CONCERT BY CONVICTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 12

CONCERT BY CONVICTS

BROADCAST TO LISTENERS HIGH MUSICAL STANDARD <From Oub Own Correspondent* SYDNEY, Oct. 26. For the first time in Australia, wireless listeners heard community singing and other musical items emanating from within prison walls. A concert given by the inmates ol the Goulburn (N.S.W.) gaol was broadcast by a national station. Notwithstanding the novelty of Lhe occasion, and the fact that none of the contributing artists had had experience before the microphone, the entertainment was of high standard, and left an impression in striking contrast to ideas of prison life. The numbers "Home on the Range " and “The Isle of Capri" were followed by orchestral items such as “In a Monastery Garden ” and excerpts from “ Rigoletto.” A guitar duet was played by two young men, who confessed to being somewhat nervous in front of the microphone A “ Nocturne in A major ” was played on the pianoforte by the composer, who is serving a life sentence for murder, and who learned all his music after his conviction. A prisoner with a deep, rich baritone voice sang a solo, “My Task,” and the programme concluded with a lustily rendered “The Dog Sat on the Tuckerbox” and the melodious “When I Grow Too Old to Dream.”