The Bee Gees were once my warm-up act but I couldn’t bear to sing a note when my husband died.. then I found the wonderful Befrienders

Charity helped widowed entertainer from 40s and 50s get her spark back

BETH Thomson entertained thousands while performing on stage over the years – but when she lost her beloved husband Al, she couldn’t leave the house.

Now, thanks to the support of a befriending charity, she’s got her spark back and is helping others.

The 89-year-old from Dunoon can still sing many of the songs she performed in her heyday in the 40s and 50s. They include tunes in Hawaiian and Portuguese, although she chuckles when she admits she still doesn’t know what the words mean.

She no longer tap dances but she can still get about with the help of a walking frame.

And she’s added her voice to a charity CD called Raining in Dunoon for the Cowal Elderly Befrienders, the group who helped her get her life back on track.

Performing under the name Pat Goldie, Beth had the Bee Gees as a support act before they were famous. And as a teenager, she toured with the celebrated Ivy Benson Orchestra, an all-female swing band.

She even worked alongside Jack Milroy at the Paisley Theatre for “his first performance as a pro”.

Beth grew up in Glasgow, where her dad was a dancer and her mum was a singer. Following in their footsteps, she made her first stage appearance at the age of seven at Shettleston Town Hall. She sang Keep Young and Beautiful and tap danced.

Beth recalled: “I had to be off stage by 9pm because I was only seven. I couldn’t get paid, but they gave me a lovely big box of chocolates.

“I knew that’s what I wanted to do. My parents wanted me to go to university but I wasn’t inclined that way.”

Beth still has a book of press clippings and photos that her dad started to compile for her when she was 14.

When Ivy Benson brought her band to Glasgow, Beth was picked out of 127 who auditioned.

She joined the band in London a couple of days before turning 18 and went on two overseas tours with them, including performing to troops in 1945 shortly after World War II had ended.

She met her husband