UNITED KINGDOM: SINGER TONY BENNETT STARTS NEW CONCERT TOUR AND HOLDS EXHIBITION OF HIS PAINTINGS IN LONDON

Record ID: 389439

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: SINGER TONY BENNETT STARTS NEW CONCERT TOUR AND HOLDS EXHIBITION OF HIS PAINTINGS IN LONDON
  • Date: 25th May 2000
  • Summary: LEEDS CASTLE, KENT, UK (MAY 29, 2000) (REUTERS) VARIOUS, FANS HAVING PICNIC AT PERFORMANCE (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON AND LEEDS CASTLE, KENT, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA59KF6F1HMWCPXGDKXC7EZS9BY
  • Story Text: Frank Sinatra said he was his favourite all-time performer.Madonna chose him to hand her the most prestigious music award.Last year he charmed the MTV generation with his performance at Glastonbury.And at 73, he's still going strong.Tony Bennett - "The King of Cool" is in Britain this month with a new CD, a concert at Leeds Castle and a new tour.But there's another side to the American crooner and he's keen to show it to his fans.A selection of his very own paintings is currently on exhibition in the London suburb of Hampstead.
    This is the Tony Bennett the world knows.He's been in the entertainment business for 50 years, won a string of Grammy awards and entertained eight U.S.
    presidents.And he's still charming audiences everywhere today.
    In his 70s, he loves the challenge of conquering a new generation.
    Retirement could not be further from his mind.
    There's another side to him though, less well known, but equally brilliant.His other passion is painting, something he's done for decades.
    "When I sing I'm Tony Bennett, Bob Hope gave me that name.He said let's Americanize you and call you Tony Bennett.He said what's your real name when he met me, I said Anthony Dominic Benedetto.He said that's too long, let's Americanize you, we'll call you Tony Bennett.He never thought that one day there'll be a singer called Engelbert Humperding."
    To distinguish between his two passions, he signs his paintings not with Bennett, but with Benedetto."I just want to separate the two careers, to show that they're two different things, when I paint it's Benedetto, when I sing it's Tony Bennett.Bob Hope gave me a lot of good luck with that name."
    Bennett was fourteen when he started painting."I was sketching on a sidewalk, I grew up during The Depression in the United States and I was making a giant mural of the pilgrims and the Indians in the street with chalk and there was a shadow that came across and I looked around and there was this Irishman - he was an art teacher - who lived in my building, I wasn't one of his students, but I was after a while.
    "He says I like what you're doing, every Saturday I go out and paint in watercolour, would you like to come with me, I'm your neighbour and I said yes, I was so thrilled about it, I was fourteen at the time.He took me and I couldn't believe how wonderful he painted, he gave me some paints to paint with and then he took me to my first opera, my first Broadway show, the first museum.
    "The Museum of Modern Art.He and his wife, she was an English teacher, he was an art teacher...and that did it.From that day on, you know subconsciously I just committed myself to painting for the rest of my life.
    Singing and painting, I have that passion to do the two."
    Bennett has painted many of his friends and colleagues - Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstorng, Billie Holiday.His favourite is his portrait of his old friend Duke Ellington.
    "We became great friends, I painted him, it's the only painting I have actually that I would never sell.It's my own personal painting.I really liked him, he was just a master composer and great artist."
    Bennett recalls his favourite memory of Ellington.
    "I do actually.I was very depressed at one time in my life and it was Christmas Eve and for the first time in my life I was away from my family.I was just recently divorced and away from my sons, very depressed the whole time and Duke was doing a sacred concert at Christmas time and it was Christmas Eve and I was by myself in a hotel room and I heard these voices and I said "oh my telly is on" , so I went over to the television and it wasn't on.
    "This chorus kept singing and I went to the door and - I opened the door and there were 200 singers that he sent up to my hotel room.They were singing "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever".
    Bennett's other great friend was Frank Sinatra.Bennett says Sinatra changed his life, when he announced that Bennett was his favourite all-time performer."That happened right here in London.I got this call from the United States.Did you see what Frank Sinatra said about you in Life Magazine...what what did he say?...we're not gonna tell you...I said but the magazine won't come out here until next week...tell me what it is...no you'll have to wait till you get back...then I found out that he chose me as his favourite all time performer.
    "He saw me perform and of course then all of his fans were very curious about why he said that and everybody queued up to see me."
    And they're still queuing up.This week, four and a half thousand people went to the fairy tale setting of Leeds Castle, in Southern England to hear the old crooner perform.He loves being back here, saying that his British fans are amongst the most loyal.
    "I love it.I've been coming here 50 years, believe it or not and the people get warmer every year, friendlier, they're so loyal.My original fans are still hoping to see me and I meet them backstage at the stage door."
    He never gets tired of singing "I left My Heart in San Francisco," one of the best known urban anthems in the world.
    "I love singing it, it's my signature song, it's actually made me a world citizen.I get commissioned to sing it all over the world.It's a great education for me."
    Tony Bennett's latest CD "Hot and Cool" was released in the UK on May 22.
    He'll be performing in Dublin on June 29 with further dates around the UK in July.
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