Cleo Laine

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety seven, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My castaway this week is a singer. Her unique voice has kept her at the forefront of the British entertainment scene ever since she went, as a young woman, to audition for a jazz band in the Charing Cross Road. That was in 1951. Seven years later, she married the leader of the band, and together they formed a partnership which is world famous. Singing and acting, not only in jazz and popular music, but in experimental works as well, she's had hit records, starred in many a popular show, and enjoyed great success in the United States. To the purists who'd prefer that she'd never strayed from proper jazz, she says simply, I am a singer of songs. She is Cleolane indeed Dame Cleo Lane these days.

Cleo Laine1:13

I am now, and I've I'm I'm not sure quite how to to um work with it, really.

Presenter1:13

Yeah.

Presenter1:20

I suppose you can open up the show singing there ain't nothing like a day.

Cleo Laine1:23

Well, I could, but John felt that that would be rather crude and not very nice. But he he loves to announce me. He said, I can't announce you as Miss any more.

Cleo Laine1:33

So now I'm announced as Dame Clio.

Cleo Laine1:38

I must admit it makes me pull myself up to my full height as I walk on, as I when I first started I couldn't do.

Presenter1:45

But tell me, you know, when you first started, did you fall into jazz but almost by mistake? You might have been any kind you might have auditioned for Billy Cotton as well as for Johnny Danquer.

Cleo Laine1:55

Quite true because I really just wanted to sing. But I think

Cleo Laine2:00

John explains this much better than I can. He says that all those auditions that

Cleo Laine2:07

Um Cleo did.

Cleo Laine2:09

in the beginning, and nobody wanted her at all. It was because she didn't sound like the current singer of the day, which is what everybody wanted.

Presenter2:18

But that's my point really. He must have spotted that you had the right kind of voice to adapt to jazz. Well, for jazz, yes. And and together you kind of have taught your voice, haven't you, to to to sing jazz. You you learned obviously to improvise, to use it like a instrument.

Cleo Laine2:26

And and

Cleo Laine2:32

Yeah.

Cleo Laine2:34

Oh, absolutely.

Cleo Laine2:38

And that was the Johnny Danko Seven. I never called him Johnny, by the way. That was

Cleo Laine2:43

what he called himself, but I couldn't say Johnny for some reason or other. I always said John. And um when I joined that group

Cleo Laine2:52

They were the creme de la creme of British jazz at the time modern jazz, that is. And um I sat on the stage and I listened to what they were doing, and I really couldn't

Cleo Laine3:06

do it because I didn't have enough range. So I had to go back to singing lessons and everything that I heard in my head that I wanted to do but couldn't I eventually started to do because I

Cleo Laine3:20

had improved my reign.

Presenter3:22

Did he just you know, obviously you had limitations at the time, as you said, but did he hire you on the spot? Did he just move?

Cleo Laine3:26

Oh yes, he certainly did. In in fact, he said, Well, we like you, but you the other musicians have to to hear you before we can hire you. Uh can you sing tonight in the club?

Cleo Laine3:39

I think he really wanted a cheap singer for the night. He didn't have one. And um so I agreed to go and it was the first time I'd ever sung in a jazz club.

Cleo Laine3:49

And uh

Cleo Laine3:51

They all seemed to to like me because then they said, Well, will you come round and to the office, which was the pub around the corner, and we'll discuss all this and I think for the first time in my life I became a businesswoman because they offered me something like six pounds a week, which was terrible money really. And I said, Um, make it seven.

Cleo Laine4:13

With my fingers crossed, of course, and they gave me the job.

Presenter4:13

With my fingers crossed.

Presenter4:17

Tell me about your first record.

Cleo Laine4:19

Well

Cleo Laine4:20

Ella Fitzgerald is the singer and the pianist is Ellis Larkin. And I know that so many people think that the epitome of her singing was the the standards that she um recorded with big orchestras and so on and so forth. But I think this is so delicate and so beautiful and the piano playing of Ellis Larkin

Cleo Laine4:44

Is stunning.

Speaker 44:50

Maybe

Speaker 44:54

If you wait, maybe

Speaker 45:00

Some kind fate, maybe.

Speaker 45:07

We'll help you discover where to find your love.

