The following article by Rosalind Russell appeared in the "Record Mirror & Disc" music paper on January 24, 1976
PRE-RAPHAELITE, POST BEATLES...ENTER MS. DICKSON
There was a day when a girl singer's best friend was her sequinned frock. She had a good line in hair lacquer and a noticeably sized chest. The sequins are still with us, but now they have to be attached to a frock somebody's granny wore, hair can be any colour from blonde to blue and the unfortunates with large chests are distinctly disavantaged.
Barbara Dickson is the latest recruit to the sisterhood of chart toppers and she conforms to few of the rules followed by those that have gone before. She is tall and graceful and wears her hair like a lady in a Burne-Jones painting. She likes to wear old, floating, chiffon clothes and worries unnecessarily about her weight.
Her recent "Top Of The Pops" appearance was fraught with anxiety in case the camera angle caught her double chin (which she doesn't have) and her "Mrs Mills" arms (which she doesn't have either).
All this pre-Raphaelite splendour is Barbara's new look. A few years ago, she was working the club circuit, singing folk and contemporary songs and looking like most other ladies who were doing the same thing.
Her phenomenal success in the musical "John Paul George Ringo...& Bert" brought her to the attention of the mass media and she ran away with most of the honours in the show. Apart from giving her the break she needed, Barbara learnt a lot from the experience. Was this instrumental in her changing her style?
"I've never really changed my style," said Barbara. "I just changed venues. It made me go to Liverpool and work in the theatre, then come to London to do the same. But I had always been singing contemporary material. It was based on traditional songs but I was used to singing in places where there was no PA system, so you had to sing loud and clear to make yourself heard at the back of the club."
The musical closed in August, when the casts' contracts were up. Since then, Barbara has been writing and recording with producer Junior Campbell. The single, "Answer Me", was recorded first and now they have material ready for an album which should be out in a couple of months.
"Junior is a superb producer," said Barbara. "He is suitable for me because he is also a musician. I find it difficult to work with a producer who is not a musician. I had three albums out on Decca and they have been deleted. When I left there nobody cared."
Barbara's single was originally recorded in 1953 by Frankie Laine and Nat King Cole and was chosen by Barbara and Junior after they'd listened to a whole lot of old material, deciding on which would suit her style best. Although the song is fairly light, she says it was really quite complicated.
"I have moments of wanting to be a rock singer, but not often," she said. "I'm fond of country/rock music. Some of the stuff I write is taxing vocally - I like to push my voice to the limit. I like powerful singing; I can't stand that pretty little singing". "That's why I like Linda Ronstadt. I like women singers who have loud, definite voices. But I quite admire somebody like Lynsey De Paul. She is a competent songwriter and she looks to be less of a force to be reckoned with than she actually is."
Most female singers, perhaps with the exception of Kiki Dee, seem to end up doing those TV light entertainment shows. Did Barbara think they had much value?
"I hate variety. I don't even watch middle-of-the-road TV. It's a total waste of time. In fact I think pop music suffers badly and it's not exploited enough at all on TV. "Top Of The Pops" is all right, but it's difficult to get over an impression of yourself in two or three minutes."
Barbara's approach to her new career in the world of hits has been carefully thought out.
"I'm very interested in the pre-Raphaelites and that's why I chose this look. I like art nouveau; the jewellery and the painting. It's not extreme; just kind of understated and I like that."
We may all get the chance to see the whole thing in action in the Spring, because Barbara would like to get back on stage and go out on the road.
"I work with a band that I've met since the show. I did one concert in Sheffield - a one-off thing. But I've been wanting to establish a band and a sound. I'm hoping to do some concerts later this year but I really don't know when. I have a whole backlog of material I can do."
Some of these songs will be on Barbara's new album, and she expects to get through a fair few on stage
"I don't believe in messing about on stage," she says. "I can zip through lots of songs in quite a short time. I can't bear people who don't just get on with it. Actually I feel a bit smug because I used to play guitar and now I play piano - so there's no tuning up to do!"
But then it's a far cry from folk singer to polished chart artist.
