1. Donald Rhys Hubert Peers was a Welsh singer of traditional pop.
20 Facts About Donald Peers
1. 2.
Donald Peers's best remembered rendition and signature song was "In a Shady Nook by a Babbling Brook".
3.
Donald Peers was born in the Welsh mining town of Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, on 10 July 1908.
4.
Donald Peers travelled around the country working as a house painter and, for a time in January to March 1927, went to sea as a mess steward on ships.
5.
Donald Peers auditioned for the BBC and his first BBC Radio broadcast on 2LO took place on 17 December 1927, with the London Radio Dance Band.
6.
Donald Peers made several more radio broadcasts and these led to he touring the variety stages in a concert party called "Pleasure", where he accompanied himself on ukulele and gave ukulele solos.
7.
Donald Peers was engaged to appear in the "Babes in the Wood" pantomime at the Grand, Plymouth, in December 1928.
8.
Donald Peers continued to tour with revues and with appearances on the variety stage, and from February 1932, he was being billed as "The Laughing Cavalier of Song".
9.
In 1940, Donald Peers enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps as a clerk, serving until D-Day in 1944, when he was invalided out.
10.
Donald Peers began a new radio series for the BBC's Light Programme on 5 August 1947 and this was very successful over the next two years.
11.
Donald Peers's popularity was such that on 9 May 1949, he performed his two-hour one-man show at the Royal Albert Hall in front of an enthusiastic audience of 8692.
12.
Unfortunately, Donald Peers had to withdraw from the show at the end of August 1949 due to throat trouble.
13.
Donald Peers recovered to headline the London Palladium in August 1950 and he appeared in the Royal Variety Performance.
14.
Donald Peers returned to TV and radio work, but eventually found work via the club circuit, which had taken over from variety theatres.
15.
In May 1962, Peers was given his own BBC Wales television programme, Donald Peers Presents, playing boogie piano, and during the series, he introduced Tom Jones, and scientist and writer Brian J Ford.
16.
Donald Peers kept busy with many guest appearances on TV shows and in February 1964, he became the compere of BBC TV's new "Club Night" programme, a 40-minute show televised from provincial social clubs with new and well-known entertainers.
17.
Donald Peers made a comeback to the record charts with "Please Don't Go", which reached No 3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1969.
18.
In 1971, Donald Peers suffered a serious accident while in Australia when he fell and broke his back.
19.
Donald Peers played David Parry, a humble grocer who wins a radio song-writing contest.
20.
In 1950 Donald Peers knocked down and killed an elderly man in a road accident in Marylebone, London.