The following article appeared in "The Stage" newspaper in 1978.
FROM CITY TO CITY : A REAL LOVE OF LIVE PERFORMANCE
Jeremy Myerson talks to Barbara Dickson
"City To City", the title of Barbara Dickson's latest single, is particularly aptly named in that this remarkable lady of the road has just completed yet another marathon nationwide tour, having taken in some 25 dates stretching from Margate to Middlesbrough and from Poole in Dorset to the Philharmonic in Liverpool.
The tour coincides with the release of her first album for CBS, entitled "Sweet Oasis", and, at last, after a steady, unspectacular but fascinating rise through the ranks of the entertainment business, she is standing on the threshold of major international recognition as a top contemporary female vocalist and songwiter.
Few performers have covered so many miles and gained such diverse experience as Barbara; in her time she has worked the folk clubs and the college circuit, she has appeared in provincial rep in Liverpool and contributed to a West End success in the musical theatre.
She has switched from her traditional folk guitar accompaniment to interpreting Beatle songs at the piano to the highly sophisticated, slick five-piece jazz rock band she now fronts.
All this is allied to a recording career that has included a theatre cast album, a special project in Nashville and a hit single, "Answer Me", as well as countless television appearances.
However, although Barbara feels relaxed and more competent in he recording or TV studio, she has a special affection for live performing and a relationship with it that she defines with an uncomplicated ease.
"I don't feel obliged to my audiences to keep up the level of live performances," she says. "I do it because I love it. I've no real romantic ideal about being a performer. It is a question of being practical and developing your abilities to meet the situation. I've always been practical and that's what kept me going through the earl years."
The early years meant a long period spent out on the road; endless railway stations and packed bags, as Barbara recalls, once she'd made the decision to leave her native Dunfermline in Scotland.
"The experience was fine in that I was exploited very early on when the stakes were so low that it didn't really matter. Now that I'm where there is much more at stake I've got a lot behind me and I think I can spot a con-man coming. I feel sorry for those artists who become stars at 18 with absolutely no experience to draw on."
A big step forward for Barbara came with a chance meeting with playwight Willy Russell at a Runcorn folk club. Russell showed her a script of his new play "John Paul George Ringo and Bert" - out of interest, or so she thought. But months later she was appearing at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, winning critical acclaim and drawing the audiences to her extraordinarily individual interpretations of Beatle songs.
Among other things, the Everyman run influenced her ideas about performing. "The actors had a most profound effect on me. They were so disciplined, so hard. They weren't allowed to relax or be sloppy - like musicians in a concert. The Everyman was a great place to be, with everyone on exactly the same wage and an atmosphere of mutual respect."
The show transferred to the Lyric Theatre in the West End and there Barbara's own performances attracted almost as much attention in the national press as the play itself.
"My role worked because no way could I be compared with the Beatle originals. If a pop group had covered the songs, the room for comparison would have been there and the results could have been less successful," she says.
Among the appreciative audiences at the Lyric were Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber who subsequently invited her to record "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" for the LP of "Evita".
However, the question of a live appearance in the staged "Evita" was never raised - "In any case, I wouldn't have fancied another long run in the theatre; I had plans in different areas."
The new plans included writing songs, gathering an impressive band of musicians around her, rehearsing, recording and touring; and in the past two years her career has gone from strength to strength.
Now, at 31, Barbara is an assured and mature artist who articulates her thoughts on performance, the theatre and the music business with great clarity and warmth. At a recent CBS press showcase to which "The Stage" was invited, Barbara played a half-hour set, and, with her distinctive, soaring vocals and excellent musicianship, she has never sounded better.
She is especially pleased that the age group of her audiences varies so greatly - from the very young to the very old. "The key," she says, "is never to isolate a section of your audience. I try to come across as a woman singer rather than a sex symbol. I see no reason why I can't carry on performing past 40 without radically altering my act.
"After all, the ultimate confirmation of what being an entertainer is all about is that chumminess and chat with the audience over the piano top and the feeling that you're really getting through".
