Article from the What's On - Kent magazine from February 2006.
FAST FORWARD WITH BARBARA
With a new album out later this year, Barbara Dickson is celebrating more than 35 years in music. Neill Barston spoke to her about her varied career and upcoming Kent dates.
Transforming herself from civil service worker to chart and stage sensation in the course of a few years was some feat for Barbara Dickson.
The silky Scots singer enjoyed number one success in the mid-1980s alongside Elaine Paige with the single I Know Him So Well which was the biggest selling record by a female duo.
But as she explained, she's not one to trade on past glories and has consistently moved forward with her music.
With an album out this year, she will unveil a number of new tracks on her forthcoming tour which has two Kent venues. Her frenetic two-month tour takes in more than 25 dates.
"I'll be mixing up the show with a bit of stuff from the theatre that I have done and there will be some songs from music that appeals to me like James Taylor," explained the sparkly-toned singer in her lilting
Scottish burr.
The 57-year-old, who has relocated to Lincolnshire from Dunfermline, remains fond of her folk singing roots. She went through a phase of being disenchanted with the genre after years of doing the Edinburgh folk-circuit, but returned to it with an album of Bob Dylan covers in the 1990s.
"It's thoughtful music which can be quite bloodthirsty too with tales of murders and violence. They are real stories about people's lives. It's not frivolous music - and like many Scottish people I don't see myself as being frivolous."
That's not to say she's a dour character- she comes across as anything but. Her career bears this out.
After her big break in the 1970s with Willy Russell's stage show John, Paul, George, Ringo...& Bert won a best actress award for a role in the West End show Blood Brothers.
Screen recognition followed with a role in ITV drama, Band of Gold.
Though the latest dates may not take her north of the border,there's no place like home.
"If I had endless time and resources I would love to have a flat in Edinburgh but having married an Englishman, Oliver, we are quite happy at our place in Lincolnshire with our children who are nearly grown up."
Teenagers Colm, Gabriel and Archie have yet to decide a career but you wouldn't bet against them following in mother's footsteps.
