John Boulter is a British

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

best known for his appearances as a soloist in the BBC's long-running variety series ''

The Black and White Minstrel Show ''The Black and White Minstrel Show'' was a British light entertainment show that ran for twenty years on BBC prime-time television. Running from 1958 to 1978, it was a weekly variety show that presented traditional American minstrel and countr ...

''. Along with bass

Tony Mercer Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...

and baritone Dai Francis, Boulter was one of the show's three front men.

Early life

Boulter was born in

Gillingham, Kent Gillingham ( ) is a large town in the unitary authority area of Medway in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. It is also the largest town in the ...

, and was educated at Gillingham Grammar School and later at Number One School of Technical Training in the Royal Air Force. From there he entered the Royal Academy of Music where he won Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals for his singing, and was awarded an Associateship of the Academy in recognition of his work. He was an "apprentice Airframe Fitter" in the RAF before becoming a professional singer.

Career

In 1960 he appeared in a South African production of '' Lock Up Your Daughters'', and joined George Mitchell's Minstrels during the 1950s. He went on to appear in the stage and television versions of ''The Black and White Minstrel Show'' and on recordings made by the troupe. He also appeared in the 1969 spin-off series, ''Music Music Music'', in which the minstrels appeared without their blackface make-up, following accusations of racism against the show. Boulter appeared as the male lead – ''Freddie Flowerdew'' – in the musical production of ''"Ask Dad"'' in the ''

Jeeves and Wooster ''Jeeves and Wooster'' is a British comedy-drama television series adapted by Clive Exton from P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993, with the last series nominated for a British ...

'' episode, ''"Introduction on Broadway".'' In 1973, John played

Mother Goose The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, howeve ...

at the

Cliffs Pavilion Cliffs Pavilion is a theatre and concert venue on Station Road in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England, a town within the city of Southend-on-Sea. It seats 1,630 and offers an assortment of variety acts. Building Work began on the original Cliff ...

's panto.

Family

In 1954 he married opera singer Lorna St. Clair, with whom he had four children. Later, Boulter married West End musical star

Anna Dawson Anna Dawson (born 27 July 1937) is an England, English actress and singer. Born in County Borough of Bolton, Bolton, Lancashire, Dawson spent part of her childhood in Tanganyika (territory), Tanganyika, where her father worked. She attended th ...

. The couple retired to New Zealand. John's daughters, Philippa (Pip) Boulter and Francesca (Frankie) Boulter, were both singers and members of the synthpop group

DATA In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...

Recordings

As featured performer with the George Mitchell Minstrels

*''On Stage With The George Mitchell Minstrels'' (1962) *''Here Come The Minstrels'' (1966) *''Those Magnificent Minstrels'' (1969)

Solo

*''John Boulter Sings'' (1965) *''The World's Great Love Songs'' (1968) *''Abide With Me'' (1969) *''John Boulter Sings The Words That Tell Of Life And Love'' (1976) *''On Wings Of Song'' (1977)

References

External Links

* English tenors Living people British expatriates in New Zealand People from Gillingham, Kent Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-singer-stub