Presenter5:16

Ella Fitzgerald singing The Gershwin Brothers may be accompanied by Ellis Larkin, and that was recorded in the nineteen fifties. So you're a performer to the core, Clear. Where where did you get that from? Is it in the Jeans?

Cleo Laine5:27

Well, I guess it must be, really. My my father was a singer. He never became a professional singer.

Cleo Laine5:33

In the accepted term, he did busk in the streets.

Cleo Laine5:38

And he obviously got money for that, so you could say he was a professional singer.

Presenter5:43

I mean, did he is that what he did for a living?

Cleo Laine5:45

Well, for for quite a lot of his um his life, yes, because um uh in the thirties as you know, um people couldn't get work.

Cleo Laine5:55

And if you were black and you were a working class man, um it was even harder to get work.

Presenter6:01

He he came over here from Jamaica in Japan.

Cleo Laine6:03

Yes, bef I think uh when he was very young, um before or during the First World War. And uh that's when he met my mother uh after uh after the um the war. Who was from Wiltshire, wasn't she? She came from Wilt Wiltshire and they lived together

Presenter6:20

And they live together in South Hall, just sort of a little bit of a little bit of a message.

Cleo Laine6:24

Yes. And that's where I was born, my brother and my sister was born.

Presenter6:28

But your dad was obviously a bit of a character, because he used to stand on his soapbox at Speaker's Corner as well, didn't he? He did.

Cleo Laine6:28

But you took

Cleo Laine6:35

Yeah.

Cleo Laine6:36

He

Cleo Laine6:37

Road around South Hole

Cleo Laine6:40

In pinstripe trousers.

Cleo Laine6:43

um Anthony Eden hat on his head.

Cleo Laine6:46

dressed immaculately, with a pipe stuck in his mouth, which he always had, with his bicycle clips on his pin stripes, and he would ride all the way round Southall, and he was also very belligerent in how if he believed in something desperately, he would argue

Cleo Laine7:05

really argue very hard about.

Cleo Laine7:07

and put forth his opinions in very strong in a very strong way.

Cleo Laine7:13

Very difficult man to live with, I'm quite sure in retrospect. Uh my poor mother went through hell.

Presenter7:20

Have you inherited that from him as well?

Cleo Laine7:22

Well, John thinks so.

Presenter7:25

But what about music and all of this? I mean, did you have a grammar phone at home, or did you go to the pictures, or play the radio, or?

Cleo Laine7:30

Music was probably the saviour of our household, really. We entertained ourselves. My father sang. We were all sent to to singing, dancing, piano lessons. And um w we came back and performed what we had learnt at these um classes to our parents and to prove that we were studying well.

Presenter7:54

Do you remember your first performance?

Cleo Laine7:57

I can well

Cleo Laine7:59

I well, I can't remember whether it is a remembrance or a myth that grew up within the family. Uh but uh I remember um going

Cleo Laine8:10

to a working man's club in Southall once again to entertain via the the dancing class that we we were at.

Cleo Laine8:18

And um the story goes that I wouldn't go on.

Presenter8:22

How goodly

Cleo Laine8:23

um, three. So I was you know, I could do what I liked at three. And but my sister thought that I couldn't, so she came on and just called me on and put me in the place where I was supposed to sing. And once there I was happy and carried on singing, not allowing my brother to then come on and play his drum.

Cleo Laine8:43

So then my sister had to come and pull me away from the centre stage for the brother to come. Oh, he was he must have been a terrible, horrible act.

Presenter8:49

Sydney must have been

Presenter8:51

The story is proof that, you know, once you got centre stage, you knew that was where you wanted to be.

Cleo Laine8:56

Absolutely.

Presenter8:58

Tell me about your next record.

Cleo Laine9:00

Well, my next record.

Cleo Laine9:03

If I couldn't hear this man, Stan Goetz, at some point in my week or on the radio or something, I would I would be very unhappy.

Cleo Laine9:14

And my one regret is that I had a phone call.

Cleo Laine9:19

From Spike Milligan.

Cleo Laine9:22

Saying I've got someone here to talk to, wants to talk to, Clear.

Cleo Laine9:27

And uh I said, Well, wh who is it? Is it Stan?

Cleo Laine9:30

Stan gets. He wants to talk to you because he wants you to go on tour with him to Italy.

