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The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Best pictures as Lulu delights HebCelt crowd with rousing performance
But it is Scotland where her 'soul is' and she entertained the thousands in attendance at the festival in Stornoway. Her 90 minute set began with Shout and it whipped the crowd into a frenzy that did not stop throughout the rest of the night. She sang songs from throughout her six decade long career with other tracks including Boom Bang A Bang, Golden Gun, To Sir With Love, and We've Got Tonight before ending on a flourish of Relight My Fire, Still Standing and a final full reprise of Shout, winning her a massive roar of approval from fans who packed into the main tent. Read More Artist Programmer Michelle Shields said: 'Lulu was sensational, the crowd lapped up every single moment to make this one of the most special HebCelt nights ever. It was such a beautiful moment to see people young and old singing along.' Lulu – who is changing up her style of touring to promote her memoir If Only You Knew which comes out in September - was also on hand to meet 18-year-old Isla Scott and give the Isle of Harris youngster so Isla said: 'She is such an inspiration, really amazing. It's for sure a night I'll never forget.' Lulu with Isla Scott ahead of her performance (Image: Handout) Lulu during her performance (Image: Handout) It was another successful day for the festival with acts such as Beluga Lagoon, Laura Silverstone, Trail West, LUSA, The Tumbling Souls, Josie Duncan, El Sartel and Madison Violet all entertaining the crowds. Saturday's final day will see headliners Skerryvore close out the festival with special guests to be revealed on the night as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations. El Sartel also performed (Image: Handout) Other big name acts performing include Nina Nesbitt, Kassidy, Astro Bloc, and Gaelic childhood favourite Donnie Dòtaman. Carol Ferguson, the festival's Operations Co-Ordinator, said: 'The smiles on people's faces say it all, it's been a tremendous day, ticket sales have been busy all day long, and the choice of music across the site has been incredibly diverse. 'It's just part of what makes this festival so uniquely special.'
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
When a teenage Lulu became the toast of Swinging London
Eventually, she and the band – rhythm guitarist James Dewar, lead guitarist Ross Nelson, drummer Dave Mullen, bassist Tommy Tierney and singer Alec Bell – drove down to London to audition for record companies. The first label, Columbia/EMI, declined, but the next one, Decca, offered them a record contract on the strength of two songs: Shout, a raucous number written by the Isley Brothers (Lulu had been blown away when she heard Alex Harvey singing it), and Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa, a Bacharach and David hit for Gene Pitney. After the band had recorded Shout, Marie's manager, Marian Massey, hit upon 'Lulu' as a new name for the 14-year-old, and Lulu and the Luvvers as the band's new name. The single was released by Decca in April 1964, by which time Lulu's name was everywhere. Fabulous magazine interviewed her, together with Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Cathy McGowan (host of TV's Ready, Steady, Go!), for a piece about pop's new female stars. Maureen Cleave interviewed her for the London Evening Standard; "When I sing I tingle all over and I can see the people's faces lighting up', Lulu told her. 'I'm so thrilled at it all; life's so thrilling." Shout spent 13 weeks on the charts, peaking at number seven. John Lennon, guesting with Paul McCartney on Ready Steady Go!, discussed the latest singles and declared that his favourite was Shout!, 'by a girl called Lulu'. That same year, after a gig in Glasgow in June 1964, Lulu invited The High Numbers – The Who, as they would shortly become – back to her old family home. She met the Rolling Stones, too. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote a song for her, called Surprise Surprise. It was released as a single early the following year, with a prolific session musician named Jimmy Page on guitar. Things were beginning to pick up speed. As Lulu recalls in her book I Don't Want to Fight, 'there were radio and TV appearances, magazine interviews, photo shoots and concerts … We appeared on TV shows like Thank Your Lucky Stars, Juke Box Jury and Ready, Steady, Go!, as well as performing on local radio and TV shows in England, Ireland and Wales'. The hit record saw the band increasing its fee for gigs from £30 to £100. And in a posh Knightsbridge restaurant, Bobby Darin, the American singer and actor, made her blush when he told her that she had been 'fabulous' on Ready, Steady, Go! The money began rolling in and Lulu's schedule had barely any gaps for rest and relaxation. She moved into a flat in St John's Wood owned by Marian's parents. And she certainly picked the right time to find herself in London. Even ahead of its coronation in April 1966 as 'The Swinging City', courtesy of Time magazine, it was a vibrant, adventurous place. Lulu and Rod Stewart at Glastonbury (Image: Yui Mok) "London was the centre of the world', Lulu writes in her book. 