DVD/150: DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: ONCE UPON A TIME 1964-1969 (David Peck 2009)

Reelin' In The Years, who produced definitive Motown retrospective dvds also produced some on the British Pop Invasion of America post-Beatles and one of these was on the incomparable Dusty Springfield.

By focussing on the 1960s when Dusty had 5 US Top 20 hits (13 in the UK) it avoids the 1970s career slump, ironically when she moved to America.

Interspersing TV interviews with Dusty alongside new ones with Burt Bacharach and Dusty's backing singers Madeline Bell (in the 1960s) and Simon Bell (from the '70s and '80s), a sympathetic portrait emerges of an artist both of her time but before it: refusing to play segregated gigs in South Africa in 1964 and her uncredited production of some of her records.

It is interesting to contrast mimed performances - where passionate recorded vocals are almost sent-up by embarrased shimmying - and live performances where she is totally in the moment.

Shelf or charity shop?  Dusty will be singing from the shelf for a long while.  David Peck has produced another fine overview of my favourite British female singer with all her iconic 1960s anthems.  A weird by-product was marvelling at the bizarre background objects the TV set designers chose to surround her with - you wonder what happened to these peculiarly-shaped objects after the show.  I am happy to report many appearances of the Dusty wrist *flick*!

My Last.fm Top 30 Female Singers Q&A

...and now for some serious diva time... 

1. How did I get into Madonna?   By opening my rebel heart...

2. What was the first song I ever heard by Dusty Springfield?  I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU

3. How many albums by Barbara Cook do I own?   16 (not counting the cast recordings)

4. What is my favourite song by Kirsty MacColl?   THEY DON'T KNOW

5. What is my favourite album by Mary J. Blige?   GROWING PAINS

6. Is there a song by Aretha Franklin that makes me happy?   YOU SEND ME

7. What was the first song I ever heard by Carole King?   IT MIGHT AS WELL RAIN UNTIL SEPTEMBER

8. What is a good memory I have involving Beverley Knight?   Bumping into her on Great Marlborough Street in the early 00s and telling her how much I loved her music

9. Is there a song by Marianne Faithfull that makes you happy?   Um... SOMETHING BETTER maybe

10. How many times have I see Chris Clark live?   Twice, and I count myself very lucky as she's a shy soul

11. What is the first song I ever heard by Lulu?   SHOUT

12. How many albums by Brenda Holloway do I own?   Three, all compilations (and all signed!)

13.Do I have a good memory involving Bessie Smith?   Hearing there was going to be a 10 cd series of all her recordings

14. Have I ever seen Barbra Streisand live?   Yes, once at Wembley Arena.

15. What is a good memory involving Amanda Palmer? Seeing her a few days ago and getting a big hug and kiss

16. How did I get into Peggy Lee?   Through LADY AND THE TRAMP

17. What is my favourite album by Cher?   My VERY BEST OF double compilation

18. What is my favourite song by Angie Stone?   I AIN'T HEARIN' U.

19. What is the first song I ever heard by Grace Jones?   LA VIE EN ROSE

20. What is my favourite album by Diana Ross?   I'M STILL WAITING (SURRENDER in the US)

21. What is my favourite song by Bjork?   BIG TIME SENSUALITY.

22. How did I get into Shelby Lynne?   Through the reviews for the album I AM SHELBY LYNNE

23. How many times did I see Tammi Terrell live?   Never, wipes tear away...

24. What is my favourite album by Alicia Keys?   THE DIARY OF ALICIA KEYS

25. What was the first song I ever heard by Laura Nyro?   WEDDING BELL BLUES

26. What is my favourite song by Mary Wells?   YOU LOST THE SWEETEST BOY

27. What is my favourite song by Bernadette Peters?   FAITHLESS LOVE.

28. Is there a song by Buffy Sainte-Marie that makes you happy?   INDIAN COWBOY AT THE RODEO

29. What is my favourite album by Sinéad O'Connor?   THROW DOWN YOUR ARMS

30. How many albums do I own by Dinah Washington?  4 cds

Time to clamber aboard the Meltdown Time Machine at the Royal Festival Hall... this time it was to celebrate READY STEADY GO! with past alumni and sympathisers.It was a really buzzy, happy audience - and we were star-studded, people... the star was Glen Matlock - sat behind us yet - and the stud was Cheryl Baker.

