Bruce Lynch, Bayly & Moore, Norman Squire Photography
Her front door opens and I’m immediately transported back to the Lower Hutt Town Hall, 1968. The TV pop show C’mon is on tour and I’m there, one amongst an audience of screaming teens, excited to see my pop idols in the flesh. Suzanne Donaldson is up there on stage, rocking her trademark white boots and the tiniest of miniskirts, alongside her sister Judy. Together, they are The Chicks and in 1960s New Zealand, they were bigger than Texas.
Billed as a “dazzling pop spectacular”, C’mon the stage show was fronted by star of the moment, Peter Sinclair. Others in the line-up included performers Sandy Edmonds, Mr Lee Grant and Herma Keil. I was transfixed. It was one of the most memorable moments of my childhood. So I’m a bit starstruck when I come face-to-face with Suzanne.
She hasn’t aged a bit. At barely 1.5 metres, she is still the pint-sized pocket rocket she always was, and she is still rocking the boots – black suede today – with sparkly silver embroidery.
A sparkle that never faded
“I bought them in a sale in Invercargill,” she tells me with a delighted grin.
“They were $30.”
Her little granddaughter Lily asked her recently, “Why has your closet got all these sparkly clothes?” So she thought perhaps it was time to tell the story of her life – the tale of a magical ride through the heady days of the ’60s and ’70s pop culture, the result of which is her new book Yesterday When I was Young.
On the road with Cat Stevens
It’s a page-turner. Nostalgic, a vivid picture of a more innocent time, liberally peppered with her private photos, touring stories and insights from those with whom she shared a stage. Among them, ’70s superstar Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam. Suzanne sang backing vocals on two of his world tours and can be heard on his most iconic albums. It’s a testament to their relationship and her professionalism that he’s written the foreword to the book.
“That nightingale voice, so pure and in perfect tune,” he says.
“My memories of Suzanne Lynch are amazing. Anyone who helped me in climbing the creative mountain had to be pretty close to perfection. Suzanne was both: pretty and perfect.”
Still in tune after all these years
Suzanne tells me, “I had no idea that he felt that way!”
They remain close friends, “He emailed me the other day. He said, ‘Our music brought us together in the way that nothing else could.’”
A career in music had never been on Suzanne’s horizon. Inherently shy, she was more comfortable with animals than people and had set her sights on becoming a vet. Born at the beginning of the ’50s
in Wellington to Yolande and John Donaldson, Suzanne is just over two years younger than her sister Judy. The pair were and still are extremely close.
“She was my support system.”
Like father, like daughter
Her father was known as “Honest John” – a go-getter, who could turn his hand to pretty much anything, and a “yes” person – something his daughter can relate to.
“I’m a chip off the old block … a yes person … and worry about it later,” she grins.
“That’s what I learnt from my dad.”
Saying yes to life
It’s a way of operating that’s stood her in good stead throughout her life. The phone is always ringing with job offers and, as a rule, she says yes. Her dad was a resilient man and he needed all that resilience when the Donaldsons lost everything in a house fire when Suzanne was nine months old. In a move that would change the course of the family’s life, he decided to head for Auckland to try something new – initially a small dairy farm in Waimauku.
Suzanne’s earliest memory is of taking off in her gumboots on her own, aged three, with her mate Pat the farm dog, to round up the herd of 30 cows.
“What was I thinking?” Her parents, frantic with worry about their missing toddler, only to discover her whistling away to the dog amid the cows. Fearless!
A mother’s story
The Donaldson family eventually settled on a chicken farm in Huapai. Suzanne was in heaven. She had a pet hen, among the 2000 on the farm, that would ride on the handle bars of her tricycle. The sisters made little wooden boats to sail in the stream, they played with their dolls in a deserted cottage, built huts and generally had an idyllic childhood.
Suzanne’s mother Yolande lost her father, a gifted tenor, at nine, and was pushed from pillar to post around the cousins.
A gentle soul
“I felt she was always a little insecure, quite shy, perhaps I get my shyness from her,” Suzanne reflects.
“I always felt that I mothered her as I was growing up.”
The gift of harmony
Her mum, though, did give her girls a special gift – she taught them to harmonise.
“Judy learnt all those harmonies. And because I grew up listening to them, I can find a harmony just like that now. I never realised at the time how good that was. I was just standing around the piano on a Saturday night because there was nothing else to do really.”
The family would gather regularly with neighbours to sing together. One of those neighbours was 12-year-old Kevin Borich, who would go on to become the mainstay of the iconic Kiwi band the La De Da’s. So music was definitely in the air.