'Whether it was music, fashion, art, film, photography or design, the rest of the world was taking its lead from London. The streets were full of bright colours, short skirts, jackets without lapels, tight trousers, psychedelic swirls, platform shoes, Cuban-heeled boots and big hair. Pop music and rock'n'roll dominated the airwaves'. This is certainly a line echoed by Graham Nash in his memoir, Wild Tales. Describing the London of 1965, when he was still with the Hollies, he writes: "A full-scale cultural revolution was in progress, with youth and music dominating the scene, top to bottom. The boutiques on Carnaby Street catered to our lifestyle. Mary Quant was introducing miniskirts and Biba was around and Cecil Gee.... Darling and The Knack spoke to us from the screen, cynical and sexy and angry, and Radio Caroline was broadcasting off the coast". Read more: Lulu and her band were still in demand but their chart performance was sagging, causing her to worry that they might just be one-hit wonders. Two singles, Can't Hear You No More and Here Comes the Night (with Page again on guitar) made little impact, though Van Morrison's Them would have a number two hit with the latter song. It wasn't until Leave a Little Love reached number eight in June 1965 that Lulu felt that she had finally arrived. That September she gave a candid interview to Rave magazine, during which she admitted that she felt older than when she first came to London, and that the friends she used to know "suddenly seem worlds away from me. When we meet I am at a strange disadvantage". "My career is important to me," she added. "The first thing I think of when I wake up is, 'What is on today?' It may be TV or radio, or a live show somewhere. Whichever, I decide what to wear and whether to get my hair set. Sometimes my hairdresser, Vidal Sassoon, thinks I'm mad getting it re-set, because it looks O.K. But I feel awful if my hair isn't just right. I suppose when you are the instrument of your business you get self-centred in some ways. Anyhow, once I've sifted through the day, I relax, and things run smoothly enough." However, as Scots music historian Brian Hogg has noted, moves had long been afoot to prise Lulu from her 'backing' musicians, the Luvvers. TV slots for the singer alone, added Hogg, "already outnumbered those for the group as a whole. Although useful live, they were deemed superfluous in the studio where subsequent appearances were strictly limited'. This was illustrated by the line-up of musicians on Lulu's 1965 debut album, Something to Shout About; the Luvvers appeared on just three tracks, one of which was Shout. 'Lulu, with the Luvvers on some tracks, and a positively glittering showcase for her voice…', began an approving review in Record Mirror that October. The album's 16 tracks combined to show Lulu's sheer versatility as a vocalist beyond her gutsy performance on Shout. Try to Understand, Not in This Whole World, Tell Me Like It Is, and Holland-Dozier-Holland's Can I Get a Witness, previously a hit for Marvin Gaye, were among the highlights. As a calling card for a young woman in her teens, still relatively new to the recording business, it was pretty good. 'One of the most versatile voices on the scene', Record Mirror's review continued. 'Big bash for 'You Touch Me Baby', but the mood switches all the way. Main thing is the clarity of the punchiness Lulu injects all the way. A variety of backings, choral and instrumental, behind her. 'Can I Get a Witness' gets a brisk new reading. 'Shout' is in, of course, and Lulu's new single, 'Tell Me Like It Is'. 'Chocolate Ice' is a gas …. 'Leave A Little Love' is another stand-out. But then the overall standard is very high'. As Lulu notes in her book, the album had been successful, 'but session musicians had been used on some of the latest recordings. Although nothing had been said, I knew the boys were unhappy'. And there was also the undeniable fact that media attention had alighted on her, not on the boys in the band. Read more On the Record: James Dewar was first to leave the Luvvers, in 1965 – he went on to play with Stone the Crows and with the brilliant guitarist, Robin Trower. The other band members soon followed, retreating to Glasgow. 'I tried to hold us all together', Lulu recalls, 'but Decca had wanted this all along and did nothing to help me'. Her profile continued to rise. Magazine and newspaper writers sought her out. There was a groundbreaking package tour of Poland with the Hollies, and there were gigs in support of the Beach Boys in 1966. 'Lulu proved conclusively to me that she should be allowed to close the first half by virtue of the fact she is so beautifully professional', Keith Altham wrote in the NME after a Beach Boys/Lulu concert at the Finsbury Park Astoria in London. 