Cleo Laine9:35

And

Cleo Laine9:37

I thought

Cleo Laine9:39

Oh, I know the reputation of this man. He's he was a h oh, he was diff difficult, diffic difficult, difficult man.

Cleo Laine9:47

And I thought I love him so much in his playing that I don't really want to

Cleo Laine9:54

experience anything horrible about him.

Cleo Laine9:57

I would rather have him as a a beautiful player in my memory.

Cleo Laine10:02

And um

Cleo Laine10:03

I should have gone.

Speaker 410:22

Um

Presenter10:57

Stan Getz playing A Summer Afternoon with the Beaux-Arts String Quartet and that was recorded in nineteen sixty one.

Presenter11:04

So you were a bit of a show off as a kid. Oh, yes. Bit wild, bunked off school a lot. But but you enjoyed yourself, obviously. But it can't have seemed that you were going to get much of a chance of making a living out of singing. I mean, by the time you hit your teens, war had broken out. Life must have been quite tough. You had to go out to work, I could think.

Cleo Laine11:23

Well, yes, um I mean it wasn't really tough. Um I was still sort of living at home and um being cared for by mum, although I didn't think that she cared for me very much. I think she I thought always thought she cared for my brother much more than that's why my brother and I were always fighting. But um I went to work at the age of what was it, fourteen, fifteen, started work as a hairdresser actually. You wouldn't really think so, would you? But I wa I was put as an apprentice, as a hairdresser. And I went into various other jobs such as um millinery and shm oh, I d I did everything and sh shoe repairing.

Presenter12:05

And then when you were eighteen, you suddenly decided to get married. Now, was that you

Presenter12:11

thrashing around, still looking to do something different.

Cleo Laine12:15

I don't really know. I think it was just that

Cleo Laine12:19

It was the thing to do really, when if you got to the age of eighteen, um you got married. Uh I wasn't in love.

Cleo Laine12:28

I was infatuated by an an older man who

Cleo Laine12:32

That was

Cleo Laine12:34

Very sweet, very kind, and looked after me up to a point, but uh not the way that I wanted it. In the end I wanted to do I wanted to sing.

Presenter12:43

But in the meantime, as we say, you you married I mean you were married for about eight years to him. Oh, yeah, George, and you had a little boy, baby, called Stuart.

Cleo Laine12:48

And

Presenter12:51

Um but still you were looking for this escape. Oh, yeah. And that happened. You were twenty-four, I think, weren't you, by the way. By the time you were

Cleo Laine12:58

At the time you auditioned for for John.

Presenter13:01

In the Fifty One Club and and the rest is history. Did you have any sense in that moment that this was the great turning?

Cleo Laine13:07

Oh, oh, it was, yes. I mean, I first of all I was earning money, which I had never done before. Um, I was going to go on the road touring.

Cleo Laine13:19

up and down the country, seeing the country that I'd never seen before. It was a big, big um thing in my life and and also I had to make the decision to

Cleo Laine13:30

leave my h husband and and child with my family, with my

Cleo Laine13:36

With my uh mother.

Cleo Laine13:38

Leaving him the the Stuart with my mother, that that wasn't such a um

Cleo Laine13:44

a difficult decision because we all lived together and she looked after him anyway, and my sister did quite a lot. But, um George leaving George was was difficult at first or

Cleo Laine13:57

There was a sort of big question mark him, you know, being loyal and whatever.

Presenter14:01

What

Presenter14:02

But it kind of felt right.

Cleo Laine14:04

Oh, it was right. It was right.

Presenter14:09

Next record.

Cleo Laine14:11

Well, the next record is something that

Cleo Laine14:15

It was written, the the tune was written by my my son Alec, and I really would love him to write more. He's a bass player, really, and he does that for his living. But he I think that he has a quality, and this this is a quite a

Presenter14:29

But he

Cleo Laine14:34

Delightful piece, and he should write more. That's mum telling him to write more.

Presenter15:12

Alec and John Dankworth and the Generation Big Band playing Alec's composition early June.

Presenter15:17

So your family, you say, looked after Baby Stewart while you were on the road. How long was it before you fell for John?

Presenter15:25

Um

Cleo Laine15:26

Uh

Presenter15:26

Oh, it was.

Cleo Laine15:27

Yeah.

