News article from the 'Irish News' newspaper from February 2004.
BARBARA KNOWS US SO WELL
By Robert McMillen
Singer, actress, songwriter and presenter - Barbara Dickson is one of the most versatile and in-demand performers around, and with her greatest hits just released, a return to the theatre and a major UK concert tour, she shows no signs of slowing down! She chats to Robert McMillen about her stop-off in Belfast next week...
It would save an awful lot of time if journalists could interview at least three people at once. Well, I was able to do that last week, but the three people all resided in the form of one Barbara Dickson, folk singer, pop star, musical entertainer and actress.
Barbara has just had a collection of her greatest hits released by Sony, with songs going back to her first hit - Answer Me in 1976 - but coming right up to date with a new version of Wayfarin Stranger, the classic blues standard she first performed by Barbara at the Radio 2 Folk Awards last year.
So when she hears again those songs that made her a household name for two decades, does she get nostalgic for those big hair days of the 70s and 80s? Is she just dying to get back into the charts?
"Absolutely not," she says, rather refreshingly.
"Compilation albums are just a feature of my life and actually there have been hundreds of them before. But for some reason, Sony have decided to do this mega-mega-one. I've never seen the likes of this before. (I can see record execs having rickets at this stage).
"They are of the opinion that there is a marvellous market for this album and I just hope they're right, because it would be extremely useful for what I'm doing these days. I'm recording a new album and I am not in the nostalgia business at all. My idea of hell would be to be included in one of those packages of artists going round playing their old hits from the 1970s and 80s because I have been working all the time ever since then.
"When I was emerging in the charts, it was very important even then to have blonde hair and a 38AA bra cup!" she laughs.
"I managed to become a success despite all that because I was never that type of artist. I sort of steered a course through pop music and came out the other side."
Having said that, there are many people who fondly remember the Dunfermline-born songstress from back then with songs such as Another Suitcase Another Hall from the musical Evita; Caravan Song which was taken from the film Caravans which featured Barbara; the hugely popular top 20 hit January February and, of course, the number one single I Know Him So Well, which propelled Barbara (and her singing partner Elaine Paige) to truly global fame.
But it has to be remembered that Barbara had been a folk singer for 10 years before conquering the charts, and the pop success wasn't really that important to her although she appreciates and is grateful for what it has done for her profile. Inside, she just sees herself as a singer who also acts.
(Her credits include television dramas such as Band of Gold and Taggart, and musicals such as Blood Brothers, Evita and Spend Spend Spend, for which she won an Olivier Award, while her most recent stage appearance was over the Christmas period where she starred in the Edinburgh production of the musical Fame.
In 2001 Barbara received an OBE for her service to music and drama.
Her Waterfront Hall show might not be what people expect.
"What I will be doing at the Waterfront next week is what I've always done - songs from the theatre, some pop songs, folk music, a bit of world music and a huge variety of stuff but put together and sung by me in a way that I like."
So, there you have it - all the Barbara Dicksons there are in one show. It should be quite a night.
