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ONCE HE PRACTISED HIS SINGING ON THE SHEEP

Once upon a time a tall, strapping young man rode behind a mob of sheep in New South Wales. As he rode across the dusty Australian plains, he raised his voice in song. The sheep paused, stood ina huddled group. They seemed to be saying to themselves: "That young man will go far." Clem Williams, Australian singer, who arrived in New Zealand last week to tour for the NBS, was practising voice production on his sheep.

E has been to New Zealand before. With Gladys Moncrieff, he is the bestknown of all Australian radio artists in this country, and is always sure of a warm weleome. But that did not save him from the roughest Tasman trip he had ever gone through. He was still swaying with the rocking of the boat when the "Record"? saw him on the afternoon of his arrival. Far Journey This time he is travelling far. First he tours New Zealand for six weeks with the NBS. Then he goes on to Canada and the U.S.A., where his wife, wellknown Australian pianist Enid Conley, who plays all his accompaniments, joins hin; then together they go on to London and South Africa before coming back to Australia. He misses his wife, regrets that she is not here to play for him. They do all their work together and have cultivated a eomplete understanding. While she is in Sydney, however, she is working in a good cause. Last week, says Mr. Williams, she was to start rehearsals with Gladys Moncrieff.

Her Accident LISTENERS know that Gladys Moncrieff has been over eight months off the stage and off the air through the motoring accident that eut to ribbons her plans for her last New Zealand tour. For a time, she was desperately ill, her shoulders, arms, thighs and ankles being very badly injured. At one stage ‘her life was in danger, Will-Power ‘"‘Only her indomitable will and her constant sense of humour saved her,’’ said Clem Williams. ‘‘But now the long rest has done her'so much good that her voice is better than ever.’’ SHE TOLD HIM AT DINNER THE NIGHT BEFORE SHE LEFT FOR NEW ZEALAND: ‘‘MY VOICE IS ALMOST RUNNING AWAY FROM ME!’’ Now she is walking at times without the aid of her stick and looking forward with delight to coming back to New Zealand in the near future. She told him she hoped to come at the end of January or the beginning of February. His Only Prizes LEM WILLIAMS himself began singing as an amateur at the age of eight.

"té is the only thing I ever got a prize for, and I got four prizes for singing in four consecutive years.’’ Then came a farming interIude and the episode of singing to his sheep. War cut across his farming eareer and he joined up with the Australian Light Horse. "*- transferred my vocal energies to tough troopers."’ On Gallipoli ‘His regiment, the Drunken Tth., together with the New Zealand Canterburys, were among the troops of occupation on Gallipoli after the Armistice. They were happy times, he said, except for one evening when he had to make a speech in French to the French troops on the Peninsula. ‘‘As I went on I was discouraged to find the French stuffing their handkerchiefs ° in their mouths and trying not to laugh. And then my brother came up to me and said furiously: ‘Good Lord, I could do better myself.’ " im Business N he eame back to Australia he went into a pastoral firm and tried to join singing and business, soon found the eross-pull too much, and took up singing about ten

years ago as his full-time profession. It is one of his few vanities that he was the first artist to broadcast in Australia at its inaugural programme of national broadcasting. Ever since, he has been singing constantly in concert work and radio, mainly lieder and art songs, but also in musical comedy and vaudeville. While He Sang BROADCASTING in those days, says Clem Williams, was free and easy. ‘‘¥4 used to be nothing for people to bring in cups of tea and ratile them while you were singing at the microphone. ‘‘And they wouldn’t hesitate to ask you to step off something you were standing on, in the middle of a song.’’

Today, radio is a very different thing and it has brought about something of a renaissance in music in Australia. Boom In Artists ‘The visits of famous artists to Australia,’’ says Clem Williams, ‘‘have made people con-cert-minded. Dr. Sargent, Gui la Bustabo the violinist, Dino Borgioli the tenor, Kirsten Flagstad, the Norwegian opera singer, and Georg Szell, Czechoslovakian conductor ; are a few of the famous artists who have visited Australia in the last few months. Each time people have wondered whether the public support would still continue and each time every artist has drawn good houses.’’

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.I whakaputaina aunoatia ēnei kuputuhi tuhinga, e kitea ai pea ētahi hapa i roto. Tirohia te whārangi katoa kia kitea te āhuatanga taketake o te tuhinga.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/RADREC19381230.2.27

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 29, 30 December 1938, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
823

ONCE HE PRACTISED HIS SINGING ON THE SHEEP Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 29, 30 December 1938, Page 6

ONCE HE PRACTISED HIS SINGING ON THE SHEEP Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 29, 30 December 1938, Page 6

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