It’s almost 60 years since Lulu became a popstar but she’s singing – and looking – better than ever
WORDS: ALISON JAMES
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals… We all know that the 1960s was the era when British pop groups reigned supreme, but it was also a time when our solo female singers were storming the charts in a way that had never happened before.
Wee Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, aka Lulu, from Glasgow was one of them and in 1964, when she was just 15, she had a smash hit with a cover version of The Isley Brothers’ Shout!.
Lulu continued having hit after hit in the UK and in 1967 became a star in the US when she acted in, and sang the title track to, the Sidney Poitier film To Sir With Love. She won Eurovision in 1968, became a TV star hosting her own Saturday night variety show for the BBC, and had a hit with David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World in the 1970s. On top of that she has recorded with superstars such as Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting and Take That, with whom she topped the European charts with Relight My Fire in the 1990s.
Back to the present day and she finishes the first leg of her nationwide ‘For The Record’ tour at the end of May and, following a summer break, will be back out on the road in the autumn. Phew! Did she ever think back in 1964 when she was just starting out that she’d still be singing and performing almost six decades on?
“It’s crazy!” she says. “I was 14, 15. I didn’t think about anything except what I was doing. I was so busy. I had my head down. First, I was on the road, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. When you’re 15, you can do that. My parents allowed me to come to London because I had a female manager who had kids of her own and was married. She took care of me when I was in London. I lived with her family. I was on the phone to my mother every night, telling her what had happened every day. You know, hanging out with The Beatles and Stones.”
However, it was never about fame and celebrity for Lulu. That was just a bonus.
“I lived to sing,” she said. “I didn’t want to be famous. That’s not what it was about. It never has been. I live for this and I always have done. I’ve felt the same way since I was a child. This makes me happy to get up in the morning. I’ve got the same passion, maybe even more because I’m grateful for what I have.”
The For The Record tour is a combination of Lulu telling some remarkable stories and sharing memories mixed with her performing some of her best loved hits.
“I simply love being on tour,” she says. “I wo