I was never aware of READY STEADY GO while growing up although I was certainly aware of Cathy McGowan as a media 'face'. I caught up with the shows when they repeated heavily-edited editions in the late 1980s on Channel Four - they had fallen into the hands of Dave Clark so instead of ad breaks there were interspersed clips of the Dave Clark Five with obviously-edited-in footage of screaming crowds.

However what I saw I loved... acres of Dusty footage of her being fabulous - my favorite was a clip of her singing EVERY DAY I HAVE TO CRY where she had an obvious fit of the church giggles after bumping into a frugging member of the audience while miming. It also was the first time I saw Motown diva Kim Weston when she was introduced by The Beatles no less singing the glorious A LITTLE MORE LOVE.

Sadly no Kim tonight - in fact there were no Motown acts which surprised as RSG was the acknowledged launchpad for Motown in this country - and of course there was no Dusty but there was a tribute, more of which later. What there was however was the chance to see three singers I have great affection for.First up was The Manfreds fronted by himself, Paul Jones - I have history with him on the South Bank. He took over from my beloved Ian Charleson in the NT's GUYS AND DOLLS in September '82 and every time PJ would come on for the first mission scene and the song I'LL KNOW - I fell asleep. Every time. In the front row. Oddly enough I stayed awake for him in THE BEGGAR'S OPERA which was on at the same time! Anyways they kicked the show off with the show's theme song 5-4-3-2-1 which was as good a way to start and PJ's showboating kicked in during an extended version of DOO WA DIDDY DIDDY.

After an amusing turn by Dave Berry - in full panto mode - and an endless set of only 2 songs from the stage school diva-stylings of Paloma Faith - the evening kicked it up a notch with the appearance of Carl Barát who brought a bit of good old fashioned star quality and some raucous rock n roll glamour to the proceedings. Then it was time for the actual reason for going... ladies and gentlemen, Miss Sandie Shaw.

SCREAAAAAAAAAM! I have always wanted to see Sandie Shaw on stage and assumed it was never going to happen but there she was RESPLENDENT in a fringed pink coat, lacy pink top and pink shorts.. and barefoot. Sadly she only did THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME and GIRL DON'T COME (sat on the stage waggling her feet over the apron) but there she was - grinning from ear to ear, bouncing over the stage and looking so damn HAPPY to be there, she was utterly winning.

As if my heart couldn't take any more, on sauntered my very dear close personal friend David McAlmont and launched into a wondrous version of the anthemic McAlmont & Butler YES - damn it was good to hear it in this widescreen version - the last two gigs I have seen David do have been at most with piano, drums and bass - YES is a song that demands HUGE sound, HUGE strings, HUGE everything... and it was a joy to hear it done so loud.
Next cab of the rank was Nona Hendryx who had the longest time on stage... now it was great to see her so ultra-professional stage persona and magnificent arse encased in skintight leggings and of course, hear an original LaBelle sista WORK "LADY MARMALADE" but you can have too much of a good thing and as her anti-apartheid song WINDS OF CHANGE clocked onto it's 11th hour it smacked of favoritism - she is the girlfriend of Vickie Wickham who produced the show as she did the original READY STEADY GO. She followed this up with another marathon funk-workout called SWEAT - if she had done BABY A GO GO which Prince wrote for her it would have cheered me immeasurably. I was sweating for her to get off.

I should have mentioned that the show was - ahem - compered by Annie Nightingale - um, I know she is rock royalty and all that but damn she was like the walking dead, hair by Phyllis Diller, legs by Twiglet and wearing a purple sack dress that just hung on her like a shiny potato sack. It was embarrassing to see, especially compared to the soignée figure of Biba herself, Barbara Hulanicki who popped up to be interviewed onstage.After a short 2 song - 2 songs, Nona!! - set by young r&b/grime singer Loick Essien which was easy on the ear it was time for another visit from Planet Diva... the majestic Ronnie Spector. Honey she worked those heels... all 4' of her made large by teetering stilettos and a lioness mane of back-combed and messed-up hair, she wiggled and teased as she has been doing since the early 1960s and you knew why she is the old rocker's pin-up of choice...with boobs as big as her voice she turned in faultless versions of BE MY BABY, BABY I LOVE YOU and WALKING IN THE RAIN - I had tears of joy in my eyes!After Ronnie lifted the edge of her shirt one last time as she sauntered off it was time for a little tribute to our fallen Queen Dusty. After a ropey version of I ONLY WANNA BE WITH YOU from Nona Hendryx - who REALLY should have known better - it was time for an enjoyable evening to reach it's climax.