'Five numbers from her were not enough — 'Blowing In The Wind', 'Wonderful Feeling' and 'Leave A Little Love' which Spencer Davis — who joined me to see the second house — was still raving about half an hour after the show, were her best numbers!' Lulu had also bought a car, and a townhouse in St John's Wood. At seventeen, she was 'hanging with the coolest, hippest crowd. Cynthia Lennon, Maureen Starkey and Pattie Boyd were my girlfriends'. In 1966 she had a role in a Sidney Poitier film, To Sir With Love, and the title song, sung by her, became a huge hit in the States in 1967, selling two million copies and sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. Her sudden fame in the US led to an appearance on the top-rated Ed Sullivan Show. Media attention in Lulu was proving to be relentless. In November 1968 Disc and Music Echo caught up with her at her plush St John's Wood home, and the journalist was most taken with it all - the four-poster brass bed from Heal's, the pined kitchen, the huge pine chest housing a gigantic collection of albums, the small room that combined Lulu's office, [[TV]] room and general "flop out" space. "My house is my little refuge', Lulu told her. 'Whenever I get a moment I fly straight down to London and collapse inside its four walls!' * Lulu's latest book, If Only You Knew, is published on September 25. Dates for her series of 'intimate conversations with songs and stories' can be found on her website, lulu
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Lulu's voice soars but is she struggling to break free from the past?
⭐⭐⭐ There is something that Lulu – who has now racked up more than 60 years in the business called show – wants her audience in Dunfermline to know tonight. 'I'm not retiring, by the way,' she tells us near the end of her raucously received gig at the Alhambra Theatre. And why should she? Dressed in diamante and white, she looks great for her age (she's now, as she reminds us more than once, 76). And she sounds even better. That soulful, rasping, rowdy voice with which she announced herself to the world as a young teenager with the single Shout back in 1964 remains intact, its dynamic range – greater than her songs and perhaps, at times, her own inclination, always allows – still apparent. She's something of a dynamo herself. As she slinks and shimmies around the stage she encourages her audience to raise the noise. 'Come on guys, you're not dead yet.' Not all of us can move as easily as her. Accompanied by her sister Edwina on backing vocals and a band who are all mountainman beards and headwear, she is an old-school trouper determined to put on a show. And therein might lie the problem. The format for the evening is a musical journey through Lulu's life. It begins with a nostalgic shuffle through a photograph album showing the many people she has been associated with in her life. The Beatles, Bowie, the Everly Brothers, Don and Phil Everly, Shirley Bassey, Elton John, Ronan Keating, her former husband Maurice Gibb and Dudley Moore all make an appearance. (Later there will be pictures of her with Jimi Hendrix and Tina Turner). Read more from Teddy Jamieson: But in many ways that gallery encapsulates the bipolarity of her career. She has always been drawn to soul and R&B (after opening with a relaxed reading of Shout she segues into a cover of Heatwave by Martha and the Vandellas and at one point she vamps a few lines from James Brown's Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine), but too often she has been drawn into the shallows of light entertainment. And so, after a bouncy take on Neil Diamond's The Boat That I Row (a top 10 hit for Lulu in 1967) she feels obliged to give us Boom Bang-A-Bang, her successful Eurovision entry for 1969 (four songs all ended up with the same votes and were declared joint winners). It's clear she's not a fan and she rattles it off as quickly as she can, but it sets the course for the evening; a constant push and pull between what she wants and what she thinks the audience wants. This is a curated show. It allows her to redraw the outlines of her back catalogue, remove the dross and play up the highlights. Even so, she feels obliged to include the big hits, including her loud but empty Bond theme tune The Man With the Golden Gun and her duet with Ronan Keating of Bob Seger's We've Got Tonight. Actually, the latter is one of the evening's highlights thanks to the interplay with her musical director Rick Krive, two great voices given space to soar. And it should be said the evening is full of fine things. Her take on Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World had a suitably Ziggy loucheness to it (as well as her amusingly accurate impersonation of the great man's south London accent). Performing Where the Poor Boys Dance and I Don't Wanna Fight – the latter a hit for Tina Turner – is a reminder that, with her brother Billy, she is more than capable of writing a good tune herself. But now and again the showbiz trouper in her slightly sabotages her best intentions; a few too many namedrops, one or two lurches into her 'Scottish' accent (although there's an element of play about the latter these days). Lulu pictured at Pinewood Studios in 1968 (Image: Newsquest) And she finishes the first half