Helen Shapiro, British Pop Singer, May Visit NZ.

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29722, 16 January 1962, Page 2

Helen Shapiro, British Pop Singer, May Visit NZ.

IFrom the London Coriesnonaent of “The Press"]

The British teen-age pop singer, Helen Shapiro, hopes to visit New Zealand in September or October. Her managers are negotiating for a tour.

Aged 15. Helen has only recently left school. In the last 18 months she has recorded many successful songs including "Don’t Treat Me Like a Child,” “You Don’t Know,” “Walking Back to Happiness” (recently top of the Hit Parade in New Zea-

land), “Tiptoe Thro’ the Tulips,” “After • You've Gone,” “Birth of ,the Blues,” and "Goody Goody.”

It is almost certain that she will visit the United States next month, after recent successful tours through Scandinavia and in France. However, Australia and New Zealand also appeal to her.

“You should have seen the sun tan Cliff Richard had when he came back from New Zealand,” she said. “I want to get some of that sun. I can swim—well enough, anyway, to keep myself from drowning—and I want to learn to play tennis, and to ride horses. But finding the time is the big problem. “I used to go out with boys, just as any teen-age girl does, but I find I haven’t the time to spare these days. I love my w’ork, and really have lots of fun, too.”

One of Helen’s problems when on foreign tours has been the language of her songs. “I think I got through to them in Paris all rjght. So many of the people in the Scandinavian countries speak such beautiful English it makes me feel almost ashamed.” Helen has a tremendous fan mail, including many New Zealand correspondents. Not all, however, write as an English girl did recently: 101 pages, scribbled in buses, during prep., even at school. The opening sentence read: "They say Cliff Richard once got a fan letter of 100 pages, so I'm going to make this 101.”

Soon Helen will try to reply personally to all those who have written to her from New Zealand and elsewhere, even if it is “only a couple of lines.”