Brassy Bassey
Still Belting 'em Out
From Sunday Star Times, By Sarah Stuart, Jan 21 1996
They were standard interview rules in celebrity terms - make the call in the middle of the night as the European celebrity doesn't like to talk before noon, don't ruffle her feathers - she's a tough old bird who won't give an interview if she doesn't like what you' re saying, keep it brief - 15 minutes maximum.
But it was the fourth and most adamant instruction from Shirley Bassey' s PR agents in London which rankled most - no personal questions, their fax stated. Professional inquiries (concert format, albums etc) only.
Strange really, considering the positively tumultuous life Bassey seems only too happy to have revealed to the media over her past 40 years in the business. From her first child born out of wedlock and raised by an older sister to the suicides of both her second daughter Samantha, aged 21 and her first husband, Kenneth Hume, through a second failed marriage and many intimate details of her love affairs. This glamorous example of a 20th century celebrity has, it seems, told all, each new story accompanied by the latest photograph of the star in full, tonsil-baring, flight.
If movie-makers needed a glittering Gran's story to rival Tina Turner' s movie What's Love Got To Do With It, they need look no further than Bassey, who returns for another New Zealand concert next month at Napier's Mission Estate vineyard.
The roller-coaster ride of her personal life has been accepted by her fans, who continue to buy tickets for her concerts in their thousands, calling each time for their '60s favourites, Goldfinger and Hey Big Spender.
Perhaps what is most surprising about this 58-year-old-songstress who has made a career of the often-sneered at cabaret genre, is the critical acclaim still heaped on her each time she performs.
"A real class act," gushed a Wellington reviewer over Bassey's show in March 1994. That same review included detailed descriptions of the gold lame and ostrich feather sparkling dresses that have become trademarks of the Bassey performance. Since leaving the squalid Tiger Bay area of Cardiff more than 40 years ago, she has loved glitz, turning up at airports in long fur coats and sunglasses, baring as much flesh on stage as an evening gown allows.
Bassey's records sell as her concerts do, and her long career, which has included collaborations with pop artists like Yello, has made her a wealthy woman.
She loves to buy things and says Hey Big Spender simply reflects her own philosophy.
"I AM a big spender," she has said. "Clothes, shoes, jewellery, I' m a real shopaholic."
Bassey lives in the city of shopaholics, Monte Carlo, where - after many failed relationships with men, and her oft-quoted remark about having to have someone to love - she says she is finally learning to be alone.
Except, that is, when she is touring, something she does with the regularity of an American pop group. Her show at the Napier vineyard will be one of Bassey's biggest for several years as she now prefers to save her still-powerful voice for smaller shows. Promoters are expecting up to 18,000 picnickers at the Mission event on February 10.
And as for the songs? Well, Bassey has never been too bored, or mean-spirited, to perform her fans' favourites at each concert and on her last New Zealand tour she also included covers of songs by The Beatles and Foreigner. And as for the performance, the word used most often to describe her singing style is "belted". If a song requires passion, Bassey has more than enough to go around.