Can You Tell What it is Yet?: The Autobiography of Rolf Harris

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His greatest hit, however, came at Christmas 1969 with Two Little Boys, originally recorded by Harry Lauder in 1903, and which Harris’s old friend, a frustrated entertainer called Ted Egan, had sung for him over a dinner table in Australia. The first of these, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport (Harris’s own adaptation of a Broadway show song from 1954), shot into the charts in 1960. Another success, Sun Arise, reached No 3 in 1962, and in 1965 he scored another unlikely hit with a comedy song about a three-legged man, Jake the Peg. By the 1960s Harris had established himself as one of the popular entertainers of the day. When he arrived in Vancouver in 1966 for a Canadian tour he was greeted on the quayside by a 200-strong Girl Guide choir singing Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport and was feted as the city’s top nightclub entertainer. By 1968 he had also become the favourite performer in Idi Amin’s Uganda. He could sing as well as paint, sometimes at the same time. Harris’s successful way with a sentimental ballad was crowned in 1969 with his mawkish single Two Little Boys, which remained at the top of the hit parade for several weeks. In what now seems an inconceivable coup, Harris routed stars of the stature of Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, and kept Kenny Rogers’s song Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town from the No 1 position. Rolf Harris was born on March 30 1930 in Perth, Australia, the son of a frustrated artist who worked at a power station, and spent his early life in what he described as “practising to be a beatnik”.

Rolf Harris - Can You Tell What It Is Yet? Album Reviews Rolf Harris - Can You Tell What It Is Yet? Album Reviews

By then Harris’s television popularity in Britain was on the wane. Moving into radio in 1980 with Rolf’s Walkabout on Radio 2, he travelled across Britain, visiting obscure village halls and organising sing-songs. Again it was Harris’s enthusiasm that made the show successful. He was at ease asking old ladies their age, complimenting them on their youthful looks and then leading groups of pensioners in Do Ye Ken John Peel? But in March 2013 he was arrested by detectives investigating historical allegations of child sexual abuse as part of Operation Yewtree. After a seven-week trial at Southwark Crown Court he was jailed for five years and nine months. Seven further charges were brought in 2017, but he was cleared of three. Also a talented artist he incorporated all this into an interesting prime time Television variety show that featured local and international performers. At the University of Western Australia and at Claremont Teachers’ College, Harris studied fine art and during the vacations worked in an asbestos mine. When blue asbestos was later blamed for causing cancer and asbestosis, Harris discovered that one in six of his co-workers had died as a result of asbestos inhalation. People buy him because of his celebrity and there will be a decline in interest given people buy for who is."Part of Harris’s appeal was his unfailing enthusiasm and the air of naivety that pervaded his appearances. In 1973 he agreed to tour South Africa with his show, but it was cancelled when Harris discovered he would be playing to all-white audiences. In 1983 Harris agreed to make an appearance at the Hookers’ Charity Ball in Sydney. On arrival Harris was surprised to discover that the event had been organised, not by TJ Hooker, a noted firm of estate agents, but by the local prostitutes’ collective.

ROLF HARRIS songs and albums | full Official Chart history ROLF HARRIS songs and albums | full Official Chart history

One apologist customer wrote: “He may be disgraced now but he was an icon of that certain era of my life. Australian entertainer and artist who became a star in both his native country and the United Kingdom in the 1950s and 1960s.In 1991 Harris diversified again into commercials – not advertising paint (as he had earlier) but extolling the delights of a chocolate bar while sitting in the pouch of a giant puppet kangaroo playing an aboriginal musical instrument. It was a measure of Harris’s perennial appeal that in 1971 it was possible to watch two consecutive hours of him performing on two different television channels. On the day the Falklands were invaded in April 1982, the islands’ radio station followed a patriotic blast of Land of Hope and Glory with three hours of Harris’s greatest hits.

Can You Tell What It Is Yet? by Rolf Harris on Apple Music ‎Can You Tell What It Is Yet? by Rolf Harris on Apple Music

Rolf Harris, entertainer, singer and artist disgraced after Operation Yewtree revealed a history of abuse – obituaryIn 1970 Harris appeared in court on behalf of the manufacturers of the Stylophone. The Inland Revenue had brought a case against Dubreq Studios, claiming that because it was not a keyboard instrument, the Stylophone was liable to taxation. Ferrari asked the collector what he’d done with the pictures. “I displayed them at the time but now they’re behind a wardrobe,” came the answer. However, despite this, the caller said that he believed the works had artistic merit and that it was possible to separate the art from the artist. But this all stood completely at odds with Harris’s public persona as a virtuoso on the wobble board, piano accordion, Stylophone and didgeridoo, and an artist of considerable talent who in the 1950s had twice exhibited at the Royal Academy. For all this slightly surreal array of accomplishments, Harris had remained grounded, unspoilt by fame and distinctly unglamorous. As the BBC’s light entertainment supremo of the time, Bill Cotton, noted, Harris might have achieved stardom the hard way, but had never lost his Australian earthiness. Four others were heard at a retrial, after which he was formally acquitted. Meanwhile, one of his earlier convictions was quashed by the Court of Appeal. He was released from prison in May 2017.