Cleo Laine15:29

must have been four, four, four years or something like that before we clicked. And it was

Cleo Laine15:36

Really, because of uh New Year's Eve um you know, at New Year's Eve parties where everybody kisses each other. So I was going around and everybody else was going around kissing. Happy New Year, Happy New Year and and John and I kissed and and the sparks flew.

Cleo Laine15:53

But he didn't.

Presenter15:54

Bells rang and everything. He didn't propose to you for years, did he? Did you think he'd never ask?

Cleo Laine15:59

I did, really.

Cleo Laine16:01

And I understood in one way because it being a jazz musician

Cleo Laine16:06

It's it's a life that um that is so

Cleo Laine16:11

Centred and blinkered. I mean it they love each other. Jazz musicians love each other and they're playing.

Cleo Laine16:20

and they want to be with each other.

Cleo Laine16:22

and so on. And a woman interrupts all this even though they might be in love with that woman, she's an interruption to this music that they adore and want to play.

Cleo Laine16:36

And so I understood,'cause I've I mean, I'd done exactly the same thing bi for my music.

Cleo Laine16:42

So I couldn't really say

Cleo Laine16:44

Grumble about it.

Cleo Laine16:46

In any way, I just had to accept it and hope that

Cleo Laine16:50

Maybe one day he would ask me.

Presenter16:52

And he did.

Presenter16:53

Yeah. I don't know.

Cleo Laine16:54

I believe, yes.

Presenter16:56

Record number four.

Cleo Laine16:59

I think is one of them the records that is me. It's a subject matter that I that I like very much. Shakespeare, for instance. And he does the record Shakespeare and all that jazz.

Speaker 417:11

Wow, greasy jonda kill apot, greasy jonda, kill apot

Speaker 417:16

When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the Shepherd blows his nail, And Tom Bears logs into the hole, And milk comes frozen home in pail, When blood is nipped and ways befoul, The nightlife sings a staring out, To wit to woo a merry note, While Lucy Jonah kill the

Presenter17:40

My castaway Cleo Lane singing Winter from Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost, and it was set to music by her husband John Dankworth, and Kenny Wheeler there was on trumpet. That was the record, of course, which brought you international acclaim. You won all sorts of awards.

Cleo Laine17:53

It certainly did. It um got a five star award in uh Downbeat, the the um American magazine.

Cleo Laine18:01

That was done in recording in the sixties and it's never really been out of um commission or

Presenter18:05

Permission

Presenter18:07

But it was John, as I say, who who set the Shakespeare's music. John's idea. It was he who, if you like, educated you musically through the years. Oh, in many, many, many w ways, yes. And who stretched your voice. I mean, he he found these four it's four octaves. Well, he didn't

Cleo Laine18:10

It was John's idea.

Cleo Laine18:15

Oh

Cleo Laine18:19

Yeah.

Cleo Laine18:21

Well he didn't find the four-ups, I found them.

Presenter18:24

Is it all still there?

Cleo Laine18:25

And is it all

Cleo Laine18:26

Yes, it is. Yes. I still I don't use it as much as um I mean, it's always used in improvisation in in general. And I don't use it as much as I did uh um earlier because it was I I suppose one could say it was just to get noticed, really.

Presenter18:44

What does the average voice span then?

Cleo Laine18:46

Well, I think three is about two two is the average, two and a half. And um in opera it goes up to something like three and a bit more. But I'm I've got

Presenter18:57

You found four. But what is interesting is, despite all of this, as I say, this musical growth, this musical education that you went through.

Presenter19:05

After some years and you then married John you you dumped him, as it were, well you dumped singing in his band you turned away and said, Right, I'm going to go and do something else now. I'm going to go into the theatre.

Cleo Laine19:16

Once again, it was a it was a bit of ambition. I knew that staying with the band was not really going to get me any further. I could always.

Presenter19:25

Because singers with a jazz band are kind of second class, which is a lot of fun.

Cleo Laine19:28

Even with any band, you know, you are a band singer. And a day.

Presenter19:32

And a day.

Cleo Laine19:35

And uh when I

Cleo Laine19:37

said I was leaving.

Cleo Laine19:40

For some reason or other somebody found out at the Royal Court Theatre.

Cleo Laine19:45

And

Cleo Laine19:46

asked me to get in um to audition for a play.

Cleo Laine19:50

A West Indian play that they were putting on.

