The following interview appeared in "The Liverpool Post" on October 25, 2002.
A NEW TWIST IN BARBARA'S FOLK TALES
Philip Key discovers one of Britain's most popular singers and actresses going back to her roots
You never know quite what to expect from Barbara Dickson. And that's how she likes it. The Scottish-born singer of a Liverpool mother made her breakthrough from the folk scene with Willy Russell's musical "John Paul George Ringo...And Bert".
Since then she has been a pop star, appeared in TV specials, worked the theatre and cabaret circuit, sung in musicals and appeared in television dramas. She's back in one of her favourite cities, Liverpool, on Sunday for a concert at the Empire. And it may not be quite what you expect.
"It's a tour of only five dates, one of which is Liverpool, so it's quite strange," she tells me. "I am back home between the dates spread over two weeks. Home these days is, incidentally, in rural Lincolnshire. She used to live in London. "But many years ago I moved out when the kids (Colm, 15, Gabriel, 13, and Archie, 11) were very young. "It's very similar to East Yorkshire with lots of rolling open farmland with hills and a very nice part of the world to live in."
Home life is very important to her and she is back there as often as she can be. So this mini-tour is perfect for her. "Because it was only five dates I decided to do something different. People who know me know I never want to do the same thing twice."
Never repeating herself has been very much part of her showbusiness pattern. Her early days were spent in folk clubs doing all the traditional stuff. But Russell's invitation to her to perform at the piano in his Beatles musical proved the open sesame to a whole new life. The show went to the West End and Barbara was soon caught up in the showbusiness world of pop and TV.
Another Russell invitation, this time to play the leading role in his musical "Blood Brothers" brought more changes. Barbara had never acted before. In the event, the show and Barbara were triumphant when it opened at the Liverpool Playhouse and travelled to the West End again. It also brought her to the attention of drama producers. She played a tough role in the "Band Of Gold" series about prostitutes, appeared as a pop star in "Taggart" and opposite James Bolam in "The Missing Postman".
For her stage shows she often called on the services of director Chris Bond, the man who had directed the original "Blood Brothers". Together they created a new piece of theatre, "The 7 Ages of Woman", in which Barbara sang classic songs against the background of a woman at different ages in her life. It opened at the Playhouse again, touring to acclaim. There was another musical, "Spend Spend Spend", based on the life of pools winner Viv Nicholson, another triumph which took up much of her time last year on tour.
She managed a bit of a summer break but it was tough for her being on the road. "To be honest, it's a real hardship being away from home for a long time unless I am doing something special. I wouldn't want to be in a production of "What, No Pyjamas" in Carlisle, you know. That's not what I want to be doing."
Of course she did return to "Blood Brothers" for a five-week Christmas run at the Liverpool Empire and despite a week of illness - "I was pole-axed" - she enjoyed the experience. "I was able to spend a lot of time with nice people in a great city and it was a treat really."
She did a short concert tour earlier this year which included a Southport date. But anyone who went to that concert will find a completely different one at the Empire on Sunday. "I have decided to go back to my roots with the first half and that's folk music," she explains. "I'm really enjoying performing that. I did a traditional album back in 1994 and had a ball so there will be some material from that. But I will be revisiting some things from the past as well as that album and even then I was revisiting songs I knew from my time in folk clubs. At that point, you
know, there was an amazing tie-in between theatre and folk music, a lot of people like actors who liked folk music."
"Ewan MacColl was the most extraordinary example of someone who was an actor and got into the music and culture. He was a great example before even I came on the scene in the mid 1960s. In America that was where actors and folk singers kind of went hand in hand."
She has devised and directed the new show herself. "It's been quite interesting putting together something which has a bit of theatre and traditional music. They will be mainly English, Scottish and Irish songs, nothing from America, although there will be a couple of 20th Century numbers in that style like Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where The Time Goes".
She will be playing guitar herself on a couple of numbers backed by a small acoustic group, just pipes, guitar and keyboard. "There are no drums so it's very acoustic in feel - it's not only ambitious but ambitiously delivered."
The second half will find Barbara on more familiar ground with "Easy Terms" from "Blood Brothers" amongst the items. "It's been arranged for this small group, a sympathetic arrangement, and I think Willy will like it as he likes folk music."
The Beatles numbers will be there, of course - 'She's Leaving Home' and 'In My Life', "because I love Beatles songs." The tour is giving her this opportunity to try out the material in this new way. "If it works I have got it under my belt and do it again. I would like to play in some of the larger arts centres where you get the sort of intimate feel I have not had since my folk club days. You can really build a rapport with your audience."
The Empire, she admits, is not quite the intimate little theatre she has in mind. "But the promoter was very keen on my going to Liverpool and I do like the place."
The show took some time to put together. "There was the usual rehearsal period where you try out certain things and if they don't work you do something that works better: it's just a case of kicking around material. Of course I have to do 'Another Suitcase'and 'Caravans'. I am not in the business of shooting myself in the foot with an audience and not doing something they love me for. I have to say that 'Caravans' is the one song in my entire repertoire which if I didn't do it, I would be hanged. They would come and kill me."
