Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Irish singer and entertainer who rose to fame with the vocal group The Four Ramblers before going solo.
On the island
Eight records
Esperaes Desierta (Esperaes Desiertas)
cf. title: possibly 'Esperas Desiertas' by various; transcript uncertain.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:55What [record] do you want to hear next?
Well, the first one I've chosen, if I may, is one by the Swingle singers, a Bach. ... Why do you choose it? Well, I spent a lot of time over the years in show business in vocal groups, you know, and I used to try and do a bit of vocal arranging. And the Swingle singers to me sort of epitomizes what can be done with the vocal group if you have somebody very clever to write it and somebody very clever to sing it.
Presenter asks
4:02I have reason to suspect you're an Irishman. What about it?
I come from Waterford, then on the south coast of Ireland.
Presenter asks
4:07What did you want to be as a youngster?
I honestly don't think I wanted to be anything, Roy. I don't think I had any specific ideas of what I was going to be when I grew up, you know.
Presenter asks
4:16What did you do when you left school?
The keepsakes
The luxury
guitar with manuscript paper and pencil
Well, if I may, I'm going to sneak in in and I'll have a few luxuries all rolled into one. I'd like to bring my guitar if I may, and if you wouldn't mind putting some manuscript paper and a pencil in the case when I come back, and in the meantime, I'll practice my arrangement by copying all these records down.
Well, I went to school at about 17, and then I left. My father was a foreman in a steelworks, and two of my brothers went in there with him when they left school.
Presenter asks
6:59What was your first break as a solo artist?
When I left the Ramblers, I did something that is one of these things, like out of an American musical or something. I said, I'm going to go and ma do it alone. So I come up to the BBC. I'm trying to make an appointment with the head of Light Music. ... he saw me and I said to him, well look, I've been with a group. And I want to leave them now, but I haven't got any work. Would you give me a radio series or something? ... he must have thought I was mad. But anyway, he ... within no time at all I've I began to get a few letters back and forth and I did a little audition thing and I got a radio series in the afternoon singing with an orchestra. ... I remember the programmes were called Dreamy Afternoon and I used to just sing occasional songs with the guitar.
Presenter asks
8:10What was your television break?
Well, as I say, back in 57 I had done a few televisions, you know, they they weren't very successful maybe, but at least once again I got the experience behind me that I had done them and I knew what the pitfalls were, I think. ... I was in Cabaret in London and uh and then a lot of circumstances uh uh got together and I Val Parnell saw me in Cabaret and uh he put me on the London Palladium and that was about it I think.
Presenter asks
11:02There are critics who say that sometimes your repertoire is inclined to be a bit sugary. How do you respond?
Yes, I think this is bound to happen, of course. You know, and I think the the critics who say that what I do is sugary probably don't like me anyway. You know what I mean? If I sang something else, they probably wouldn't like it anyway. They'd probably say I didn't sing it as well as other people, you know. So I feel that. ... I've never set out to be sugary. Let me make that very clear.
Presenter asks
15:35What about the psychological side [of being on a desert island] — isolation, continued loneliness?
I don't know how I'd be after a long time, you know, but I certainly could stand for quite a while. I'm much more inclined to want to be by myself than I am with close people. I think, I don't know whether lots of people in show business are like this [but] they like to get away from it all.
“I think a lot of records to me bring back very happy memories.”
“Vaughan Williams I think is, to me anyways, my favourite composer of all and I've often said when listening to his music, I've often felt he must have been a wonderful fellow really because if his music is anything like how he felt, you know, he must be fabulous.”
“I've never set out to be sugary. Let me make that very clear.”
“I think for me, the only ambition I've ever had up to now was to try and get better at what I do, really.”
“one of the things I wouldn't like to do now ... at my stage in show business is to have to go to another country and start back in 1946 again.”
“I'd like to bring my guitar if I may, and if you wouldn't mind putting some manuscript paper and a pencil in the case when I come back, and in the meantime, I'll practice my arrangement by copying all these records down.”