From Shout to James Bond, from To Sir With Love to The Eurovision Song Contest; LULU is a bona fide British music legend. On the eve of the 60th anniversary of Shout, she’ll be touring the UK for the first time since Autumn 2019 with her most intimate show to date.
Her tour, ‘For The Record’ will combine remarkable stories and stunning clips with song. The show will be a chance to get to know the star, who has entertained legions of fans across 60 glorious years.
Her tour starts on April 15th at Eastleigh Thornden Hall before visiting Scotland, Wales and all corners of England with 31 dates in Spring. It will resume in Scotland on October for a further 30 dates, ending at Cheltenham Town Hall on November 12th. Lulu will be performing at The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre in Newport next month (ticket details at the bottom of the page).
Lulu told us…..
“I’m excited to be sharing my story and my music with my first tour in four years. It’s been an incredible story which I am looking forward to telling in For The Record. This is a completely different show to anything I’ve ever done before.â€
The show will feature stories from Lulu’s remarkable career – from being friends with The Beatles to marrying a Bee Gee, from winning the Eurovision Song Contest to enjoying a colossal hit with Shout, from her relationship with David Bowie to the wonder of Relight My Fire, her Number One with Take That. There’ll be exclusive photography and video footage as well as incredible songs from a pop icon, whose star continues to burn bright.
I have seen Lulu a few times with the Take That boys, including the opening night of their musical The Band in Manchester. I can tell you that the moment she walks on stage, the crowd go crazy and the party begins.
A smile spreads across her face as she considers the near-60 years that have passed since Shout. Lulu can’t quite believe it’s been that long. Was it really 1964 that she saw John Lennon and Paul McCartney tell the nation how much they loved her debut single on Ready Steady Go!
Cathy McGowan had turned to the two Beatles and asked them about their favourite new release. They both looked at each other and said: ‘We love Lulu’s Shout.’ In an instant, Lulu’s life changed.
“Can you imagine, 14 years of age and The Beatles are saying that my record’s their favourite. It was incredible.â€
It was. But it simply foreshadowed a life that was to be filled with incredible moments. Frank Sinatra offered to coach her in vocal warm-ups, she recorded a Bond theme song with 1974’s The Man With The Golden Gun, she married a Bee Gee, the late Maurice Gibb, and worked with the irrepressible David Bowie. There was To Sir With Love, with Sidney Poitier, she had her own TV show, which featured a particularly unruly performance from Jimi Hendrix, and then there was an embarrassing encounter with Eric Clapton, which still causes her to blush all these years on.
The music didn’t stop. The girl who grew up in a tough, Glasgow environment, won the Eurovision song contest with Boom Bang-a-Bang, created an LBGT anthem with Independence, was propelled back into the charts with Take That and Relight My Fire and was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
From Strictly Come Dancing to The Commonwealth Games, from West End musicals to The Masked Singer, hers has been a life that has been filled with hits and remarkable work.
And now she’s heading to theatres around the UK where she’ll be able to talk about some of those experiences and sing some of her best-loved hits. She’ll tell stories about her chart success in every decade since the 1960s, her number one hits on both sides of the Atlantic, Ivor Novello Awards, Grammy nominations and writing an international hit for Tina Turner.
Lulu told us……
“I can’t wait to get started. This will be my first tour in six years and I’m raring to go.â€
We’ve been working on this for a year now and we’ve got a few surprises for later in the year.
I’ll tell you something that’s true. I’ve been performing now for more than 60 years – I was gigging in Glasgow as a girl, long before Shout. But in all those years, this is by far my most intimate show. I’ll be telling stories about parts of my life that I’ve never spoken about before, from the stage.
And I’ll also be peppering the show with some of mine – and the audiences – favourite songs. It’s going to be a really special tour, with really special shows. We’ve put a lot of work into this. I am really looking forward to it.â€
Her first memories of singing came long before Shout became a hit. Her dad had been a great singer and Lulu channelled that, in her own youthful way, which people loved.
“I really felt his voice when he sang. Then I channelled it, in a way, and added my own youthful vibe, which people loved. I think I was really attuned to music because of my dad. From the minute I was born I was tuned into melody and sounds.â€
She remembers the first time she ever sang in public, which was at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation. She sang a song called In A Golden Coach, when she was four, and when her father had lifted her high on his shoulders. Later, she’d sign at parties that her mother and father hosted. From there, it seemed perfectly natural to make a living from it. She joined local bands in Glasgow, before auditioning at EMI and Decca. Shout followed, when was 14, and her life was forever changed.
“Shout was released, it was the first single, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney jumped on it. They were on Ready, Steady, Go and they said it was their favourite release of that week. I was still living at home in Glasgow at the time. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. That was affirmation.
I didn’t realise it then but I do now; those 1960s bands were all on the same path. I didn’t want to do some of the other stuff. I was judgemental for a time about Boom-Bang-A-Bang, but now I’m very grateful for that. I’m grateful for what it came to mean and for the fact that people love it.â€
Her first manager, Marion Massey, helped to mentor her through the swinging sixties and they worked together for two decades. She became a movie star, starring in To Sir With Love, as her popularity rose on both sides of the Atlantic. She became part of the IT crowd, touring with The Beach Boys, partying with The Beatles, hanging out with household names whose popularity endures to this day. The men came and went, but there was always the music.
“I was at the centre of a revolution. If you’d have asked me at the time what I was feeling, I’d have said: ‘Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m feeling. I think I’m happy, but I don’t know.’ Now, I realise I went through all the feelings possible. I was a teenage girl with pictures of The Beatles on my wall then I got to meet them, do a couple of gigs with them, and hang out with them. It’s mind-blowing. It’s quite heady stuff.â€
And now she’s getting ready to tell some of those stories – for the first time, in For The Record.
LULU gets to The Riverfront in Newport on Saturday 19 April at 7.30pm. Tickets start from £37.50 but vary with the option of goody bags and meet and greets. To book tickets or find out more about the performance head HERE or give them a call on 01633 656757.
