CHOSE MICROPHONE, NOT CASSOCK

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 29, 30 December 1938, Page 3

CHOSE MICROPHONE, NOT CASSOCK

"Tenor From Christchurch — Steadily Heading On To. _ Singing Success ©

CHRISTCHURCH tenor just back from a radio visit to. Australia, Thomas BE. West, might have been a lay-clerk, but now he broadcasts opera. A lay-clerk is a paid adult male Singer in an Anglican Church choir, cassocked and. surpliced, often the possessor of a fine voice, which he developed out of his experience as a boy, very likely in that same choir. Thomas West told the "Record" that while he was at the St. Albans School, Christchurch, somebody suggested to his mother that he should enter the Christchurch Cathedral, famous for its grounding in. music ard its choral services. Mother, however, had. other ideas, If the boy’s voice was good enough, at the age of eight, to take its ptace among the cathedral choristers, she said, it would be better to preserve it until he came to man’s estate. and then develop it. And _ so, when Thomas E. West. was 19, his voice had. gained = adult timbre and he went in for serious training. His mother (herself a well-known singer in Dunedin in her younger ' days) urged her son- to- make a ‘eareer out of singing-not as easy ‘as it sounds nowadays. "pers ; Says Thomas E. quite frankly: "it was due to -my> mother’s heip that I have achieved anything like a voice fit for. "broadcasting." 3 Just a year efter he. had eeu chard at it, 3YA gave him an engagement. He got microphone "fright and swore he would nevet ‘broadcast again. In those days ‘3¥A studios were "heavily curtained. to. absorb all sound. _ Result was s he couldn't hear

his own voice and doubted -whether he was going across at all. He later heard, to his amazement, that this, his first‘ broadcast, was’ a success. It was nearly the same at. his second appearance. He went along with a mixed group of songs, including "La Donna e Mobile." In this number he became so rattled that he forgot the Italian words, made up his own jargon of Naples as he went along. Nobody was the wiser. Then Thomas E. gained confidence and very soon he found him-

self. singing -with Gil Dech and the "8YA-Orchestra.. "I can never speak too highly of Mr. Dech’s kindness _ and support," he says:" | In 1934 Thomas West: formed, for -BYA, -the "Domino. Duo," and in 4935 the."Mayfair Ensemble." ‘Short time ago he applied for a tour with the ABC. ‘They said there" would not’ be a chance for some time, but if he intended to ‘yisit the Commonwealth they would give him, engagements in any State he cared to visit-after an -audi"tion, « -And so he made two records in Dunedin, sent them to the commission, and was booked: for several appearances, There is a possibility that he wili. make a complete tour of Commonwealth stations in the latter part of 193 Thomas West took lessons from Percy Kahn, pianist to Tauber, and this is what Kahn said ‘of him: "We has.:the most beautiful voice I-have heard in Australia, . Given the. opportunity, he will make a name, for himself in the world of mae." (Continued in Column 3.)

(Continued from Coluinn 2.) Like .most -artists, Thomas E. gets a "hunch" now and then, He had one watching midget car ‘Tac‘ing at the Penrith speedway. . ~ On the day of the. Penrith tragedy, news of which was cabled to ‘New Zealand, he was sitting with a friend. in what turned out to be the fatal area, ; "1 felt’a curious urge : to get away from the place, and told my companion. He was .reluctant to move, but agreed when 1 convinced him that | was sincere in my uncanny feeling of danger. We moved away. A quarter of an hour later the very people who took our places were killed." Mr. West has come back to his homeland for a few months, to begin a-series of broadcasts for the NBS at 3YA.on: January 2. Series will conclude at Wellington on January 29.