Cleo Laine19:53

called flesh to a tiger.

Cleo Laine19:56

And um

Cleo Laine19:58

I went along, and I thought that it was only going to be a small, small walk on part that they were offering me, but they gave me quite a um hefty chunk to read.

Cleo Laine20:09

But I did.

Cleo Laine20:12

Uh

Presenter20:12

And um

Presenter20:14

And indeed I got the job. And so that was the beginning of another life, and there was so much to that life. I mean you did Sandy Wilson's musical Valmouth after that, didn't you? And you then went to Edinburgh to court Val Seven Deadly Sins. And in the meantime you'd been top girl singer in Melody Maker. The range is incredible.

Presenter20:31

Is that also something to do with you? I mean, perhaps you bore easily, do you? You you need to ring the changes. That you need to do something different.

Cleo Laine20:39

I need to move on.

Cleo Laine20:41

And I still feel that way, that I need to move on. And I'm I have decided that that to to be in long runs or even three weeks in a in a one place

Cleo Laine20:55

I get itchy. My malam moved.

Cleo Laine20:59

House, continually when we were kids.

Cleo Laine21:03

Whether it was for avoiding the man knocking on the door asking for the rent or not, I don't know. I mean, I'm.

Cleo Laine21:11

She didn't put us in the picture about why all this moving, but we moved I think we m must have lived in every street in South Day.

Cleo Laine21:20

And even further afield.

Cleo Laine21:22

And I it's in my b my bones, my body, you know, I have to move.

Cleo Laine21:29

Um

Cleo Laine21:30

Well, it's um what's the word? A bit of nepotism here first, Aleck.

Cleo Laine21:36

And then John, now my daughter.

Cleo Laine21:40

You stay

Speaker 421:42

Mm.

Speaker 421:44

Carved like a golden stone

Speaker 421:48

And bleed a tear

Speaker 421:51

Down your chisel cheekbone

Speaker 421:55

You watch like a saint.

Speaker 421:58

As the others walk by

Speaker 422:02

And when they're not looking

Speaker 422:05

You wipe the tear from your

Presenter22:08

Jackie Dankworth, my castaway's daughter, singing Don't Look Back. She was the third of your your three children, Stuart, Alec, Jackie.

Presenter22:15

In all of this success, though, Cleo, I get the impression that much as you loved your children, you know, they had to take second place to your career quite often.

Cleo Laine22:23

In many ways, yes, but they they were always um I mean, for w when they were very young I was at home.

Cleo Laine22:31

I I went out to work at night, but I was home during the day, and if I wasn't, then John was there.

Presenter22:37

And they understood that was the deal. You know, you weren't happy if you weren't working and that was what mum was like.

Cleo Laine22:41

That was what

Cleo Laine22:42

When I came home and suddenly decided that I was going to be a proper mum to them, their eyes would go up to the ceiling and they they knew darn well they'd have to start scrubbing themselves and and putting on proper socks and and doing things that they didn't really want to do.

Presenter22:59

What about these days? How much work do you do? How many appearances?

Cleo Laine23:03

Well

Cleo Laine23:04

It's

Cleo Laine23:06

Six months of the year, I would think three three dates a um a a week.

Cleo Laine23:11

maybe four sometimes.

Presenter23:13

It's still pretty heavy work it is.

Cleo Laine23:14

It is.

Presenter23:15

You and Johnny are about to be seventy, dare I say? Yes, you can.

Cleo Laine23:20

I've written about it, I can't hide it anymore.

Presenter23:22

But you don't you don't therefore feel you ought to slow down or pull back a bit. I mean, you enjoy it as much as ever, do you?

Cleo Laine23:28

Well, I will s slow down when people don't want me any more, really.

Cleo Laine23:33

Um

Cleo Laine23:35

And also that

Cleo Laine23:37

But vocally I'm still in good nick.

Presenter23:40

That's the point really, isn't it?

Cleo Laine23:41

I think that's you couldn't go out there.

Cleo Laine23:44

It used to be.

Cleo Laine23:46

I think I'm I'm certainly better and I hope that it will always be that way, that I I will get better still, you know.

Cleo Laine23:54

I don't see why not. There are lots of things that I can improve and I'm I work on it to improve it still.

