Chapter 29: Entertainers who became friends

Interviews, articles and friendships from the 1970s...

Between the time when my wife, Rosemary, and I arrived in the UK in late 1968 and when my BBC World Service job became more demanding in the 1980s, I interviewed dozens of newsworthy Australians or folk well known in Australia. I did so partly because it helped top up our modest income, but chiefly because I enjoyed interviewing and writing about people with interesting stories to tell. Some became friends. Most of the others were friendly but business-like in their dealings with me and were often accompanied by their manager or public relations person to ensure nothing untoward was said.

I had a variety of outlets, most prominent among them being Radio Melbourne 3AW (my employer for the previous five years), Radio 3DB Melbourne, Radio New Zealand and TV Week Australia. This freelance work started before I joined BBC World Service News in May 1969 and continued for more than a decade. In my early days at the bottom of the food chain at the BBC I was permitted to do outside broadcasting in my own name and print articles under a variety of pseudonyms. All of this with the understanding that I would not create an embarrassment for the BBC.

As a result of my writing for TV Week, Rosemary and I have become long-term friends with the musical family, the Sangs, from Melbourne, who were over here launching their daughter Cheryl’s international career. They all had stage names: Reg Gray, Joan Clark and Cheryl Gray, but Cheryl’s new UK manager, which she shared with the Bee Gees, changed her name to Samantha Sang.

Reg and Joan were well known in Melbourne as regular singers on the popular live TV show “In Melbourne Tonight” and Cheryl had a hit song “You Made Me What I Am” when she was just 15. It can be heard HERE

We became very close to the Sangs. Cheryl/Samantha stayed with us quite a bit and Rosemary made some of her show clothes. Cheryl/Samantha was very fond of Harley:

And there is this short video HERE of Samantha/Cheryl teaching Harley to walk.

Here are a couple of items for TV Week Australia about Samantha/Cheryl. Bruce Conway is me!

We’ve kept in touch with the Sang family, although Joan has died. Cheryl is no longer well enough to perform, but her son, Marc Ferne, cares for Reg who is now a chatty 98. Marc maintains his mother’s popular Facebook page which can be viewed HERE.

After a number of ups and downs, often caused by visa problems, Samantha had a global hit written and produced by Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. The official video for Emotion is HERE.

I think we met the Sangs through record producer Nat Kipner and his wife, Alma. Or perhaps it was the other way round. Whatever, we became lifelong friends with the Kipners and even went on holiday with them to Tunisia.

Nat was American. He went to Australia as a GI during the Second World War and married a local girl in Brisbane, Alma Moore. He was one of life’s great enthusiasts. He was a producer in Brisbane’s Channel 7 commercial television station in its very early days. However, his real interest was in music and he moved to Sydney where he produced Normie Rowe’s hits “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “Shakin’ All Over”. More importantly, he helped set up Spin Records and took on the little known and impoverished band, the Bee Gees. He produced their first hit “Spicks & Specks” and this encouraged them to try their luck in the UK, inspired by the success of Frank Ifield and Rolf Harris.

Nat admitted to me that he had tried to discourage the Bee Gees from going to the UK, believing their future lay in Australia. However, they went ahead and travelled to England in January 1967 on the Fairsky passenger ship, providing the ship’s musical entertainment in return for free passages. Nat saw them off from in Sydney, tore up the contract that tied them to him and wished them the very best. Six months after arriving in the UK they had their first hit, "Massachusetts".

Nat never begrudged the success of the Bee Gees internationally and kept in touch with them. A year or so later he, Alma and son Steve also moved to London which is where we met and became friends.

Nat soon established himself as a song writer and record producer in the UK. Among his many commitments was as the producer of the popular 1970s K-tel compilation albums. To make these he often used established performers as session musicians. One was Reg Dwight, better known as Elton John. I attended one of the recordings and Rick Wakeman of “Yes” was the keyboard player.

Life for Nat and Alma and their son Steve was changed in 1978 when a song Nat wrote and co-produced with Australian John Vallins became a global hit. It was “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” performed by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. You can hear it HERE. This song generated a huge income for Nat at a time when the top rate of UK income tax was 83%, compared with 50% in the USA. As a consequence, the Kipners moved to California, but we stayed in touch and spent time with them on a visit to the USA.

Nat was interviewed in America by a woman journalist who put it to him that writing the hit song must have put him through considerable emotional pain. “No,” replied Nat, “It took 20 minutes while sitting on the toilet.”

I should mention that Steve Kipner has followed in his father’s footsteps. He was very active and successful on the music scene in Australia and the UK. He and Steve Groves had an international hit with “Toast and Marmalade for Tea”, calling themselves Tin Tin. It can be heard HERE.

Steve Kipner is now a very successful writer and producer in Los Angeles, having had several hits, not least “Physical”, recorded by his friend Olivia Newton-John. It can be seen and heard HERE. Steve’s website is HERE.

Another person who I interviewed and who became a family friend was the lovely singer Noeleen Batley who had a massive hit in Australia with the release of “Barefoot Boy” which can be heard and seen HERE.

Here are a couple of my Bruce Conway articles for TV Week. The quality of the second story is a rather poor photocopy. Sorry about that:

We were invited to Noeleen and Stephen’s wedding and here’s an extract from a letter I wrote to my family in Australia:

I think I told you we were going to Noeleen Batley's wedding. Well we did and it was quite a thrash. We were very impressed with the Jewish wedding. Very informal and very personal, with the bride and groom and the parents all standing under a canopy. Afterwards we adjourned to the rooftop restaurant on the 29th floor of the London Hilton in Park Lane. First there was champagne reception followed by a dinner and ball. We had a marvellous view of London by night. We knew very few people there but had an enjoyable time nevertheless. Nat Kipner wrote and sung a special song for Noeleen and Stephen.

Noeleen is now long retired and lives with Stephen in Florida. I had an enjoyable phone chat recently with Noeleen and her daughter Sasha.

Finally, I must mention our friendship with the wonderful actor and singer Jim Smillie. Here’s one of the articles I wrote for TV Week not long after he arrived in the UK from Australia:

And another TV Week article from later on…

Around 1979 we lost touch when Jim returned to Australia and was kept busy with acting jobs. A couple of years ago I found him and his second wife, Caroline, living on a spacious property in a lovely rural area of Scotland. We’ve not yet met but we have had enjoyable catch-up chats on the phone about life and about the old times.

Jim has a recording studio on his property and has won many awards for his voiceovers. His website is HERE.

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Next chapter is about some of the other people I interviewed. Friendly but not necessarily friends.