Isla St Clair
Encyclopedia : I : IS : ISL : Isla St Clair
Isla St Clair (born 2 May, 1952) is a Scottish singer, actress and former game show assistant.
Childhood singing
Isla St Clair was born Isabella Margaret Dyce, in Grangemouth, central Scotland, on 2 May 1952. Her mother Zetta sang in folk clubs and wrote songs. The family moved to Aberdeen, where by the age of 12 Isla had appeared on television in "My Kind of Folk". When her parents divorced, Isla adopted her mother's maiden name, Sinclair, adapted slightly.After meeting Jeannie Robertson, St Clair subsequently adopted much of her repertoire of traditional songs. Another major influence was seeing The Corries. By 1971 she was a professional singer, travelling around the folk club circuit. She fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming a groom in a holiday riding school.
In 1978 St Clair became the assistant to game show host Larry Grayson in The Generation Game. Her sweet Scottish accent was an innocent accompaniment to Larry's camp ambivalence. In 1982, following the demise of The Generation Game, she was chosen to co-host the popular ITV Saturday morning kids' TV show The Saturday Show (ITV TV series) alongside Tommy Boyd. After two series she left in 1984 to concentrate on her music career.
The Song and the Story
In 1981 St Clair teamed up with Steeleye Span to produce a series of programmes for BBC children's television, "The Song and The Story". This involved dressing up in historical costume and explaining the history of folk songs. She relished the opportunity to ride a horse again as the highwaywoman "Sovay". The presence of Steeleye Span on the soundtrack was almost a secret; it was only in the book of songs that Maddy Prior was credited as a researcher for the series. The program won European television's "Prix Jeunesse". (To date, however, the soundtrack has not been reissued on CD.)For the next ten years St Clair disappeared from the public eye while she raised a family. Her husband had hit the headlines by appearing in court on charges of drug dealing.
Songs of North-East Scotland
Starting with Inheritance in 1993, she produced several albums devoted to Scottish folk songs. In 1997 she had a series on BBC Radio 2, "Tatties and Herrin'", devoted to songs from the North-East of Scotland. She has recorded many of the Child Ballads. In 2003 she released My Generation, a collection of children's songs, many of them remembered from her own time in the playground. St Clair's most recent album is called Looking Forward to the Past'.Discography
- Isla St Clair (1972)
- 70 Golden Nursery Rhymes (1979) (various artists: Isla St Clair, Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins and Percy Edwards)
- The Song and The Story (1981)
- Inheritance (1993)
- Scenes Of Scotland (1996)
- Tatties and Herrin' - The Land (1997)
- Tatties and Herrin' - The Sea (1997)
- When The Pipers Play (1998)
- Murder and Mayhem (2000)
- Royal Lovers and Scandals (2000)
- My Generation (2003)
- Highland Songs (2003)
- Looking Forward to the Past (2003)
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.