“NO REGRETS,” SAYS POP SINGER

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31923, 26 February 1969, Page 2

“NO REGRETS,” SAYS POP SINGER

Once quoted as saying she had “never really been a teen-ager," the 18-year-old singer and Golden Disc winner, Miss Allison Durbin, said in Christchurch yesterday that she had no regrets.

“I haven’t been able to go out to dances or to the pictures with a boy friend, as other teen-agers do. I have always looked forward to having a rest and staying at home,” said Miss Durbin.

“Although 1 have missed many of the things everyone likes to do, I don’t really regret it My way of life has made me grow up a lot more quickly and, after a year in Australia when I was 16, I was a lot wiser than most girls of my age.” In a life of constant travel, Miss Durbin misses “being away from my record player and all my records more than

anything.” These she keeps in Wellington and she likes to lie back and listen to music when she has time. The second youngest in a family of seven (five girts and two boys), Miss Durbin enjoys horse-riding whenever she has time off to visit her family in Auckland.

The effect of show business life on a young person depended on the individual, she said.

“You have to like what you are doing or you cannot put your whole heart into it. I have always loved singing and, although the constant travelling is very tiring, it is all part of this. I love going to different places and would like to tour the world." No Image Although the slim, longhaired singer said she did not consciously project an image for the public, she would like to be regarded “as just one of the kids.”

“I like to try and set an example for the kids to fol-| low, too. For instance, I' like frills and lace and feminine clothes and I started to wear dresses like this in the hope that the girls would follow suit—and they have.” Like most entertainers, Miss Durbin would like to have a No. 1 hit record outside her own country. Her latest record, “The Games That People Play,” will be released today. With a visit to Australia ahead of her in March, and a full-scale South Island tour after this. Miss Durbin is letting the future take care of itself. “I would like to stay in pop for awhile yet, and then make up my mind how I feel,” she said. “I would also like to go to England later this year, even if it is just to have a look round.”