Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 947, 4 October 1957, Page 20

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

SELF-TAUGHT

WENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Rex Franklin, one of the song writers in New Zealanders Wrote These, was around 17 when he learnt to play the Spanish guitar and sing cowboy songs

to his own accompaniment. "I learnt every

: chord, run and so on by myself," he says, "and in 1953, when I knew only two songs, I sang at a talent quest in Dannevirke." Rex met a young couple who were looking for

a singer for their Western band, then early in 1954 he went on the air for the first time, from .2ZA. That same year he wrote his first song, "Oh, Why €an’t You Say?" which he followed up with "We’ll Share Our Love Once More." "I now have nine or 10 Western songs registered with APRA," Rex tells us, "and I’ve broadcast most of them from 2XA, 2ZA or 2YZ. One of my later numbers, ‘Rocky Mountain Lullaby,’ has been recorded by my wife, Noelene Anderson, and myself, but this has yet to be released. The flip side is the first of my compositions, ‘Oh, Why Can’t You Say?’ Our first release was ‘Would You Mind?’ and ‘I Wonder Where You Are Tonight.’ That came out a year ago." Although Rex was born at Napier and spent his first few years around

Napier and Hastings, he went to school in southern Hawke’s Bay. When he was 15 he left high school and worked as shed hand in a shearing gang on the East Coast. After 18 months on a sheep station he went to live in Norsewood, where he worked first at a

grocery store and later at the dairy factory. Rex and Noelene were married last year and now have a baby girl, Lorraine Sheree, Rex intends to go on writing songs-"I enjoy every minute of it," he says. His latest, "The Ring You've Never Worn," is in "more or less of a folk style." At present he is running his own Western variety show once a month in the Norsewood Town Hall. "AFTER a capricious English summer, and before the onset of a cold, wet winter, we decided that some Spanish sunshine would be preferable to snow, cold winds and_ the sniffles. Accordingly we had an interview with the . . . Spanish Tourist Office in London during the autumn, and came home armed with numerous _ enticing pieces of tourist literature and a well-arranged list of hotels. , ."-

For most of us that’s as far as it gets -the rest is the stuff that dreams are made of, But Jessie McLennan has become so used to travel-in Nationalist China, Australia, England and on the Continent-since she gave up her job as

NZBS Commercial Division Supervisor of Women’s Programmes to get married, that it was the most natural thing in the world to go right ahead with another trip, to Spain and Portugal. What she did and saw she describes in

TRAVELLER

six talks which have started the rounds of Women’s Hours. Already being heard from 2ZC, they will start from 1XN on Wednesday, October 9. Jessie McLennan has been living recently in Kent-though she is now

planning another journey, this time _ to

America — and alter the soft contours and gentle beauty of the south of England one of the first things that impressed her in Spain was that the sky seemed far higher, the sunshine and shadow much sharper, and the bare, gaunt countryside empty and barren. She was soon to notice also the violent contrast between rich and poor-and that, she found, was the story all over Spain, The journey from Spain into Portugal was not only a journey from one country to another, says Jessie McLennan, but a journey from an almost medieval age to the 20th century. And we gather that she found, too, that Portugal looked rather more prosperous.

MUSICAL FAMILY

FEW New Zealand families are as musical as the Francis Family, It includes his wife and five of their seven

children. The group started, William Francis told The Listener, five ee > SS

veers. 29. 45) Sarre when he bought a set of drums to accompany his eldest daughter Marie at the piano. But that wasn’t good enough, he

said, so Mrs Francis learnt to play the string bass and Pauline joined with her guitar to make up a full rhythm section.. And it wasn’t long before Johnny and Brian, who were members of the St Kilda Brass Band, joined in too. Soon the Francis Family was playing at dances, balls and socials, and was _ frequently heard from 4YA and 4ZB. Before leaving Dunedin for Auckland twelve months ago they recorded six programmes for the NZBS, which are still being broadcast (3YZ, October 10, 7.30 p.m.) The Francis Family has broadcast four programmes since coming to Auckland, and a fifth is scheduled for 1YA on

Monday, October 7, at 7.0 pm. The music, which includes classical as well as popular items, is arranged by Marie Francis (she has a concert performer’s A.T.C.L.), and is directed by Mr Francis, who has been relegated to the position of conductor since young Michael took over the drums. Billie, aged 10, and Bernie, 5, are still in reserve, *

ALL-ROUNDER

OPULAR song-writing is only one of the musical interests of Ces Murly, the Greymouth primary school teacher, whose "Saturday Night"-the most successful of his popular numbers-has been heard in New Zealanders Wrote r ore" T

ifese. if) t80l, 4445 main interest mnow-

adays 1s his work. He is particularly interested in school choirs, and has written choral numbers. Piano novelties of the kind written by Sefton Daly and Billy Mayerl also attract him. He conceives these as suites, and his latest, "Garden Folio," is made up of four modern dances. Ces Murly-who is seen at the piano in the picture below-had his musical education in Christchurch with Max Hirschberg. For 10 years, up till 1955, he played in a West Coast dance band as pianist-leader. Mr Murly does his own orchestration.