Old Friends...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 930, 7 June 1957, Page 20

Old Friends...

] CAN remember writing about Crosbie Morrison, in another paper,, eight or nine years ago. I had been listening to him for some time then, and have listened to him off and on since. I’ve never heard anyone who could approach his skill at talking about Natural history. His attitude is afféctionate without being anthropomorphic; he has knowledge, enthusiasm, an observant eye, a witty tongue, and is down-to-earth with it all. What’s more -and this is no small virtue-he has no mannerisms to grate on the ear after a course of him. Now he’s better than evét, to a New Zealander, because he’s talking on the Sunday National Programme about our own wild life, following the visit he made to this countty during the summer. It was startling to hear him begin his first talk with his excitement at the sight of his first bumble-bee, and to realise that they don’t have them in Australia. His later talks, on such things as the kiwi, the weka and the kea, have been less surprising but equally enlightening and entertaining. I hope the series is a long one. ... Are Best "\/OU reviewers," he said, "are always writing about the programmes where people are talking. They're the ones I switch off.’ "Are you one of these people who think stations should broadcast nothing but music?" I asked. "Provided it’s the right music," he

said. And he’s been wise enough to buy himself a pick-up and a supply of LPs. But the radio has some use even to such as he for the preview it can give of new records, and he has to my knowledge used the radio as well as the Record Guide as his record guide. All the programmes put together are scarcely enough to perform this job, the new records pour out so, and John Gray’s New Records can touch only a tiny fraction of them. It’s good to have him, all the same. He has an ear for the out-of-the-way record which is not too bizarre, and always provides a pleasant hour’s listening. He can talk well, but has the restraint to talk very little, to give the necessary facts and let the music speak for itself. I’ve been listening to John Gray for some years, too, since the dark ages before landlines and LP when he did a Sunday session from 4YA; and I hope to be listening to him longer still.

R.D.

McE.