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BEAVER — R.I.P.

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« on: May 24, 2010, 01:02:06 pm »


Cancer silences effervescent Kiwi singing star

By BECK VASS - The New Zealand Herald | 4:00AM - Monday, May 24, 2010

Beverley Morrison, better known as the singer Beaver, died yesterday in Mercy Hospice, Ponsonby, at the age of 59. — Photo: Mark Mitchell.
Beverley Morrison, better known as the singer Beaver,
died yesterday in Mercy Hospice, Ponsonby,
at the age of 59. — Photo: Mark Mitchell.


New Zealand musician Beaver — best known for her role in Blerta and for performing the theme song to the 1980s Kiwi television show Gloss — died yesterday.

The Wellington-born singer, whose real name was Beverley Jean Morrison, passed away at Mercy Hospice in Ponsonby after a battle with a rare form of cancer. She was 59.

Daughter Fritha Stalker later paid tribute to her mother, whose career began in her early 20s when she met actor and drummer Bruno Lawrence.

Best known as Beaver or "Beav", a childhood nickname, she was a key member of Lawrence's music and theatre act Blerta (Bruno Lawrence Electric Roadshow Travelling Apparition) which travelled the country in the 1970s. Lawrence died in 1995.

Beaver had an acclaimed career, singing jazz, soul, blues and rock'n roll.

Highlights included a stint at the world-famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London and songs for New Zealand feature films Skin Deep and Came a Hot Friday, and the television drama Gloss.

"Everyone who ever met her loved her," Ms Stalker said.

"She was just a very likeable person. Everyone was just so fond of her. She was so easy to like. She had that kind of child-like kind of quality that made everyone want to protect her and care for her."

Ms Stalker said her mother suffered from depression and agoraphobia and had fronted a campaign for awareness of mental illness.

"Despite all of those things it was a total joy for her to make music with the people who loved music the way she did.

"In our family music is a salve for us, a huge comfort, for all of us."

Ms Stalker said her mother's career could have gone further overseas but she didn't move away because she wanted her two daughters to grow up in New Zealand.

Beaver was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer, seven years ago. Her health began rapidly declining in March this year.

Ms Stalker said she wanted to thank staff at Auckland Hospice, where her mother spent several weeks of her final months, before passing away yesterday — on the last day of Hospice Awareness week.

A long-time friend, musician Hammond Gamble, who performed with Beaver, said friends and family met at a party for her about two weeks ago. Although she was unwell, she was in good spirits.

"She wasn't well but she had a great time. It was just fantastic to see her. She was still as effervescent as ever. The magic of Beaver, beyond her personality, was the fact that she was a wonderful singer. She had a fantastic voice, she just sounded good at whatever she sang. Whether she was singing an old jazz standard or whether she was singing some wailing rock song, she was very good at it.

"She was a lovely, lovely girl."

Beaver's body will be bequeathed to the University of Auckland's School of Medicine.

A memorial service will be held this Saturday at a venue yet to be confirmed.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10647096



Beaver's remarkable voice silenced by cancer

By KATE NEWTON - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Monday, 24 May 2010

BEAVER: Never quite comfortable with her status as a social and cultural figure, daughter Kate said.
BEAVER: Never quite comfortable with her status
as a social and cultural figure, daughter Kate said.


A singing career that began boldly on a bright red Leyland bus has come to a quiet end.

Beaver, one of the founding members of travelling performance co-operative Blerta, died at Mercy Hospice in Auckland yesterday after a six-year battle with cancer. She was 59.

Born in Lower Hutt in 1950 as Beverly Joan Morrison, Beaver was just 20 when actor and musician Bruno Lawrence spotted her performing at a local club and convinced her to jump on board his new project, Blerta — the Bruno Lawrence Electric Revelation and Travelling Apparition.

Beaver was a childhood nickname she adopted as a stage moniker and which stuck for the rest of her life, even out of the limelight.

She toured the country with Blerta — which included Bill Stalker, the father of her two children — between 1971 and 1973, dropping out for the group's 1974 Australian tour and rejoining when they returned.

Blerta was a springboard for a long and successful singing career, which included being named jazz performer of the year at the 1988 New Zealand Music Awards for her album Live at Ronnie Scott's.

She acted in the Blerta television show and in films, but it was her singing that people remembered and paid tribute to yesterday.

"What always amazed me about Beaver was her remarkable voice," co-performer Hammond Gamble said. "She was kind of born to sing."

Former Supergroove frontman Karl Stevens, who met and performed with Beaver while he was still a teenager, said she was "a proper old-school musician who knew her craft and had honed it".

Elder daughter Fritha Stalker said Beaver was "a very lovable person who inspired protective instincts in almost everyone she met with her innocence and good humour".

Younger daughter Kate Stalker said her mother never quite felt comfortable with her status as a social and cultural figure. "She was just a family girl. What mattered to her was her grandchildren and her great-nieces and nephews."

Everyone who met Beaver loved her, she said. "Even the nurses [at the hospice] this morning were having a cry because she was such a lovely lady".


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/3729311/Beavers-remarkable-voice-silenced-by-cancer
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Alicat
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« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2010, 03:35:26 am »

I can still remember Beaver's stunning strong unique voice.

I remember the tragedy back in 1981 when her partner Bill Stalker was killed in a crash whenhe collided with a vehicle whilst riding his motorcycle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Stalker

William Robert (Bill) Stalker (1948 - 1981) was a New Zealand-Australian actor.

Bill Stalker made an imposing and unforgettable television presence: over 6 feet tall, rumple-suited, and sporting a bushy mustache, his casting as a television cop was almost inevitable.

Grew up in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand as the second of seven children to (Robert) Bob and Zena Stalker. Attended Canterbury University where he began his theatrical acting career. He was a keen motorbike rider and adventurer from a young age.

Beaver's father - John Morrison - was a man I had the privilege on working with when he was Musical Director for CAMELOT back in the late 1990's. John is an accomplished pianist - now in his 90's and still playing.

RIP Beaver - a sad loss.

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