First notes on vinyl
“We made our first recording when I was nine and Judy was 11,” recalls Suzanne.
“Mum took us into a recording studio in town to capture us on vinyl, just for the family. I’m going to post it on my website – it’s hilarious!”
It was Judy who was most ambitious at that time; she wanted to sing and dance (Judy choreographed many of The Chicks’ dance moves). Initially, Suzanne was just along for the ride, doing what she was told. The pair both went to Henderson High, where Suzanne joined the school choir, only to be booted out for being too loud.
Joining The Ravens
Just as well because a group of older boys at the college invited the sisters to join their rock band, The Ravens, and stars were born.
“It was a thrill for a 13-year-old,” she says. “It was our first time singing live with a band.”
Their big break came when they heard some live music coming from a neighbours’ house and went to investigate. It was guitarist Peter Posa, who’d just had a huge hit with White Rabbit. Judy asked for an autograph and he said he’d give her one if the girls sang a song for him. They did. Clearly they impressed his manager Ron Dalton, who happened to be there too. He wrote their phone number on the back of a cigarette packet and said he’d ring when he’d found a suitable song for them to record.
The call that changed everything
Their mum said, “I don’t think you’ll hear from him again.”
Two weeks went past … and then he rang. They recorded two songs that first day, The Hucklebuck, a dance-craze song, and Heart of Stone.
Ron, who became their first manager, wanted to call the sisters The Angels, but that idea was binned when the musical director Mike Perjanik said, “Hey, get those chicks to the mike.”
They would be The Chicks for the next five years. The irony not lost on them that they came from a chicken farm.
Living the 60’s dream
“In the ’60s, every day was exciting,” she enthuses.
“I miss the excitement of the next album coming out [now it’s all on the internet before you can blink]. Back then, the release of a new album was a real occasion. Everything was new and exciting – we were living our best life.”
Of course, The Chicks needed an image. Ron hauled them off to Kay’s French Salon on infamous K’Road. They emerged: one bleached and one darkened, and both with large curls piled on top of their heads – perfect for black and white television. Next Ron took them shopping for outfits. They went to Sonny Elegant Knitwear and found some jerseys that looked like mini dresses. They paired them with brightly coloured tights and firstly black boots, which soon became white boots – and the envy of every teenage girl in the country.
Stepping inot the spotlight
The Chicks made their first TV appearance in 1965 on a pop show called On the Beat Side. Suzanne was 15 and Judy 17.
“I was terrified,” Suzanne recalls.
“We were on after Ray Woolf. I was so nervous, I looked like an Energizer Bunny, larger than life.”
The Hucklebuck was a finalist in the Loxene Golden Disc Awards and the public could vote for the top 10 local songs. That year, Ray Columbus and the Invaders won with Till We Kissed.
Learning from a legend
Ray later became Suzanne’s manager.
“He was always my hero. He always had your back, no matter what and gave great advice. Among many other things, he taught me never to arrive at the studio dressed in my show clothes. Always dress in the dressing room, then you know you’re in performance mode.”
Ray died in 2016 after a long health battle. Suzanne visited him every month before his death.
“Max [broadcaster and entertainer Max Cryer] and I would drive up to see him,” she recalls.
“Ray would be in bed and we’d chat all day.”
A final tribute
Ray asked her to sing The Wind Beneath My Wings at his funeral. The ’60s were jam-packed with TV appearances and touring for The Chicks. Their first tour, when Suzanne was just 14, was supporting wild-boy British rockers the Pretty Things and barefoot Puppet on a String singer Sandie Shaw. It was a baptism of fire. Her mother came along to chaperone her girls.
The promoter had talked up the Pretty Things – “Last month in Liverpool, they made tough men faint,” claimed the ads.
Sandie would later call the tour “a drunken travelling circus”. Mrs Donaldson, though, kept a firm rein on Suzanne and Judy, and while they had a great time singing on the bus and on stage, she always had them early to bed and tucked up safely. No sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll for them!
Breaking up and moving on
As the ’60s came to a close, The Chicks called time on their partnership. Judy headed offshore to Hong Kong and Australia, while Suzanne went solo at home. She got together with her husband- to-be Bruce Lynch on the set of the TV variety show Happen Inn. He was the show’s musical arranger and guitarist. Theirs was a whirlwind romance.
“He was a very clever musician, had a great sense of humour and what’s more, he was brave enough to ask me out,” Suzanne laughs.
“He took me to a flash restaurant in Mt Eden and a few months later, he proposed, at the same restaurant.”
