The Times on Eleanor Keenan
How lovely to see a tribute to our dear friend Eleanor in The Times last week. Ellie was featured in the Readers’ Lives column which you can read below.
By Sarah Willcox
Standing proud, wide blue Irish eyes fixed on her audience, the big band singer Eleanor Keenan adored her role on stage, and the audience adored her back. In an uncommonly long career for a singer, of more than 40 years, she used her rich tones to caress tunes such as Cole Porter’s What Is This Thing Called Love? and other popular melodies such as Sway (Cha Cha Cha). She fronted the Syd Lawrence Orchestra, the Len Phillips Big Band and the like, her strong voice — and personality — an equal match for the supporting trumpets, trombones, saxophones and drums.
The longevity of Eleanor’s career owed not a little to a hard-won grit, and while she could have audiences in the palm of her hand — and struggled to make it to the bar in the interval for the numbers of people keen to talk to her — she was well aware of being in a profession largely composed of men. When touring at the age of 18 she had a protective nun as chaperone. In due course Eleanor gained confidence and while she learnt to tease with the best of them, those in the business were made aware not to cross the line with her.
A singer from her teenage years in Belfast, when she and a friend would perform at local venues, Eleanor made a name for herself with orchestras such as the city’s Geoff Reynolds Orchestra. Her biggest break came in the early 1960s with a hit single in Ireland, Cuando salí de Cuba. It led to appearances on national TV and she left to pursue a career in London.
She performed with the Jonny Joseph Five at the Café de Paris in Piccadilly and got slots as the backing singer and support act on tour with Tom Jones and other big names of the 1960s and 1970s, including Charles Aznavour, Engelbert Humperdinck, Leo Sayer and Shirley Bassey. The TV cameras liked her and she sang regularly on Pebble Mill at One and Saturday Night at the Mill and was the main singer on Come Dancing.
In 1979 she was put forward for the Song for Europe competition to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. Frustratingly, a strike was called on the day and the show was never broadcast. For Eleanor, who was relying on her stage presence in a rendition of Roger Whittaker’s Call my Name, it was a blow when the songs were played in their recorded versions on Terry Wogan’s radio show the next day. She lost out to Mary Ann by Black Lace and came third.
Eleanor was the youngest of four children born in 1947 to Mathew Nodwell, a southern Irish army captain, and Moya (née Christian) from northern Ireland. She was raised in Belfast with a two-year posting to Kaduna, Nigeria. Singing was her aim but her father insisted that she learn a trade, too. For a couple of years she did a hairdressing apprenticeship before moving to a house in Streatham, south London, that belonged to her brother, a carpenter on film sets. In 1985 she had Matt, later a TV producer, but went on to separate from his father.
Where Eleanor took comfort was in the warmth of friendship, whether it was bantering with the audience on stage, organising theatre trips and meals out with friends or preparing a dinner for ten. Volunteering came naturally to her generous nature and she worked at the food bank and for her local hospice. She may have been a hard worker and quick to speak her mind, but in a queue at a high street bank she was also known to arrange a coffee with a stranger before reaching the cashier.