YA and 4YA, 3YZ and 4YZ will repeat the series beginning on July 4. The X stations will also repeat the series in June and July. The first programme is a talk by Mr. Kinsey on "The Making of a Performer," and in the next five programmes he discusses the 1955 Associated Board Examination Syllabus, with piano illustrations by Olive Bloom. +>

BASS FIDDLER GOES LATIN

[-OR twenty years Auckland bassman George Campbell has had a yearning for Latin-American rhythms. But it is only in the past fifteen months, since the formation of his own group, that he has been able to devote himself to this style of music. The results, he says, have been satisfying, and listeners will be able to judge for themselves when

they hear George Campbell’s Cubanairs from the YA stations and 3YZ when the

first of six programmes is broadcast on Wednesday, March 9, at 8.18 p.m, ~ George Campbell entered the entertainment field when at the age of 15 he joined Phil Campbell’s Blue Boys, a five-piece dance band led by his brother. The band was popular in the Thames Valley and Waikato districts during the mid-thirties. George came to Auckland in 1937 and joined the Australian Theo Walters, whose band toured the newlyopened commercial stations. In Wellington George played with the Majestic Cabaret Band under Walters, and later under Bobby Girvan, who is now with the National Orchestra. He was then chosen for the Centennial Exhibition Band led by Manuel Raymond, an Englishman. In 1940 he went to Sydney. There he joined the newly-formed State

entre Orchestra and was associated with Jack Davey and an unknown singer called Joy Nichols. Returning to New Zealand in 1942. he joined the Kiwi Concert Party under Terry Vaughan, playing in small instrumental groups. George left the Kiwis in 1945 to join Chips Healey’s Radio Dance Band in Auckland, and has since played there under every leader doing radio dance band work. His own group, the Cubanairs, incluGes pianist Crombie Murdoch, Frank oe (percussion) and Lockie Jamieison (Latin effects), trumpeter Jimmy Warren, Neil Randrup, who doubles on flute and clarinet, and vocalist Les Humphreys. His object, says-George, is to present a highly-polished combination playing mambos, sambas, gurachas and rhumbas exclusively for radio. *

GENERAL POST

‘THAT grand old game of "General Post" stili has its devotees, At least they have started playing it with enthusiasm in the Women’ Sessian of the

Service. It all started because Margaret Isaac, who conducts

2ZA’s Shopper Session, went to England. To succeed her. Pamela Rutland,

of the Auckland Women’s Session, travelled to Palmerston North. Barbara Basham having left 2YA for Head Office Talks, Rona Cuthill from Whangarei was chosen to take her place. Pamela Kemp, an ex-2XG announcer, has moved up to Whangarei, and June Irvine. who used

formerly to do the Shopping Reporter's Session at 2XG, has returned to her old announcer’s desk after a holicay spent in England. * ~

MAORI SCHOLAR

PEI TE HURUNUI JONES, whose talk on "The Maori as a Poet" is being broadcast at present from YC stations (4YC, Thursday, March 10), is regarded as the leading Maori scholar of today. He was born in Coromandel in 1898, but has lived for many years in Taumarunui, where he has been active

in Maori land. affairs. He has been a member of the Geographic Board, the Polynesian Society

and the P.E.N. He has contested the Western Maori seat several times as an Independent, and in recent years has acted as interpreter at Maori receptions. His publications include Mahinarangi,

Tangata Whai-rawa o Weniti (the first Maori translation of The Merchant of Venice), and King Potatau. In his youth Pei te Hurunui Jones was a great athlete. He was an amateur runner, played Rugby for King Country and Wanganui, was tennis representative for Wanganui, King Country, Auckland and Waikato, and New Zealand Maori’ tennis champion from 1924 to 1928. In his broadcast Mr. Jones describes the various kinds of Maori songs, lullabies and laments, with examples. He also discusses the attitude of ‘the Maoris to their poetry. which, he says, has taught them a view of life, and through the influence of proverbs and traditions haspermeated their society. *

SONG CYCLE

[HE song cycle Farewell, Earth’s Bliss, which Donald Munro will sing with the Alex Lindsay Quartet from YC stations next Wednesday, March 9, is the work of one of the most promising of the younger English composers, Geoffrey Bush. Like the cycle of four songs from Herrick’s Hesperides, which Donald Munro recorded for the BBC and

later for the NZBS (and also sang with the National Orchestra),

Farewell, Earth’s Bliss, was written for Mr. Munro. It is a setting for baritone and strings of a sequence of seven songs by George Herbert, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher, Shakespeare, Richard Edwardes and Robert Herrick. It was written in 1950, and this is its first performance. d Now.in his middle thirties, Geoffrey Bush joined the choir of Salisbury Cathedral when he was only eight. He went to school at Lancing College, where he won a _ classical scholarship and, later, the Nettleship Scholarship to Balliol College. There he took his Doctorate in Music when he was 26. Among his compositions are a Divertimento for Strings, a Concerto for Oboe and Strings, a Sinfonetta Concertante for ’Cello and Smalj Orchestra, a Rhapsody for Clarinet and String Quartet, a Violin Concerto, and a one-act opera, The Spanish Rivals. His latest work is a symphony, which was performed at last year’s Cheltenham Festival.

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