The following article is from the 'The Liverpool Post' newspaper from August 2003. Barbara is speaking to Alun Prichard.
NOW FOR THE EASY PART!
Singing for the Queen at a private concert in Windsor castle was nerve-racking but nowhere near as worrying as waiting for her son's GCSE results this week, admits Barbara Dickson.
"I did a show for the Queen at Windsor in her Jubilee year and there were only 45 people in the audience - it was terrifying, you looked out from the stage and there was the Queen," she says in a soft Scottish lilt.
But as a mother, there were more butterflies leading up to finding out how her son had done in his exams and she says a huge weight was taken off her shoulders when the results came through yesterday.
"I've just got my eldest son's GCSE results this morning, so I feel relieved at last. He did very well; he's not an academic lad, but he's done very, very well," she says, proudly.
Twice Olivier Award-winning singer and actress Barbara was the first to play the female lead in 'Blood Brothers' and 'Spend,Spend, Spend' and had string of hit singles and albums in the 1970s and 1980s, including a number one, 'I Know Him So Well', with the first lady of musicals Elaine Paige.
Paige joins Bryn Terfel on stage at the Faenol Festival this weekend and Barbara will perform at two North Wales concerts next month as Peter Karrie's special guest in his concert tour.
Genuinely interested to hear that Paige is also singing in North Wales, Barbara says: "She's a very good friend of mine and the pair of us didn't know for a second that the record would do so well. But the fact that it was so successful and it stayed at number one for so long was really extraordinary.
"We've only had one number one each and that was that one, so there's a special bond between us in that respect. It is the most beautiful song and it was a great pleasure to do it."
Her recording career and many prime time TV appearances made her famous, but it has been her work in the theatre that has been most richly rewarded.
"I won one Olivier Award for 'Blood Brothers' and one for 'Spend,Spend,Spend', so it's a wonderful accolade," she says.
As well as the Olivier Awards, Barbara also won a number of awards as best actress in a musical for those two parts. Understandably, because she was the first to take on those roles and was so successful in them, she feels very protective of them.
"Mrs Johnstone in 'Blood Brothers' was my baby and I'm very proud of the fact that I was the first to play her. I love the work and I'm very proud of it and of the memories associated with that original production and the people that I worked with. Willy Russell encouraged me and helped me enormously to come up with something substantial - something to be reckoned with."
Russell not only asked Barbara to star in 'Blood Brothers', but it was he who offered her her first role in a musical. The former office worker from Dunfermline had moved to England and was singing in folk clubs when Russell asked her to sing in his musical 'John,Paul, George,'Ringo...and Bert', which enjoyed an extended run in Liverpool before transferring to London, where she made her name.
This year she repaid Russell when she sang on a number of tracks on his debut album.
Music made her name, but in the last decade she has crossed over to TV work and some drama. She played tough Anita Braithwaite in 'Band of Gold', a wealthy ex-pop star in 'Taggart' and starred oppposite James Bolam in the 'The Missing Postman' for the BBC.
"To be honest, I like the change," she says. "Often I like to separate the acting and singing and a straight dramatic role is always more interesting."
Because of the variety of her career and her many successes, the biography that appears on her web site is very long - a fact that annoys her.
"I like the biography that takes five lines because it cuts to the chase. When you're older like me, all the stuff you did at the beginning of your career sounds boring," she says dismissively.
But whatever she may think of her past, it has not gone unnoticed. In 2001, she received an OBE in recognition for her services to music and drama.
It is these talents that she brings to the stage when she appears as a special guest in the 'Peter Karrie and Friends' UK tour at two North Wales venues."If anything, in Wales you can spot a good singer a mile off and I've always been well-treated in Wales, which I have to say I've always thought of as a great compliment.
"I am Peter's guest, so I am literally turning up with a dress on the day, which is very nice. I'm going to sing some songs with him and some on my own. I'll probably do a couple of things which are from the theatre and a couple which are not. I'll do 'Tell Me It's Not True' and I might have a go at 'I Know Him So Well'."
But before she decides on her repertoire, there is to be some celebrating to be done first in the Dickson household now that the worries over exam results are over.
Barbara Dickson joins Peter Karrie on stage at NEWI William Aston Hall,Wrexham, on September 12 at 7.30pm and the North Wales Theatre, Llandudno on September 26.
