The children, who range in age from 13 to 23, are all well, Whittaker said. ''The children thought the country place was a little remote,'' he said. ''I want to finish a (musical) show I`m writing, an African fairy tale about a village in Kenya.'' Meanwhile, the Whittaker family has moved home base to a spacious house in London. In 1976, he hit the American charts with ''The Last Farewell,'' which has sold 11 million copies around the world. Whittaker did ''If I Were a Rich Man'' and stole the show.īy the time he got back to England, after a concert tour of Europe, his record of ''Durham Town'' was in the Top 10. That led to an invitation to be part of a British musical team competing at the annual music festival at Knokke, Belgium. That led to playing in workingmen`s pubs in the north of England, gigs that taught him how to entertain, and win over, tough crowds. His first five years were so lean that he once had to sell his camera to eat. Later, studying in Wales at Bangor University, he finished his undergraduate education with a degree in biochemistry, and also made his first record, ''Steel Man.'' He chose show business over science. Born to British parents in Nairobi, he learned Swahili as a child, picked up African-style whistling, and listened to country and western music, which was popular in Kenya at the time. That, in a sense, has been Whittaker`s mission ever since he discovered guitar-playing at college in South Africa in the 1950s. People like to be taken out of themselves.'' During the war in England, the entertainment business prospered hugely. ![]() People love entertainment, especially when times are bad. Is the recession hurting his tour? ''We find that it doesn`t. What does he do in the long hours between shows? ''I write, or play backgammon or Scrabble, or go shopping, or do interviews.'' We`re on that a lot of the time, but if it`s more than eight hours or so between stops, we send everyone by air and send the bus overnight.'' What`s life on the road like? ''Pretty good,'' he said. When I asked her again, she said yes,'' Whittaker said, adding that one of his favorite numbers is one from the Broadway musical ''My Fair Lady,'' with Whittaker as Professor Higgins and J.J. ''My daughter was with me on the Christmas tour two years ago. (for Jessice Jane), contains no unsettlements. Indeed, in times when the news is often charged with shocks, Whittaker fans will be relieved to hear that the Christmas show, also starring his 18-year-old daughter, J.J. Twenty-five years, and people get to know your music.'' ''Families play these albums while driving up to the Rockies, going fishing or to school. ''The Silent Majority is still there, but now their children are coming to the shows,'' Whittaker said. ![]() ![]() His fans, he once said, come from the Silent Majority, a phrase he liked because ''it conjures up to me a picture of someone who doesn`t make a big fuss of adversity or success, the kind of person who when he marries becomes a parent and a taxpayer and devotes himself to bringing up his children properly-all in all, a pretty straight-down-the-line guy.'' 15, but I`ll also design a new show and come back to America.''Ĭritics have described Whittaker`s style as pseudo-folk, a grab bag of catchy, peppy, uplifting songs that range from ''Mexican Whistler'' to ''If I Were a Rich Man.'' His voice, others have noted, is a pleasant baritone, his stage manner as offhandedly ingratiating as Steve Allen`s. ''I`m going to be doing a lot of lying down for the next six weeks. ''There`s a heating pad waiting for me in a little house we rent in Ocho Rios, an hour`s drive from Montego Bay,'' Whittaker said. Then he will fly south, to a quiet house in Jamaica for Christmas with his family and a long rest. After Aurora, he will head north for a one-nighter Sunday at Milwaukee`s Riverside Theater. This year, Whittaker has done 71 concerts across Europe, 45 across Canada and a dozen in the U.S.
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