Presenter24:01

But if you develop a wobble, John will be the first to tell you.

Cleo Laine24:04

Oh yeah.

Cleo Laine24:06

I think not only not only my um my John, but um the whole family.

Presenter24:06

I think

Presenter24:12

Record number six.

Cleo Laine24:14

Um well, this is this is the probably a a record that uh

Cleo Laine24:20

We'll say, why? Why has she chosen that? Well, I'll tell you why.

Cleo Laine24:25

There was a young lady called Abigail Morris.

Cleo Laine24:29

Who is a director?

Cleo Laine24:32

who decided that God

Cleo Laine24:36

In those flood should be played by a woman.

Cleo Laine24:40

And she chose me.

Cleo Laine24:42

And I've always loved Benjamin Britton anyway and his music, and I thought, this would be wonderful.

Speaker 424:51

The name of God I will be here.

Speaker 425:00

Make a shipping heel that we shall live, that we may be reign.

Speaker 425:12

Home po so.

Speaker 425:19

And look for me.

Speaker 425:32

Oh, the skin

Speaker 425:35

I give up.

Speaker 425:39

Well safe for

Presenter25:49

Owen Brannigan and the East Suffolk Children's Orchestra singing Now in the Name of God I Will Be Gone from Law's Flood, the Chester miracle play set to music by Benjamin Britton, and played there by the English Chamber Orchestra.

Presenter26:01

Of course, what you and John and the family have put a lot of time and effort into is the theatre and music workshops and summer schools that you have established in the back garden of your home in Buckingham Show. What what was the original idea behind it?

Speaker 226:11

Yeah.

Cleo Laine26:11

Yeah.

Cleo Laine26:15

Well

Cleo Laine26:16

We wanted to present all kinds of music.

Cleo Laine26:20

We had been playing all kinds of music for many years. A lot of our musical friends, like John Williams, James Galway, Richard Rodney Bennett, etc., etcetera, they all

Cleo Laine26:33

enjoyed all kinds of music, and yet the public

Cleo Laine26:36

was they were still resisting it.

Cleo Laine26:39

So we created this theatre in our back yard to present all kinds of music, but then we thought well we just don't want to put on concerts.

Cleo Laine26:48

Um there must be something

Cleo Laine26:51

extra to it. So we decided then to have um courses, music courses.

Presenter26:57

So it's the cross-fertilization of ideas.

Cleo Laine26:58

So

Presenter27:02

Yeah.

Cleo Laine27:02

People wanted to come and and learn uh the other person's discipline. So you get opera singers singing with musicians to learn standard how to sing standard tunes, which they're not very good at.

Presenter27:02

Pretty.

Presenter27:07

I see

Presenter27:09

Singing with jazz positions.

Cleo Laine27:16

Uh you know, unless they're told how to do it. And um vice versa.

Presenter27:20

So do you do master classes, as it were? Yes.

Cleo Laine27:20

Do you

Cleo Laine27:22

Yes, master classes and and tutoring and so on at these courses.

Presenter27:26

It seems to me that you obviously from what you've just said, you're trying to put back into music what what you've had from it, as it were.

Cleo Laine27:33

Indefinite.

Presenter27:33

And I think that

Cleo Laine27:33

I mean I think that most artists tend to do that in the end really. But it's been a a wonderful life for music.

Presenter27:41

Good music.

Presenter27:42

But it's also to d for y your story is also to do with your family as well, because what it seems to me happened there with your establishing setting up home with John and everything is that then the family has enjoyed your success and has been able to come there and have great family parties and knees ups and your dad sang with you and

Cleo Laine27:54

Have grace.

Cleo Laine27:57

Newton.

Cleo Laine27:59

It's been quite wonderful. And the Dankworth name is quite um quite a musical name now. It used to be Campbell as far as I was concerned. But um um the Dankworth household was also a very strong musical

Presenter28:08

But

Cleo Laine28:14

musical um family and these two families

Cleo Laine28:18

Amalgamated, really.

Presenter28:19

So it's quite a as we were saying earlier, an incredibly happy and fortuitous meeting in the Charing Cross Road in 1951.

Cleo Laine28:19

Yeah.

Cleo Laine28:24

Mm-hmm.

Cleo Laine28:25

You not kidding, huh? It was a great love match. A musical match.

Presenter28:33

Record number seven.