David McAlmont came on again and told a nice anecdote of how when he and Bernard Butler appeared on the 1995 episode of LATER... with Dusty, Sinéad O'Connor and Alison Moyet and was told by mistake that he would be singing back-up for her - it turned out it was just going to be the women. Crestfallen, he was visited the next night at his dressing room by Dusty and she presented him with a small bouquet of Freesias that he still has pressed in a book. Awww....

He then launched into a stunning version of YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY YOU LOVE ME that just built and built and climaxed with David, arms outstretched, palms aloft and his voice effortlessly riding the music for the final "Belieeeeeeeve meeeeee" - I was on my feet as he ended the final note. Apart from the singalong ending his was the only standing ovation of the night.

It took a while after this glimpse of musical heaven to notice that Paloma Faith was on stage again with a karaoke SON OF A PREACHER MAN then did the best thing she did all night - introduced Ray Davies to duet on LOLA, joined by most of the performers. For the second night in a row, the Festival Roof was lifted to the mass singing in praise of a Soho transvestite. The hilarity was the song ended and while they were all milling about on stage, Sandie Shaw leaned into the nearest mike and started singing "Lola, lo-lo-lo-lo Lolaaaa" and started it all off again!!!

And another fabulous Meltdown omnibus show trundled off to live in memory.

On Friday Owen and I went to the austere Cadogan Hall to see Shelby Lynne who was engaged in a mini-European tour. It's a rare performer that can make that place feel intimate but Shelby certainly did.

We last saw her in the autumn of 2008 when she was promoting her album of Dusty Springfield covers JUST A LITTLE LOVIN' and in my blog for that show I hoped she would come back soon - well two & a half years is better than seven years which was the gap before the Festival Hall gig!

For once at the Cadogan Hall, we had good seats in the centre of the third row which had me more than somewhat excited. The tour was just Shelby performing with her fellow-guitarist John Jackson but that only added to the quiet intensity of the show.

Shelby came on with her best tousled blonde, bed-head thing going on and wearing a grey tunic-style jacket that was soon disposed off and for nearly two hours played an overview of her six albums, from her 1999 breakthrough I AM SHELBY LYNNE to last year's TEARS, LIES AND ALIBIS.

She is a totally no-frills performer - her songs are best heard in this stripped-down style, emphasising her sometimes bleak, sometimes loving lyrics and similarly her persona is one of less-is-more, not for her the gushing nonsense of the standard American singer to London. She gives off the air of being watchful and guarded, for the first few songs I wondered was she going to speak at all!

But as the audience greeted each song louder than the last - and after she asked the lighting guy to turn the lights down "feels like I'm giving a piano recital up here", Shelby too started to open up, telling us the background to the songs or how soused or high she was at the time of writing it. Towards the end she said she truly appreciated how we were responding to her playing the songs acoustically as that was how they were written to be heard.
She even confided to us that she was not the only daughter of Alabama in the house as her sister Allison Moorer, a singer in her own right, was in the audience too which led into a tender version of her bayou lullaby WHERE I'M FROM. It was nice that she said it was a night she would remember for a long time.

Other highlights for me was the majestic YOUR LIES (the song that made me a fan), LEAVIN', KILLIN' KIND, ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU DISAPPEARED, WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ME, IF I WERE SMART (was ecstatic she played this), WHERE AM I NOW, the exquisite JOHNNY MET JUNE and two thrilling covers of Dusty's I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT ANYMORE and YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY YOU LOVE ME. A special mention must go to the subtle playing of John Jackson.

She finished her encore with a tender version of ICED TEA and with a big wave and a smile she was gone. I guess she won't be back anytime soon but I will definitely be there when she does.
The moody concert shots are by Shelby's fellow Facebook fan Anthony Burtenshaw.

As you can see by the little widget on the right I am on the music network site Last.fm, and good fun it is too. I was poking about on there this afternoon and found a few good music questionnaires so here's one I am nicking off Janell from America:

"Post your top fifteen bands/artists, the first song you heard of theirs, a song you love, and your current favourite" 

1) Kirsty MacColl
First: They Don’t Know
Love: Soho Square
Currently: Caroline

2) Madonna
First: Material Girl
Love: Holiday
Currently: Give It To Me

3) Mary J. Blige
First: Real Love
Love: Baggage
Currently: Just Fine

4) Gladys Knight & the Pips
First: Midnight Train To Georgia
Love: No One Could Love You More
Currently: Bourgie Bourgie

