20 Facts About Graeme Allwright

Graeme Allwright was a New Zealand-born French singer and songwriter.

Graeme Allwright became popular in the 1960s and 1970s as a French language interpreter of the songs of American and Canadian songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Pete Seeger, and remained active into his nineties.

Graeme Allwright started acting in Wellington at the age of 15, and won a scholarship to attend the Old Vic theatre school in London.

Graeme Allwright travelled to England by ship, working as a cabin boy to pay his way, and began training and working as an actor in London.

Graeme Allwright was offered a place at the Royal Shakespeare Company but turned it down so as to move to France in 1948 with his girlfriend Catherine Daste, a fellow theatre student who was the daughter of actor and theatre director Jean Daste.

Graeme Allwright worked as a carpenter on theatre sets while gradually becoming fluent in the French language.

Graeme Allwright then worked in the vineyards of Burgundy and ran a theatre group in Pernand-Vergelesses, while learning the guitar and listening to the records of American singers such as Woody Guthrie, Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger.

Graeme Allwright lived in Blois, where he worked in a psychiatric hospital, and then settled in Dieulefit where he taught English and started a children's theatre group.

Graeme Allwright discovered an aptitude for translation while adapting New Zealand stories into French for his students, and then, after moving to Saint-Etienne, began translating American songs into French.

Mouloudji recorded Graeme Allwright and released his songs in 1965, firstly on the EP "Le Trimardeur", and then on a self-titled LP.

Graeme Allwright won a recording contract with Mercury Records, and his second album, entitled Graeme Allwright, was issued in 1968.

Graeme Allwright's songs were perfectly timed to capture the mood of the young protesters.

The stress caused by the song's unexpected success led Graeme Allwright to leave his young family in France and go travelling, initially with a friend to Egypt and Ethiopia, where he spent six months in the city of Harar.

Graeme Allwright became friendly with Cohen, who approved of his adaptations, and in 1973 Allwright released the album Graeme Allwright chante Leonard Cohen.

Graeme Allwright continued his campaigning activities, protesting against the French government's nuclear testing in the Pacific, and the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985.

Graeme Allwright later worked on film soundtracks, and recorded an album of songs for children.

Graeme Allwright released the album Tant de Joies, a collaboration with American jazz trombonist Glenn Ferris, in 2000.

Graeme Allwright performed until the 2010s to spread his non-violent message of working in our conscience to change inegalitarian society.

Graeme Allwright became well known for his French lyrics adaptation "Petit Garcon" for the Christmas song "Old Toy Trains" by Roger Miller.

Graeme Allwright died aged 93 on 16 February 2020, in the retirement home in Seine-et-Marne where he had been living for a year.