Can You Tell What it is Yet?: The Autobiography of Rolf Harris

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In 1991 Harris diversified again into commercials – not advertising paint (as he had earlier) but extolling the delights of a chocolate bar while sitting in the pouch of a giant puppet kangaroo playing an aboriginal musical instrument. After his early successes as a children’s performer, Harris achieved much wider fame on television in the late 1960s with The Rolf Harris Show on Saturday nights, a prime-time fixture from 1967 until 1971. As well as songs, guest artistes and a specially created glamorous dance team called the Young Generation, Harris would introduce his weekly pièce de résistance, a gigantic painting in household emulsion to illustrate one of his novelty songs. The first of these, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport (Harris’s own adaptation of a Broadway show song from 1954), shot into the charts in 1960. Another success, Sun Arise, reached No 3 in 1962, and in 1965 he scored another unlikely hit with a comedy song about a three-legged man, Jake the Peg. But this all stood completely at odds with Harris’s public persona as a virtuoso on the wobble board, piano accordion, Stylophone and didgeridoo, and an artist of considerable talent who in the 1950s had twice exhibited at the Royal Academy. For all this slightly surreal array of accomplishments, Harris had remained grounded, unspoilt by fame and distinctly unglamorous. As the BBC’s light entertainment supremo of the time, Bill Cotton, noted, Harris might have achieved stardom the hard way, but had never lost his Australian earthiness. Rolf Harris, who has died aged 93, entertained children and family audiences alike for more than half a century with harmless, if occasionally ludicrous, homespun television appearances; but to general astonishment – not least, it seemed, his own – he was convicted in 2014 on a dozen charges of child sexual abuse.

Can You Tell What it is Yet?: The Autobiography of Rolf

Rolf Harris married, in 1958, the sculptress Alwen Hughes; she survives him with their daughter, Bindi. Four others were heard at a retrial, after which he was formally acquitted. Meanwhile, one of his earlier convictions was quashed by the Court of Appeal. He was released from prison in May 2017.Moreover, in 1985 he had fronted a video for the NSPCC – Kids Can Say No! – the first of its kind in Britain, aimed at young children and designed to prevent child sex abuse. With a running time of 20 minutes, it showed Harris talking to a small group of seven- and eight-year-olds about “yes feelings” and “no feelings” as well as outlining several uncomfortable situations involving adults that can confront the unwary child. Ferrari asked the collector what he’d done with the pictures. “I displayed them at the time but now they’re behind a wardrobe,” came the answer. However, despite this, the caller said that he believed the works had artistic merit and that it was possible to separate the art from the artist. By then Harris’s television popularity in Britain was on the wane. Moving into radio in 1980 with Rolf’s Walkabout on Radio 2, he travelled across Britain, visiting obscure village halls and organising sing-songs. Again it was Harris’s enthusiasm that made the show successful. He was at ease asking old ladies their age, complimenting them on their youthful looks and then leading groups of pensioners in Do Ye Ken John Peel? But another raged at Harris, blasting: “Nonce. Can't listen to Tie Me Kangaroo Down in the same way ever again.” He could sing as well as paint, sometimes at the same time. Harris’s successful way with a sentimental ballad was crowned in 1969 with his mawkish single Two Little Boys, which remained at the top of the hit parade for several weeks. In what now seems an inconceivable coup, Harris routed stars of the stature of Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, and kept Kenny Rogers’s song Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town from the No 1 position.

ROLF HARRIS songs and albums | full Official Chart history ROLF HARRIS songs and albums | full Official Chart history

At the University of Western Australia and at Claremont Teachers’ College, Harris studied fine art and during the vacations worked in an asbestos mine. When blue asbestos was later blamed for causing cancer and asbestosis, Harris discovered that one in six of his co-workers had died as a result of asbestos inhalation. Also a talented artist he incorporated all this into an interesting prime time Television variety show that featured local and international performers. In 1970 Harris appeared in court on behalf of the manufacturers of the Stylophone. The Inland Revenue had brought a case against Dubreq Studios, claiming that because it was not a keyboard instrument, the Stylophone was liable to taxation.Ahead of his time for showing appreciation for the indigenous people of Australia and proudly blending their musical concepts to a wider audience to enjoy.