Article from The York Press newspaper from 9th February 2007. Barbara is interviewed by Charlotte Percival.
PREVIEW : BARBARA DICKSON
She may have just celebrated 40 years in show business, but Barbara Dickson is still not your typical celebrity.
Despite a career which encompassed the charts, stage and small screen, Barbara has never succumbed to the showbiz spell - it has always been about the music, she says.
"It took a long time to get started in show business because I was a folk singer, " she says.
"I wasn't trying to become famous. The problem nowadays is that everybody is trying to be famous and they don't really know what they want to be famous for."
The worst aspect of celebrity is reality TV, she believes. "It's become like a gladiatorial sport, " she says. "I don't really like show business very much. I don't like the trappings. I like the music and recording and interpreting and reinterpreting - that's what satisfies me."
She has no time for reality TV, she says, which is probably fortunate. Even if she wanted to watch it 24-hours a day, her schedule wouldn't allow such an indulgence.
Barbara has just embarked on a six-week tour, taking her back to her Scottish roots and around England.
She's been busy in the recording studio too, strolling through the Beatles' songbook to release her new album, Nothing's Gonna Change My World.
It was 1974 when Barbara, then a young Scottish folk singer, starred in Willy Russell's hit musical inspired by the Beatles, John, Paul, George, Ringo?& Bert.
This time round she has chosen different songs, but still managed to make them her own. "I've loved doing the Beatles, " she says.
"That's a big connection to my past but I don't feel it's going backwards because the songs are different.
"If I'm going to do someone else's songs I have to do something different with it but still treat it like a fragile flower.
"If I did a rap version of Fool On The Hill it isn't going to work, it's going to be ghastly.
But if I do something pastoral and make you think of countryside, that's going to work. I just sing it over to myself and put it with the guitar or piano and then you go for it and you get it down.
"I think can I do it and can I do it beautifully and if I can then I do it."
Forty years is a long time to be in the business, she agrees. From the young child learning guitar and piano, she has become an OBE, with millions of records sales and an Olivier Award under her belt - and we haven't seen the last of her yet.
"I will keep going until I stop, " she promises. "I'd like to do some more TV dramas and I'd like to carry on recording and more concert work and live performances like I'm doing in York. It's like being a painter. I create art, but in a different way. I wouldn't give it up for anything."
