Nightbeat by Peter Hepple - short about Pat and Olivia
MOST notable feature of the acts in town recently is that we appear to be in the grip of an Australian invasion.
Well in the van of this movement, of course, was the bright and breezy Faye Fisher who, in the company of Yorkshire vocal-instrumental visitors the Ryles Brothers, was in the Club Tempo’s cabaret last week.
Then at L’Hirondelle we have seen Barry Krause, that cheery young ventriloquist with a trunk full of assistants, a youngster, an oldster, a snake, a mysterious but evil-tempered bird and a couple of evil-tempered talking cigarette packets, whom do their best to best to ruffle his urbanity, plus Pat (Carroll) and Olivia (Newton-John), two girls who came up from Down Under about a year ago and have made then mark in this country’s clubs with their sound vocal work.
Among the newest arrivals, seen at the Celebrity the other week, are the Taylor Sisters, Annette and Marilyn, popular artists on Australian TV and in such famous nightspots as the Chequers in Sydney. The girls, real sisters (I dare not ask whether they are also real blondes) give out with beaty tunes with a Tamla-Motown flavour, vary them with lusty Australia opuses such as “Click Go The Shears.”
Sliding in under this Australian blanket, if only because he has conquered there as in all the other countries he has visited, is that solid French hunk of sex appeal, Jean-Jacques Jordane, now firmly established again as a top cabaret attraction here.
But at the Celebrity the other night he introduced me to another Australian act doing the spadework for a British onslaught, dancers Stephen Buge and Michelle. Look out for this attractive young couple in the West End in the autumn following their engagements in the Far East.