Life's too Shorty not to keep the gags coming

THE long and the short of it is that Shorty Rogers - singer and entertainer - stands 6ft 3in in his cowboy socks and is never short of a quip, writes John Gibson.

Quips, gags and spontaneous asides. He's been cracking them around Edinburgh for what he terms a "lifetime" although he readily admits he is a native Liverpudlian.

He has just celebrated a milestone birthday when we meet at The Dome for a lunchtime bite.

Sportsman/publican Norrie Rowan, secretary of his fan club, had hosted our previous threesome meet a year back. He confessed then that he'd been listening to the same jokes for most of the three score and ten, here at the table hearing them reprised and still getting a hoot.

Shorty, on this occasion short of his stetson or they wouldn't allow him over the door, said: "I hoped they wouldn't object to my outsize flash Elvis tie and matching shirt.

"Okay, I suppose I've been an attention-seeker virtually from the cradle.

"I first arrived in this city to sing with the crowd-pulling Nat Allen band at the Fountainbridge Palais. I was on three quid a week and stayed in digs in Melgund Terrace.

"It was tough but it could be fun most nights.

"I was 18 months with the Allen band here. That's where, on the dance floor, I met Frances. My-wife-to-be.

"Get the violins out. We'll be 50 years married this year.

"I've been semi-professional - mostly in groups and bands as a singer and on the club circuit as a singer/comic/athlete."

Shorty claims to be one of the original chart-topping Searchers.

"One of the local bands I was in backed Dusty Springfield. It looked good on my CV. And it was no idle boast. Dusty's no longer around to confirm that, of course, but the Merseyside newspapers still have it on file.

"I'm retired but occasionally I'm asked to do a gig in the Edinburgh area and I jump at it. Can't help myself."

Shorty - real name Ronnie Woodridge - added: "This was the livelihood for me from school at 15 and in those days I was into football. What else, I was born round the corner from Anfield, Liverpool's ground.

"Somehow the game doesn't pack the same appeal for me today. Neither do most of the 'music' groups and stand-up alleged comedians."

At 70, a non-smoker now and he'll take a glass when his arm's twisted, he's still good for a laugh.