Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 31 July 1963, page 7


LISTEN HERE — with Diane Roberts

New girl singer

with pretty accent

* There have been a lot of new male faces hitting our TV screens lately, so it's nice to see one of the girls coming into

the limelight — a dark-eyed 16-year-old, Denise Keene.

DENISE came to Aus-

tralia three years ago

from her home city of Car- diff, Wales, and already has appeared on "Sing, Sing, Sing," "Bandstand," and "Saturday Date," singing pop songs in her delightful

Welsh accent.

She began singing lessons at six, and when she was 12 appeared on a Sunday afternoon TV show, singing Welsh folk songs. The show was seen in southern Scotland, western England, and all over Wales.

Denise made regular appear- ances on the show for 18 months and she so enjoyed it

that when she came to Aus-tralia she decided that as soon as she left school she would

take up singing as a career.

But like most of the young people starting off in show business, she found herself a steady job first. "When I feel I have enough singing engage-ments to keep me going, I will resign my job and concentrate on my career," she said.

Denise also sings at a dance at Katoomba once a month, and is taking drama and dancing

lessons as well as advanced

singing. She likes to sing jazz numbers as well as pop.

"I even thought of singing a Welsh folk song, but I don't think anyone here would under-stand the dialect," she said.

JIMMY LITTLE has just left

for a two-week tour of north-west New South Wales

with Rob E.G., Noleen Bat-ley, Lonnie Lee, Kevin She-gog, and the Dave Bridge Trio.

The gang are keeping their fingers crossed for dry weather conditions, as the last time they were out that way their cars got bogged and for two days they had no food or water. They finally found a farm and rang for some tow-trucks to haul them back to civilisation.

Jimmy, by the way, is booked solid with work until the end of November.

ELAINE McKENNA, popular

Melbourne songstress who is getting more work than she can cope with in nightclubs in the States, writes that the Mapes Hotel in Reno, where she is appearing at present, is over-run with Australians.

"Lucky Starr," she writes, "is working downstairs in the lounge with Norman Kaye. Also Vicky Gayle, a dancer from Sydney, is doing a marvellous Roaring 20s act."

JUDY STONE, who is always

easy to listen to, has a new single, "I Cried" (Festi-val 45). It's a pretty disc, but Judy sounds so broken-hearted that I nearly cried, too.

Judy, with Col Joye, The Delltones, Dig Richards, Rob E.G., The Joy Boys, Warren Carr, The Dee Jays, and Buddy

Bohn are the stars on the new "Bandstand 63" album (Festi-val) hosted by the ever-popular Brian Henderson. Need I say

more?

A FINE group of folk singers in the U.S.A. are The Jour-neymen. The mellow voices of Scott McKenzie, John Phillips, and Dick Weissman have produced an LP, "Coming Attraction — Live!" (Capitol).

It's a good disc if you're

fond of commercial folk music.

The boys' moods change as they present "Dark As a Dungeon," "Gypsy Rover," and a mad song, "Metamorphosis."

IN her column in "Housewife"

magazine, Ginette Spanier,

director of the House of Bal-main, mentions that Helen Shapiro called in while she

was in Paris.

"Helen had great poise, charming manners, hair im-peccable, and wore an orange

suit with a little black-and-

white check blouse," she said. "In fact, there was nothing beatnikish or untidy about

her."

DENISE KEENE, the 16-year-old pop singer whose Welsh accent is delighting Australian TV audiences.

Helen was in Paris to

arrange to record her first disc in French and give a concert at the Olympia Music

Hall.

A new Columbia LP, "Cab-aret Night In London," fea-tures Helen as well as Shirley Bassey, Cliff Richard, Victor Silvester, and Bud Flanagan,

so this disc should have some-

thing to suit everyone. It would make a good present if you're

not sure of the kind of music

your friend likes.

PAUL ANKA has a new

single, "You've Got The Nerve To Call This Love," backed with "Hello, Jim" (R.C.A.) I like Paul Anka's voice, but I don't think either number is particularly out-

standing. There's a nice pic-ture of him on the jacket,

however.