Rolf Harris

Rolf Harris is an Australian singer and musician who has had several hit records over the years, but is most well-known for "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", a novelty song featuring the sound of the "wobble board" which was an 'instrument' created by Mr. Harris. The song charted in 1959 and became a big hit.

I've been a fan of Rolf's for many years, but it has never been easy finding his music in the U.S. But thanks to the Internet over the past several years, I've been able to find and purchase his music. He has available several cd's of his 'old' hit songs as well as newly recorded ones.

Mr. Harris is a cartoonist and artist as well as a musician and song writer. He has had several tv shows in the United Kingdom featuring these talents.

In 1997, I found his fan club on the Internet and joined it. The autographed photo I received, as well as the membership card and an unsigned photo, can be seen here.

During the summer of 1999, I arranged to meet Rolf's business manager, Tony Cordwell, when he was in New York City. Two other fans of Rolf's joined us at a pub in the South Street Seaport. Tony had brought along a few items I'd ordered from the fan club. Upon his return to England, I wrote him and told him of my enjoyment of the cd's and to please pass along my thanks to Rolf. Here is the email I received from him (it's a copy of one he sent to Rolf), and Rolf's reply directly to me:
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----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Cordwell
To: rolf
Sent: 25 October 1999 08:56
Subject: Fwd: Received parcel

I thought I'd forward this one to you as Bill (who I have met during one
of my trips to New York) is in fact the longest standing fan club member. I
think a brief forwarded message from you would go down a treat! He ordered
"She'll be Right", "Bootleg" and a bootleg tee shirt, as well as renewing
his subscription.

Tony
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Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 20:23:33
Subject: Reply from Rolf

Dear Bill,

Tony passed on your message about getting the T-shirt and the
CDs. I'm knocked out that you like the CDs so much. We're really happy
with the new stuff, and most of the old ones are songs that were really
great, but somehow never grabbed the public's attention at the time, so it's
good to see them getting an airing again. I was just going to go into lots
of historical detail about them, but remembered that I've done all that in
the sleeve notes.
We're doing a live gig this Friday, and we're doing a DAT recording of the
proceedings, so there should be a good live CD in that, and you'll be able
to see how the songs are recieved by an audience. I hope you continue to be
a fan. We're going to keep going with the shows and the recordings,(got all
sorts of new stuff planned). Keep checking out the web site.

Cheers mate, Rolf.
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Rolf's website can be seen here, and it has loads of information about him.