Cleo Laine28:34

What um

Cleo Laine28:36

Record number seven is my

Cleo Laine28:39

Current

Cleo Laine28:40

Rhythm section in Great Britain.

Cleo Laine28:42

And I thought it would be wonderful to really present them as they are without me having to get in the way.

Speaker 428:54

Oh no.

Speaker 429:08

Yeah, that is

Speaker 429:13

Hello.

Presenter29:18

Royal Blues played and composed by John Hawler with Tony Coe, Alan Ganley, Dave Hawler, and Malcolm Creese as part of the nineteen ninety five Jersey Jazz Festival.

Presenter29:30

So it's a desert island for you, Cleo. No more family, no more friends. How um how self sufficient do you think you'd be when you were put to the test?

Cleo Laine29:39

I think I would I think I would be able to cope.

Cleo Laine29:43

I'm I'm I'm not I don't need crowds.

Cleo Laine29:47

So I'd be okay there.

Presenter29:50

But can you cook, swim, build a hut, all of them?

Cleo Laine29:51

Other hearts full of things.

Speaker 429:53

Oh yeah.

Cleo Laine29:54

Yeah.

Presenter29:54

Okay.

Cleo Laine29:54

Well that potato peeling

Speaker 429:54

Yeah, sufficiently.

Presenter29:55

Well that potato peeling in Southall put you stood you in good stead.

Cleo Laine29:58

I mean if you've if you've been a hairdresser, a a shoe repairer, a milliner, a librarian.

Cleo Laine30:06

Singer Dana

Presenter30:08

Dartha.

Cleo Laine30:09

I'm qualified to do anything and everything.

Presenter30:12

But without John, without your mate, you'd be lost, wouldn't you?

Cleo Laine30:16

Um

Cleo Laine30:17

Well, I certainly would, but

Cleo Laine30:20

But

Cleo Laine30:22

I would take a little bit of him along with me.

Presenter30:25

Oh, would you? You're going to tell us about that in a minute, yeah? Yes. I see. All right.

Cleo Laine30:28

Yeah.

Presenter30:30

We better hear your last record first.

Cleo Laine30:33

Okay.

Cleo Laine30:34

Um it's Maria Callas, who I think

Cleo Laine30:37

was uh an amazing singer, not only because she had all the equipment that opera singers have, that is, to have a a great voice, but she was a good actress. I think it changed the whole face of opera when she came along.

Speaker 430:54

Máce mito, caro do vel mi tú, sarana mi pero saro.

Presenter31:00

We fed all

Speaker 431:03

Ecinto trampole, primari chere, faro jokar e chintotrale, pre marichere faro jo ta maro jogar e chintotrale mari chere echintotra jauhar.

Presenter31:42

Maria Callas as Rossina singing Una voce pocofa from Act One of Rossini's Barbara of Seville. It's a marvellous voice, isn't it? It is.

Cleo Laine31:50

Go in.

Presenter31:50

Now, if you could only take one of those eight records clear, which one would it be?

Cleo Laine31:56

Oh my golly Moses

Cleo Laine31:59

Um

Cleo Laine32:02

If I p say the generation band, Jackie's going to be

Cleo Laine32:06

It's the problem with choosing your family. Yes, what am I going to do?

Presenter32:08

Oh yes.

Cleo Laine32:11

I would say well, I would would definitely uh toss them both up in the air. The one that landed on the ground first, I would um

Cleo Laine32:21

I would uh take. So maybe we ought to throw them up in the air and see what landed first.

Presenter32:27

What about your book? You've got the Bible and Shakespeare waiting for you.

Cleo Laine32:32

Well

Cleo Laine32:33

John at the moment.

Cleo Laine32:35

is um writing a book called The Jazz Revolution.

Cleo Laine32:41

And

Cleo Laine32:43

Hopefully he will finish it before I'm shipwrecked.

Cleo Laine32:47

And that would be the book that I would take. So that's your little bit of John that goes with you, Caroline. That's a little bit of John that will go with me. What about a luxury beyond that? Always perfume.

Cleo Laine32:58

I like to smell good.

Presenter33:00

Clear Lane, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear what Desert Island is.

Cleo Laine33:03

It's been a great pleasure, Sue.

Speaker 233:13

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co. uk slash radio four.