Meet Noel. He’s just recorded his second album at the age of 97
By John Shand
Many recording artists release a second album but few do it at 97. For Noel Balfour, a love of music keeps him going.
Well, not just going: Balfour looks 25 years younger than his age when we meet at Andy Busuttil’s studio at Hazelbrook in the Blue Mountains, where he has just finished the new album.
Ninety-seven-year old Noel Balfour has just recorded a new album in Andy Busuttil’s Blue Mountain Sound studio in Hazelbrook. Credit: Jasnie Barrett
Balfour is not done yet, either, and is still writing songs.
“I wake up with a song these days,” he says. “I’ll wake up with a melody, and I’ll just put it down on a little recorder I’ve got. Then later on a lyric just comes up, and I write the lyric in about 10 minutes. They’re the good ones.”
Born in Melbourne in 1927, Balfour just listened to music on the radio until his father bought him a guitar. He wrote his first song at 19. After three months touring with a rodeo (without injury – “There must have been glue in the saddle,” he quips), Balfour moved to Sydney.
Wandering into a country music club, he saw the Barry Sisters – Lorna Whiteside and Dorothy Davidson – singing.
Noel Balfour records his album at the Blue Mountains studio of Andy Busuttil (left).Credit: Janie Barrett
“When they’d finished, I walked up to them and just suggested a couple of harmony things,” he says. “So then Lorna invited me to her house. I was quite surprised! And it started from there.”
A life-long romance and marriage followed, with Balfour describing Lorna, who died in 2014, as “my one and only love”. It also a professional partnership, with him as their guitar accompanist and de facto musical director.
As well as recording and performing live, the Barry Sisters made regular TV appearances, including on Nine’s Bandstand, hosted by Brian Henderson, and the ABC’s Six O’Clock Rock, hosted by Johnny O’Keefe.
In 1963, Lorna suffered a permanent medical condition that afflicted her hearing and prevented her from singing.
“We then decided to write songs together and had a lot of stuff recorded by well-known artists,” Balfour says. “I was lucky to have a song, Too Many Times, done by [Irish crooner] Val Doonican, which had been done by Jimmy Little originally, and his producer sent it to England.
“Doonican picked it up, put out a single and it did pretty well.”
Balfour last played a gig two years ago, preferring to record and have a YouTube presence. Now he has recorded some songs in memory of Lorna. His new album, Blue Mountain Moon, will be released on April 25 via Bandcamp.
Each session required Balfour to drive 90 minutes from Normanhurst on Sydney’s upper north shore to Busuttil’s Blue Mountains Sound in Hazelbrook, record for three hours then drive home again. “Didn’t worry me,” he shrugs.
Outside of music he’s been a panel beater, restoring classic Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis.
“I suppose music’s the big thing in my life that’s keeping me alive,” he says, “especially doing the songs that we wrote together. And I just stay healthy and stay here as long as I can, I suppose.”
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