5) Sugababes
First: Overload
Love: About You Now
Currently: Surprise

6) Prince
First: I Wanna Be Your Lover
Love: I Would Die 4 U
Currently: Chelsea Rogers

7) Lulu
First: Shout
Love: Only One
Currently: Dream Lover

8) Diana Ross & The Supremes
First: Baby Love
Love: Come See About Me
Currently: Falling In Love With Love

9) Aretha Franklin
First: I Say A Little Prayer
Love: Your Song
Currently: A Rose Is Still A Rose

10) Barbara Cook
First: The Ingenue
Love: Errol Flynn
Currently: Losing My Mind

11) Pet Shop Boys
First: West End Girls
Love: Being Boring
Currently: My Girl

12) Morrissey
First: This Charming Man
Love: The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get
Currently: Hairdresser On Fire

13) Dusty Springfield
First: I Only Want To Be With You
Love: People Get Ready
Currently: Every Day I Have To Cry

14) Clydie King
First: The Thrill Is Gone
Love: Missin’ My Baby
Currently: Ready Willing & Able

15) Darts
First: Daddy Cool/The Girl Can’t Help It
Love: Get It
Currently: I Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love

Double Dusty!

I was in a delightfully original quandry last night Constant Reader... which of my two new Dusty Springfield DVDs do I watch? Yep two... would have been more than happy with one!!

I CLOSE MY EYES AND COUNT TO TEN is a Dutch DVD which collects 16 of her tv appearances from the 1960s and 70s, 8 b/w and 8 colour. Kicking off with a nervous looking Dusty with The Springfields singing "Island Of Dreams" the next two are from a Dutch programme of her miming "Once Upon a Time" and "I Only Want To Be With You". Shot from high up and picked out from the blackness by a single spotlight, for a minute I thought it was Lady Penelope - I had never noticed the similar blonde bouffant hair and panda eyes before!

There's a great version of "In The Middle Of Nowhere" from an NME Poll Winner's concert where she looks stunning (see photo) and is backed on stage by Madeleine Bell among others. Three clips come from her BBC series - including the one that is always shown of her singing "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" - then it's into the colour clips.

Most of them come from a Dutch show she did called "Just Dusty". Sadly the director deceided to art it up a bit so she is subjected to miming in long narrow neon corridors, stranded in the middle of a big studio stage surrounded by columns for the title song and most bizarrely during HOW CAN I BE SURE, she is superimposed next to a huge lightbulb. Poor the Dusty. Added to that the budget didn't stretch to a great wardrobe either. Huge big embroidered kaftan affairs which surely looked de trop even then! All is saved by the final clip of her doing the supercool "Spooky" straight to camera and looking great.

TV footage of Dusty with a live audience usually shows her at her best so LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL from 1979 is an essential addition to any Dusty fan's shelf. Not the best concert ever saved for posterity it must be said, probably down to a combination of under-rehearsal, Dusty's famous nerves and the added horror of performing in front of Princess Margaret! The first few songs are a bit worrying but soon Dusty starts finding her feet and, with the audience crowding the front of the stage, she loosens up and by the time she encores with an amazing version of Peter Allen's "Quiet Please, There's A Lady On Stage" she is in majestic form.

This song is an interesting choice for her - written by Allen after seeing Judy Garland face a disgruntled audience, it demands attention be paid to the woman behind the diva facade who has usually paid a high price to get where she is. At this point in Dusty's life - on her second attempt to restart a recording career after several unhappy years in Los Angeles - it must have been a particularly personal song. Sadly the momentum of this and her Drury Lane concerts earlier the same year did nothing to halt the disappointing record sales and there were eight more artistic wilderness years until she was offered the chance to duet with the Pet Shop Boys on "What Have I Done To Deserve This".

Sadly the one thing that made the Albert Hall show infamous is missing - referencing how many queens were in the audience she said "It's nice to see the royalty isn't confined to the box". Princess Margaret took this as a personal insult, snubbed her at the reception afterwards and later sent Dusty a type-written apology to the Queen which Dusty was made to sign and return! What a cow!!! It is also not the full show but an edited-for-tv version which was ultimately never shown. There are however some excellent interviews with her secretary, agent, backing singer Simon Bell as well as Madeleine Bell talking about Dusty the artist and woman.

Name That iPod Star!

There you go, Constant Reader... the 30 artists heard on my iPod to and from work today - via Tate Modern where Owen and I attended an excellent talk by Hayden Herrera, the biographer of Frida Kahlo. See how many you can spot?