Glasgow jazz singer Carol Kidd remembers Shettleston childhood and supporting Sinatra

“It was my agent, asking if I would like to open for Frank Sinatra at Ibrox in my home town,” smiles the world-famous, Glasgow-born jazz singer.

“I truly thought he was pulling my leg. I have idolised Sinatra since my teens – to me, he was the singer’s singer, every nuance, every emotion, the way he phrased a song to make it his own, the honesty in his way of bringing a song straight to your heart.

“I didn’t know it, but Sinatra had sent his ‘people’ to listen to me during the Glasgow Jazz Festival in the Theatre Royal where I was performing with a full orchestra, and then he had asked my agent to send my albums to London where he was performing at Wembley Arena.”

Carol adds, smiling: “And the word came back----book her….”

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Carol, who was brought up in Shettleston, is an internationally acclaimed awardwinning jazz singer, admired by fans and critics alike. She has performed for royalty, produced 10 studio albums and was described by Sinatra himself as “the best kept secret of British jazz.”

While she now lives in Majorca, Carol has never forgotten her Glasgow roots, and after discovering some of our fantastic readers’ memories in Times Past, she got in touch to share some of her own. In the first of a two-part series, Carol reveals what life was like in a Shettleston tenement in the late 40s and early 50s, and explains where her singing journey began.

“I’m an eastender through and through,” she explains with a laugh. “My dad, Martin, was from Baillieston, my mum, Agnes, was from Shettleston – they met at the dancing and according to them it was love at first sight.

“My dad asked my mum up for a dance and they danced all night. Then he asked to walk her home.”

Carol laughs: “This was a three mile walk, but they talked and laughed all the way and when they got to Fenella Street, he kissed her goodnight and that was that... love.”

Carol was brought up at Number 5 Fenella Street, where she lived with her parents, brother Martin, sister Kathleen and her mum's sister Betty (pictured, left, with Agnes, centre, and their sister, Jean.) It “wasn’t a street, really," she says, "just a tree-lined dirt lane.”

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Carol adds: “At the end of lane, crossing over Old Shettleston Road, was my dad’s work, Boyd’s engineering. Fenella Street had one close of five families.

“We lived on the top floor, a wally close, tiled and whitewashed. We had a big, old, black door with all brass handles, keyholes, letter box and name plate and the biggest brass key I’ve ever seen.

“Inside, to the right, was the bathroom with a bath which was not used for bathing – no hot water - but instead, for steeping and bleaching whites such as sheets and towels.

“The bathroom fascinated me because it had a pull chain toilet, and a wash basin with brass lion head taps, and the water came out of the mouth of the lion.”

She smiles: “Standing against the wall at the square end of the lobby was a big old organ worked by foot pedals. I was fascinated by this, as it had belonged to my Granny, but no-one knew how to play it.

“The kitchen was where everyone gathered, and it had a view all the way up Shettleston Road as far as the State Cinema.

Carol add: “We also had what my mum called the ‘parlour’, which had the most beautiful enormous white marble fireplace with Old Glasgow depicted on the tile inset.

“My dad would light a big fire and sleep on the pull down couch in there when he was on nightshift. I used to go in and sit with him at the fire, and he would tell me stories relating to each tile. The story I loved the most was about the famous Glasgow street singer, a down-and-out who had a wonderful operatic voice, who would stand on Glasgow’s streets surrounded by hundreds of people, and he would sing beautiful arias.

“The one song everyone wanted to hear was his version of Marta. One day, I remember my mum taking me on a tram to the back of Queen Street station. At the bridge we could look over into what was actually an enormous bomb crater from the war and in the middle stood this man, and his wonderful voice soared up at us.”

It was her mum, says Carol, who was her inspiration when it came to music.

“I remember she came home one day with a record she had bought from a second hand shop,” she says. “Now, you go and listen to someone who knows how to sing - listen to his diction and breathing and also the way he phrases his songs from the heart.

“It was Frank Sinatra. She had given me such a gift. This was the way I wanted to sing, these were the songs I wanted to sing. I was off, I had found my voice.”