MEET THE TATTY TENORS (1996-2017) …..
Asked to outline their history, Ralph Devlin muses:
The Tatty Tenors of Brisbane are men of many parts, most of them smaller than average.
The musical group was formed in 1996 when a Catholic Primary School was strapped for a musical act to entertain their 600 guests at an annual Fundraiser. Some ‘bright spark’ suggested they tog-up in white tie & tails and pretend to be The Three Tenors. They agreed nanoseconds before they were told that the backing Musicians for their World Première were the Royal Australian Artillery Band, Brisbane. No pressure. The rest is history – that they would rather forget, and which they frequently deny.
Hitting the High Notes
Thus began a world-wind 21 years during which they have taken their madcap musical humour around the world and to most parts of Australia. Ralph quips: ‘Pretty good for such mediocre talents (except for the pianist)’. Their most audacious venture was as a comedy act on the international opera circuit at an Opera Festival in Innisfail…..
Their backgrounds are varied:
- RALPH DEVLIN AM QC (‘Jose’) hails from a musical comedy and Gilbert&Sullivan performance background since the 1970s.
- RON JACKSON (‘Placido’) was a ‘Barbershopper’ before he was catapulted to fame, if not fortune, with the TATTYS.
- JIM AHERN (‘The Big Pav’) actually hails from Ballyhooly, Co Cork. When he can, he sends money home. Which is not often.
TED CHAPMAN (‘Zuhben Meta’) is, due to the lack of – well – funding, is the sole Orchestra member at present.
This is the TATTY’S 9th World Tour since 1996, there having been at least 3 prior Tours to Melbourne and trips to Adelaide, Darwin and parts of rural New South Wales. They performed in Dublin with Bloomsday Melbourne at the 2004 ‘Re-Joyce Festival 100’ and went on to perform in Malta, to name just two ‘whistle-stops’ on that acclaimed 2004 Tour. And they returned to Jimmy’s birthplace in Ballyhooly, Co. Cork.
In 2011 they sang Anzac Day at many venues on the Western Front (for example, the Menin Gate, Ypres) as guests of the Australian Embassy to the European Union, when Brendan Nelson was the Ambassador there.
They considered the opportunity to work again with Bloomsday Melbourne and with Director Wayne Pearn was too good an opportunity to pass up. ‘We immediately fell in love with the script,’ said their spokesperson. ‘As middle-aged males, each with individual personal hygiene issues, we were drawn to the smells of James Joyce……’
Their repertoire.leans into the Neapolitan light opera repertoire, Irish and Scottish songs, and also into iconic Australian ballads, so they were a perfect fit with the vaudeville feel that Wayne Pearn, the director of Getting Up James Joyce’s Nose was seeking for the Spiegeltent. Timing, the look, the comedy, and the sheer musicality of Joyce’s repertoire and period were the desiderata Wayne Pearn expressed for the show. Initially, we thought of using recordings, but they’ve now been so tightly women into the script that they must be there in person, and the team wouldn’t have it any other way.
Rehearsing in Brisbane
They have been rehearsing for some months in the heat of a Brisbane autumn, and one of their number sortied to try out with the cast in Melbourne just before Easter. Skype and phone-calls keep them up to date with their cues, script edits and with the vibe of the production. Their excitement about their next gig is palpable to the cast in Melbourne, and not a little disconcerting. They keep promising not to upstage Joyce, and the actors. Now, that is a worry.
A more detailed and serious account of the Tattys and their career as freewheeling musical comedians has been published in Tinteán.
