I would like to direct your attention over to Brian Sibley’s blog, where, at this link, he has written a lovely piece promoting the Dame Petula Clark PET-ition. Being an Englishman born and bred, his input should pack a bit more welly than my Boston-based entreaties. Thank you, Brian. (Just reading his stuff compels me to write with more style than my usual pedestrian prose!)
Category: Petula Clark
The One and Only Miss Petula Clark!
PETition Home Stretch
We’re getting close to March 12! That’s the last day for UK citizens and residents to e-sign Irene Seaton’s PETition for Prime Minister Brown to recommend Petula Clark be awarded the title of Dame.
Today the post (to use the UK vernacular) brought quite a surprise. A large envelope from The International Petula Clark Society in England. Thank you, Terry Young and Bonnie Miller! The contents include a lavish program book from Pet’s appearance at Theatre Royal on November 26, 2006 with the BBC Concert Orchestra. November ’06 was also when the BBC broadcast Petula Clark: Blue Lady. You can watch it at this link.
My wondering eyes also beheld an autographed 8×10 glossy photo. These days, images developed on photographic paper are becoming increasingly rare, and this scan just doesn’t do justice to the image quality of this lovely, suitable-for-framing portrait.
Here’s a Petula Clark song from 1967 that you may not have heard in a while. I remember it from listening to WABC in NYC.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/FEB/CatInTheWindow.mp3]Radio station am740 in Canada featured Petula on its Applause show shortly before her birthday. Here it is.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/FEB/PetulaApplause.mp3]“I want to make Pet a Dame!”
Have only just a sec’, because I’m supposed to be on break! Petula Clark fan Richard Harries is featured in this Yorkshire Evening Post article.
Picking Pet Pics
Recently I went to PetulaClark.net and joined the International Petula Clark Society. Last week I received a copy of latest issue of Petula & Company. Among the interesting items in the digest magazine is Irene Seaton’s story about how she started the PETition to get Pet the title of Dame. At the moment there are 1,052 signatures. There’s only a month left to go!
Issue #134 of Petula & Company also has a photo I’ve never seen before, of Pet at age 25. Here it is, cropped. The full picture shows her in “her Microbat speedboat on the River Mole at Easy Molesey, Surrey.” How bizarre and fascinating! I’d love to know more about this. Was the boat given to her for promotional purposes?
And here’s a photo of Petula I took from a different source. She’s ten years younger here, only 15, and if you look quick you could almost mistake her for Shelley Fabares at the same age.
Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap
Saturday night is oldies night everywhere, it seems, even in Canada, eh? CBC Radio One has Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap. Randy Bachman was the first name in Bachman Turner Overdrive, and before that with Burton Cummings he formed the core of The Guess Who, a band that had a string of big hits in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
David Lee Roth had an infamous failed attempt at being a DJ, but other musicians have done well as radio hosts. I always enjoy Nights With Alice Cooper, aired Saturdays over WZLX in Boston. Bachman is also very good. It comes in on 1550 AM on my GE Superadio III, but it’s better to play the live streaming audio.
Tonight, Bachman had an all-British show, starting with songs by Cliff Richard and The Shadows, and finishing, of course, with Petula Clark. Here are the last 10+ minutes of tonight’s program.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/FEB/RandyBachman.mp3]Did you hear “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” by The Foundations? To my ears this is definitely a different vocal than the American single, maybe even a different singer. I happen to have an original 45 of the song from 1967. And here it is.
As always, I’ll rely on Pop Musicologist D.F. Rogers to provide some explanation.
Pet Bats 1000!
Dave Moncur has written to tell me the great news that yesterday the PETition to request Petula Clark be granted the title of Dame passed the 1000 mark! Thanks, Dave, and thanks to everybody who signed!
At the moment the signature count is 1010, and the list includes writer Alan Moore, creator of V for Vendetta, and other comic book stories that have been adapted into movies. His graphic novel from 20 years ago, Watchmen, superbly illustrated by Dave Gibbons, is currently in production. Moore can be seen in Jonathan Ross’s documentary for the BBC, In Search of Steve Ditko. You’ll find it in seven parts here on DogRat.com, starting at this link.
Something I’ve discussed previously about Petula Clark are the many styles and persona she has assumed in her career over the years. She suited herself perfectly in whatever the era was she performed. I like to think that Pet is more than merely versatile — she’s multi-faceted, even complicated. And for me that’s a big part of her appeal, because it’s always been there, enhancing her performances. It’s an understatement to say there’s always been more to Pet than meets the eye.
Here are a couple of pictures of Pet you can click to enlarge. She’s the picture-perfect wife next door, as if anybody could ever hope to have her living next door …
… and here Pet presents two other sides of herself. One more business-like, the other decidedly show business-like.
Petula was an adorable child star, then later she was an ingenue in film, but we knew nothing of that when she first appeared in America. In Paris she was sultry and sexy, and we didn’t get to see that either in America. Yet here in the States she fit in perfectly with the go-go fashions of the Swinging Sixties teen music scene, and from there she gracefully transitioned to a more adult audience, as seen in the Dean Martin shows, and her own TV specials. I would suggest that men of the adult married variety were particularly interested in her during this phase of her career. I consider Pet’s appearance in the video I posted here to be one of the sexiest, and most contagiously fun, performances I’ve ever seen.