Barbara Dickson brings new tour to town

Now Barbara Dickson returns to Hastings to perform live at St Mary in the Castle on Friday May 13 at 7.30pm.

As a multi-million selling recording artist, with an Olivier Award-winning acting career, Barbara Dickson OBE has established herself as one of the most enduring and popular entertainers in Britain today.

Her singing career started in folk clubs around her native Fife in 1964 and her first commercial recording was in 1968. Her early work included albums with Archie Fisher, the first of which, The Fate O’ Charlie, a collection of songs from the Jacobite rebellions, was released in 1969. Her first solo album was Do Right Woman in 1970.

She became a well-known face on the British folk circuit of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but changed her career course after meeting Willy Russell. He was at that time a young student running a folk club in Liverpool. He showed Dickson the first draft of what later became the award winning musical, John, Paul, George, Ringo... and Bert, and asked her to perform the music. The combination of fine writing, a superb cast of young unknowns (including Antony Sher, Bernard Hill and Trevor Eve) and Dickson’s idiosyncratic interpretation of Beatles songs made the show hugely successful.

The show’s co-producer, Robert Stigwood, signed Dickson to his record label, RSO Records, where she recorded the album Answer Me, arranged and produced by Junior Campbell, the title track becoming a Top 10 hit in 1976. John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert also led to her guest residency on The Two Ronnies, which brought Dickson’s singing to the attention of more than ten million BBC Television viewers every week.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice also spotted Dickson in John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Bert, and invited her to record Another Suitcase In Another Hall from their new musical Evita, which became her second hit in 1977.

As an actor, her roles have included Anita Braithwaite in ITV’S Band of Gold, the original Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell’s long-running musical Blood Brothers and Viv Nicholson in Spend Spend Spend for which she won an Olivier Award in 1999.

Her St Mary in the Castle performance will include new material, re-interpretations of some of her classic back catalogue and songs by some of her favourite song-writers that include Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Sandy Denny and Jackson Browne.

Advance booking is advised but cannot be made at St Mary in the Castle. For tickets (£24.50) in the auditorium, (£21.50) in the balcony, please call on 01323 841414. Tickets can also be bought at Hastings TIC on the seafront, 01424 451111 and at Music’s Not Dead in Bexhill, 01424 552435