We have a centenary to celebrate, dear reader! As quintessentially "London" as you can get, yesterday would have been the 100th birthday of one of this country's "national treasures" Queenie Watts!
Born and bred in the Isle of Dogs (more commonly referred to nowadays as part of the generic - but more marketable - "London Docklands") in the East End of London, she and her husband "Slim" became well-known local characters as landlord and landlady of two popular pubs in the area, the Iron Bridge Tavern and the Rose and Crown, and Queenie in particular became locally famous for her singing...
From an interview with my Nana's favourite (now defunct) gossip-mag Weekend [read the article scans here and here]:
"...if I've had a bevy on a Saturday and feel in the mood, I might stagger up and do something."
Bust she's not keen on pub songs or beer barrel music. Show Me the Way To Go Home is not in Queenie's repertoire. Basin Street Blues and Lonesome Road are.
"I only sing stuff that's got soul," she says. "If you can't sing with feeling, I don't think you should bother. My elder sisters were into jazz. I played their records and I learned them.
!I got hooked on Billie Holiday quite early. I don't style myself after her - let's say she influenced me."
Her mother, music hall singer Marie Gooding, refused to let her join a band when she had the opportunity at 15.
Queenie says: "She wouldn't hear of it. She said, 'I'm not having you chased round Paris by men.'" Apparently it happened to her on tour.
"Singing was all I wanted to do. I regret I never got into it at the right age."
It wouldn't be long until some bigger showbiz opportunities beckoned. She was one of the old-time performers" who appeared on the short-lived TV variety series Stars and Garters, the estimable Joan Littlewood cast Queenie in her film Sparrers Can't Sing, alongside Barbara Windsor, and she was cast as (surprise, surprise) a pub singer in Alfie. She gained her widest audience however, when she starred alongside Arthur Mullard in the prime-time ITV sitcom Romany Jones and its sequel Yus, My Dear in the 1970s.
Returning to the 1960s, however, Queenie and Slim (remarkably) were featured in a short documentary about their East End lives Portrait of Queenie, and it featured several clips of Queenie performing:
A remarkable woman, with a remarkable voice.
Queenie Watts (born Mary Spenton, 21st July 1923 – 25th January 1980)
[More Queenie here]
