Rex Franklin Loose Talk (2009)

Rex Franklin

Rex Franklin tells the story of Rex & Noelene Franklin in his own words:

I was born in Napier, Hawkes Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand, on 25 September 1935, the eldest of eight children, and showed an early interest in country music - or hillbilly music, as it was called then. My favourites were Tex Morton, Hank Snow, Wilf Carter, Slim Dusty and Buddy Williams. I bought my first guitar at fifteen with my first pay packet. It was a Tex Morton model, sold by an Auckland warehouse together with lessons in the form of a few typed pages showing some chords and tips on playing the guitar, microphone technique and so on.

At the time I was working on a sheep and cattle farm, miles away from city life. It was a while before I could get my guitar tuned (by a mate from my football team), and for the first two years progress was practically nil. After eighteen months on the farm, where my main means of transport was the back of a horse, I moved further inland, closer to my parents' home, to a town called Norsewood. There I worked in a grocery store and then across the road at the dairy factory, helping to produce butter and later milk powder. It was while working at the dairy factory and living alone in a hut behind it that I found the time and the inspiration to work on my music.

With the Tex Morton lessons as a guide, I listened to 78rpm records and actually tuned my guitar by ear to a Buddy Williams record. Progress was slow and painful, but I got to the point where I could enter a talent quest in the neighbouring town of Dannevirke on 29 September 1953. At that stage I could accompany myself on two songs - Beautiful Girl Of The Prairie and Have You Ever Been Lonely. I was unsuccessful at the talent quest, but I met two fellow contestants, Horace and Tui Hartley, and before the year was out Horace called on me at the dairy factory and asked me to join him and Tui, as they were looking for a vocalist. They had tried a singer named Lew Swan, but I suited their style better. We called ourselves the Ruahine Ramblers, after a mountain range in the area.

Our first stage performance was on 7 January 1954, singing for the large crowd waiting for Queen Elizabeth II, who was touring the country by train. Our first live radio broadcast was from 2ZA Palmerston North on 7 February 1954, and we found steady work at dances, socials, concerts and on radio around the Hawkes Bay and Manawatu areas. Tui, Horace and I kept broadcasting regularly on stations such as 2ZA Palmerston North, 2YZ Napier and 2XA Wanganui, and often sang on stage before a special film was screened.

On 20 January 1955 we recorded seven tracks as an audition for the Tanza label, but without success. One song we recorded that day was When The Cactus Is In Bloom, which we had learned from Tex Morton; I still have it on a 78rpm acetate. Harmonising with me on that song was Audrey Waghorn, my girlfriend at the time.

Noelene Anderson was born in the town of Feilding on 22 January 1936, also the eldest of eight children, and her musical interests included western music. She would sit in a listening booth at the record shop and play 78s by Wilf Carter and Hank Snow, as well as Vera Lynn and other popular singers of the day. She had done little serious singing when a couple of friends talked her into entering a talent quest at the Regent Theatre in Palmerston North on 30 May 1954. One of those friends, Trevor Kirk, accompanied her on piano. The Ruahine Ramblers were there that night, and I was captivated by her singing and her looks. Noelene came fourth; the Ruahine Ramblers came second and went through to the final the following week.

At the time I was doing my compulsory military training, and I had broken my leg playing rugby, so it was in plaster at the talent quest. Rugby was just one of my passions then; I also enjoyed smallbore rifle shooting and rodeo riding. One day in 1953 I appeared on the front page of a national newspaper being bucked off a steer and carried off on a stretcher at the Meeanee Rodeo in Hawkes Bay.

Noelene and I began courting and singing together in 1955. Our very first engagement was at Ormondville on 25 November 1955. We called ourselves The Sunvalley Trail Singers, and I had written a radio theme song for us, We're Riding The Sun Valley Trail, which we used at many personal appearances and on the many radio shows that followed. The Ruahine Ramblers later hired two other singers at different times and recorded commercially with them: Doug Rider sang on two 78s and Paul Jarrett on three 45rpm EPs.

Noelene and I began broadcasting from local stations and one year even toured New Zealand's North Island, singing at radio stations. We were also asked to sing at all kinds of functions, especially around Hawkes Bay and Manawatu, and in places like Timaru, Dunedin and Gore in the South Island. In August 1956 I made my first trip to the big city of Wellington to do the rounds of the record companies. One man I met was Murdoch Riley at the Tanza Records studio, who took a keen interest in the acetates Noelene and I had made. He asked Ivan Tidswell in Dannevirke to record "these young singers", and our first session took place at Mr Tidswell's home on 1 September 1956. Our first 78 came out the following month, coupling two songs popularised by Hank Snow: Would You Mind? and I Wonder Where You Are Tonight? Having a record on the market gave our career a boost. To our usual round of performances we added personal appearances at record shops, which worked wonders for sales. Both songs became favourites on request programmes and hillbilly corners around the country.

We were married in the Lutheran church in Palmerston North on 17 November 1956. I decided to try a little promoting and started my 'Western Variety Shows' in the surrounding areas, using one crystal microphone and one speaker unless the hall had a better system - which it usually did not. Our second 78 came out in 1958 with two of my own songs. In 1959 more recording sessions followed, this time for Viking Records, run by Murdoch Riley. Our first Viking release, a 45rpm EP titled 'Shearers' Jamboree', appeared in 1960.

We released more recordings over the next couple of years; then Viking decided to feature me mainly as a solo artist with a band. Late in 1962 the LP 'Westerns' came out, on which Noelene sang on only two songs. During this period, however, four songs featuring Noelene were recorded and held back, and I would describe them as first class: Red River Valley Blues, Where The Golden Wattle Blooms, Keep The Lovelight Shining and Someone More Lonesome Than You.

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