The following interview appeared in "Gold Compact Disc" magazine in 1992.
After a lengthy break from both touring and recording, Barbara Dickson has just spent the summer months on the road, leading up to the release of her latest album, "Don't Think Twice It's All Right", a collection of Bob Dylan songs. Liz Thomson caught up with her between stops.
It's a fair bet that the majority of Barbara Dickson's fans first sat up and took notice of her somewhere between her appearance in Willy Russell's West End success "John Paul George Ringo...And Bert" in 1974, and 1980, when she took "January February" into the Top Ten. Since then, they've grown with her, admiring her voice and musicianship as she tackled everything
from Gluck to Gracie Fields, Kurt Weill to Cole Porter, Sam Cooke to Lloyd Webber and, of course, her own songs, co-written with the likes of Charlie Dore, Alan Tarney or with long-time musical collaborator Ian Lynn.
Though it's a while since she's toured or recorded, Barbara's summer of hectic activity certainly proved she's not one to rest on her musical laurels. The 54-date tour covered both the musical and geographical miles, as she eschewed large regional venues in favour of smaller local ones, and proved once again that a good voice conquers all, be it Dylan or Dietrich.
"In these days of recession, I don't think you can do just big venues. You have to take what you do to the people," Barbara explains, when asked about a schedule that included dates at Eden Court in Inverness, the Embassy Centre in Skegness and Walthamstow's Assembly Hall. "People have financial problems and they're very choosy about what they spend their money on. They don't want to travel miles and miles - and a 7.30pm start is difficult if you've got children. A lot of people who come to see me are families, so the best thing is to take what you do to them and you can be sure they will appreciate it."
While agreeing that it's a pretty exhausting way of touring - particularly performing the whole two-hour show, with no support, as Barbara does - there was never a snse of boredom or routine. "There's nothing so sobering as standing in front of one thousand people. You cannot take it lightly - I can't anyway, I'm always quite keyed up, worried that something might go wrong."
The summer tour was, she believes, her most theatrical and complex to date and, with her new look, Barbara resembled a walk-on from "Thelma and Louise". Simple props - a scarf, dark glasses - have been feature of her gigs for several years now, but this time, she and director Chris Bond included lots of back projection, using newsreel stills or shots from the Dickson family album.
"I worked with Chris on "Blood Brothers" in 1982-83 and he really helped me maximise my power theatrically. That's when I realised what could be done. Just after that I did a two-week season at the Liverpool Playhouse where Chris was artistic director and that's when I used costumes and props for the first time. Simple things, but terrifically effective. I've never gone back from there and I always approach everything in a very theatrical way. But this tour was the best I've done, the most challenging theatrically."
Clearly, Barbara has gathered a good team, for while Bond again directed her visuals, her old friend Ian Lynn worked on the music, always a collaborative effort. "Ian and myself, we work things out. I'll choose songs and we'll go through them," she explains, adding that multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn also brought in song ideas. "As far as I'm concerned, everything is fair game."
As for tackling material that's indelibly associated with someone else, she says, "A lot of people might think that they couldn't do it as well as the original, or that it wasn't their style, but I've never had that problem. It comes down to confidence. I grew up with pop music in the Sixties and I got into folk music around 1965, playing folk fairly exclusively for about ten years, but taking in James Taylor and Joni Mitchell as well as traditional music. Then I met a lot of musicians in London who were really into jazz, and later I got into black music." In the end, Barbara believes, it all comes down to knowing what you like and, at the age of 44 and with 30 years of music-making behind her, 23 of them professional,she certainly does that.
So, in the nicest way possible, Barbara's roots were showing. True, she's recorded "The Skye Boat Song", and a searing "She Moved Thro' The Fair", but how many fans remember her from the days when she toured the clubs and pubs with such fellow travellers as Maddy Prior and Gerry Rafferty, Rab Noakes and Billy Connolly - 'folk club mates' with whom she still keeps in touch. This time around she offered stunning versions of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?", the first sung accapella, the second to the accompaniment of her brand new Martin guitar. Ewan MacColl and Sandy Denny, looking down from that great celestial singers' night, would surely have been delighted. "That stuff is so easy for me. It's what I cut my teeth on."