of the show with To Sir, With Love, one of the best things she's ever done and a number one hit in the United States in 1967. But this is an inflated, self-consciously epic take on the tune that doesn't totally suit it. And while it showcases the power of her voice it doesn't show its range and depth (as the recording does). Still, there's a lot to love here. Inevitably, she performs her 1993 comeback hit Independence and Relight My Fire (offering up a thank you to Take That for inviting her to sing it with them and for the LGBTQ community for supporting her through the years). And it's appropriate that she should give us a version of her mate Elton John's hit I'm Still Standing. Because, 60 years and counting into her career, she most definitely is. But you come away from this evening wondering what it might be like if she did a show for herself for once. Maybe she could perform her sadly overlooked 1970 New Routes album – recorded at Muscle Shoals with Duane Allman and Jim Dickinson – in full, or go back to the source of her love for soul and R&B and Rick Rubin it (think of what Rubin did for Johnny Cash). Retirement is the last thing she should do. But maybe another reinvention?
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lulu insists she has always been very a 'private' person she reflects on childhood 'shame'
Lulu has always been a "very private" person. The 76-year-old singer shot to fame as a teenager in the 1960s with her now-signature song Shout but insisted that "nobody knows" who she really is because she has always been "very careful" when it comes to choosing what she reveals about herself. Speaking on BBC's The One Show, she said: "A friend of mine once said to me 'People think they know Lulu, but nobody knows you...' and I think it's partly to do with the fact that I come from a Scottish mother who said 'Don't wash your dirty linen in public!' "So I was very...I've always been very careful, very private. I'm chatty, but I keep a lot of things to myself, so now I'm talking about everything." The Eurovision star is heading out on tour across the UK in October to discuss her life, and explained that she has only decided to do so now because she comes from a generation where there was "a lot of shame" associated with talking about issues but things have since changed. She said: "This is mainly because the landscape has changed. When I was young, when my mother was young, you didn't talk [about things]. Everything was a secret, and there was a lot of shame because you didn't talk about stuff but today talk about things and I think it's healthier. Some overshare, but hopefully I won't! All the ups and downs I've had - and I've had a life, let's put it like that - I've had an amazing, amazing life but I've also had certain things in my life that I've never discussed. "When I go on stage, on my tour, I'm gonna have very special people ask questions on stage about my life, and I'm gonna reveal stuff, how I've come through certain things. "Maybe people can relate to it, and if I've managed to come through it, maybe it will help someone else. That's the way it is today and it is so much healthier."
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lulu insists she has always been very a 'private' person she reflects on childhood 'shame'
Lulu has always been a "very private" person. The 76-year-old singer shot to fame as a teenager in the 1960s with her now-signature song Shout but insisted that "nobody knows" who she really is because she has always been "very careful" when it comes to choosing what she reveals about herself. Speaking on BBC's The One Show, she said: "A friend of mine once said to me 'People think they know Lulu, but nobody knows you...' and I think it's partly to do with the fact that I come from a Scottish mother who said 'Don't wash your dirty linen in public!' "So I was very...I've always been very careful, very private. I'm chatty, but I keep a lot of things to myself, so now I'm talking about everything." The Eurovision star is heading out on tour across the UK in October to discuss her life, and explained that she has only decided to do so now because she comes from a generation where there was "a lot of shame" associated with talking about issues but things have since changed. She said: "This is mainly because the landscape has changed. When I was young, when my mother was young, you didn't talk [about things]. Everything was a secret, and there was a lot of shame because you didn't talk about stuff but today talk about things and I think it's healthier. Some overshare, but hopefully I won't! All the ups and downs I've had - and I've had a life, let's put it like that - I've had an amazing, amazing life but I've also had certain things in my life that I've never discussed. "When I go on stage, on my tour, I'm gonna have very special people ask questions on stage about my life, and I'm gonna reveal stuff, how I've come through certain things. "Maybe people can relate to it, and if I've managed to come through it, maybe it will help someone else. That's the way it is today and it is so much healthier."
