By Glen Williams
Pictures: Luke White (shot on location at the Oakley Court Hotel in Windsor, UK).
Aussie living legend Rolf Harris talks candidly to Woman’s Day.
He’s a much-loved national treasure. With his trademark wobble-board and quirky songs like Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Rolf Harris has been bringing his unique brand of entertainment to the world since the early 1960s and is now ingrained in all our hearts.
On the eve of his induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame and a nostalgic concert series at the Sydney Opera House, Rolf sat down for a reflective chat with Woman’s Day. He talks of love, art, family and why, possibly, this might be his last working visit to his beloved homeland.
You’re performing at the Opera House soon.
Yes, I’m at the Playhouse Theatre there. The dates are December 9-21. The show is basically a journey through my life.
It only seems like yesterday you were here for the very first Opera House concert back in 1973.
It’s hard to credit. Time sure flies.
Will this be quite an emotional time, knowing this might be your last tour in Australia?
Yes, it really will be a big one. The nice thing is I’ll have all the guys around me, the band I’ve worked with on all the tours that I did before in Australia. They’ll all be there, except for one of the men who has since died. But all the rest of the marvellous musicians will be there.
Your paintings have brought so much joy. Remember those shows on TV where you painted those massive paintings?
They were huge. I’m thrilled with the joy my paintings have brought. It’s nice to have gotten to the stage where I’m doing an annual exhibition of my own paintings now, which is really good. When I was a little kid and I was asked, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” I’d say, “I’m going to be an artist.” My mother told me I’d always leave a little pause, then say, “And a good one.”
Is it fair to say you paint from the heart?
[Laughs] Yes, definitely.
Is that when you’re most content — painting?
It’s hard to decide. I love that, but I also get a terrific buzz from entertaining people. The actual feeling of looking people in the eye and performing to them and with them and getting their response and feedback… I get a great charge out of that.
When you painted the Queen, it was almost as if you were two old mates having a yarn at the pub.
It was very good and a lot of that was down to her reaction as well. Her friendship, her warmth. We were just chatting away amongst ourselves.
She obviously likes you. Did you feel an affinity with her straight away?
I certainly did. She was at pains to put us all at ease very rapidly, so that was so good.
You loved her hands?
Yes. I was very pleased with the way I captured them. I was certainly aware by her hands that she was an 80-year-old person. The hands had a terrific amount of character in them, I felt. And that reflects her.
Is it true you want to paint our Crown Princess Mary of Denmark?
I thought she would be wonderful. I was trying to get the BBC interested in that, but at the moment they seem to be completely involved in reality shows and seem to doing all those reality things, and anything with a creative element in it you’re hard pressed to sell. That’s the way the world is going.
You said last time we chatted you’d love to paint Michael Parkinson, “with his expressive, craggy face”. Have you?
[Laughs.] He’s got wrinkles on wrinkles. He would be just wonderful, he would a cracking subject. He just lives about a hundred yards up the road from me. But I haven’t managed to snare him yet.
What happens to you when you’re performing? It’s as if you have an overwhelming love for your audience.
Yes, you try and see the nice things about everything around you. You try and get the reality and the emotion and the warmth. I like songs to have a story and I like to get that story across. I particularly like involving the audience in songs. When I did the Glastonbury shows, that was magic. I’ve been to the Glastonbury Festival four times now and they voted me as the best entertainer they’ve ever had there. The joy of those shows was the fact that everybody in the audience sang along at the tops of their voices. I couldn’t believe it. At one stage they were singing the words to Sun Arise so loudly I couldn’t distinguish the sound of my own voice. And when we finished the song I was in the wrong key. I was about a tone too high. It was wonderful, though, to hear them singing every word of every song.
That means they love you?
They all remembered the songs from their childhood, which was great.
You must have been on cloud nine, feeling so loved?
Yep, it was amazing.
For you, performing has always been about bringing joy, hasn’t it?
Yes, trying to have some fun and get people involved in that same sense of fun and enjoyment.
Do you have a favourite wobble board moment?
The scariest one was just before I did my first show in Sydney at the Rushcutters Bay stadium and the Everly Brothers were there and “Crash” Craddock, and I was on — this weird guy from Western Australia who just had a number-one hit with this weird song. I went into the Gents to have a quick nervous one and I propped the wobble board against the wall. And this fellow came in and said, “Oh, this is a wobble board, is it? How does it work?” And he picked it up and snapped off one of the corners of the thing. I stood there, my mouth dropped open and I thought, “Oh my God, I’m just about to go on and he’s destroyed the instrument.” He was highly embarrassed and got the hell out of there. But I went across and tried it out and it still worked, much to my relief.
Are we going to get a new song from you? Any more amazing covers like Stairway To Heaven?
[Laughs.] If you can think of one, tell me and I’ll do it. Think of one which I could make my own!
For more of this interview, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale June 16).
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