No time for normal teens
Until then, there’d been little time for a normal teen social life, what with touring, recording and television shows. Suzanne worked closely with legendary rock DJ and television frontman Peter Sinclair.
“He was quite daunting to be around,” she admits.
“We were in awe of him. He was fiercely intelligent and often had his head in a book back stage while we were recording, then he’d bound on stage with perfect timing to introduce the next artist.”
Suzanne reckons she went to the “Kevan Moore/Ray Columbus school of music performance”.
Producer Kevan was known as the Godfather of New Zealand music television.
“He was really strict,” she reveals.
“We were terrified of him in a good way. We didn’t want to let him down. He insisted that you should always be on time, dressed and ready to go, knowing your words and which camera you were working to.”
Awards and accolades
A dedicated pipe smoker, you could always smell him coming. Suzanne worked constantly, filming TV shows, recording solo albums, touring and winning awards. She was named Entertainer of the Year in 1971, and in 1972 she won a Loxene Golden Disc Award for her song Sunshine Through a Prism – the public had voted her most popular soloist.
But it was a famous Irish crooner who would turn Suzanne’s life in a whole new direction. Val Doonican was a superstar of the ’60s, with five top 10 hits to his name in the UK. He invited Suzanne to be the first half act on his tour of New Zealand. Val was so taken with her voice, he invited her to the UK to sing on his TV show, at that time watched by a potential audience of 19 million. So much for the stage fright!
A ticket to London
Again, it was an offer that seemed too good to be true, but sure enough, a couple of weeks later, a return ticket to London – valid for six months –arrived in the post from Val. Of course, Suzanne said yes, putting her New Zealand career on hold. Then she and her new husband headed to London.
It was a magical time to be in the British capital in the ’70s. She confesses, “I was in awe of the place.”
From flatmates to fame
They found a flat with a bunch of other musicians in a three-storey brick house in Swiss Cottage. Work as session musicians began to come in thick and fast as word spread about the talents of the Kiwi pair. And it wasn’t long before Bruce became a highly sought-after bassist and Suzanne was in hot demand as a backing vocalist. She became a key part of the celebrated female backing group Bones, among those she sang with including Lulu, Neil Sedaka and French singer Charles Aznavour.
She sang on albums by Chris de Burgh, Manfred Mann, the Walker Brothers and, of course, she developed a very special relationship with the man who was then the toast of the ’70s, Cat Stevens.
Her vocals moved him to say in the forward to her book, “Never can I forget her gift for piercing the sonic clouds and lifting us with her.”
World tours and phone calls
Suzanne would complete two world tours with him.
She writes in her memoir, “People discuss my ‘career’, but I never thought of it as a career – I was just busy doing what I loved and it always started with my phone ringing.”
Life was full of excitement and glamour. By the late ’70s, though, the music scene in London was changing. Punk was in and work for session musicians was beginning to dry up. Bruce received an offer of a partnership in a recording studio back in New Zealand and the pair decided to return home. Suzanne confesses she found it a huge wrench leaving London and very difficult to settle back in Auckland.
Family life and music
But apart from a brief sortie back to London, she has lived in Auckland ever since. Suzanne settled happily into being a mum at home. She and Bruce have son Andy, a successful guitarist in his own right and currently in the recently reformed successful Kiwi band Zed, and daughter Aimee, who is a mother of three. However, it wasn’t long before Suzanne’s vocal skills were again sought out, this time by her old friend, composer Murray Grindlay. She calls him “the Jingle King”. Remember the ad “Cat’s prefer Chef … miaow”?
Many more jingles would follow. Suzanne would also don her glad rags and sing jazz standards in the evenings at what was then the Regent Hotel in Auckland. She’s in demand as a vocal coach, known fondly as “mum” to a host of New Zealand Idol and New Zealand’s Got Talent hopefuls. Her typically down-to-earth advice to her charges, “Keep your ego in your pocket – don’t get carried away with yourself.”
Still hitting the stage
She still manages to fit in regular live performances with another old friend – Shane Hales and his band Shazam.
“I’ve known him since I was 15.”
And she is the pocket rocket in The Lady Killers, with her buddies, fellow Kiwi songbirds Jackie Clarke and Tina Cross. Suzanne has nurtured those friendships through a rich and colourful lifetime in music, and she’s still brimming with energy.
“I love entertaining people and reaching an audience,” she enthuses.
“You can change a feeling in the room and lift people up.”
The phone still rings and she still says yes.
Yesterday When I Was Young by Suzanne Lynch with Karyn Hay is available to buy at Paper Plus and Mighty Ape.
