Songstress Elaine celebrates career
Diva’s favourite songs in‘unmissable’show
Elaine Paige will entertain crowds at Perth Concert Hall next week with some of her greatest hits and her own favourite songs.
Having released 22 solo albums worldwide, the stage is now set for the songstress to perform from 7.30pm on Tuesday, October 24.
With hits in the West End and Broadway, Elaine is now looking forward to celebrating her lifetime’s work in the Fair City.
Elaine admits it was difficult to choose the set list for a concert which is being tagged as an “unmissable” evening of entertainment.
“I was making an album in New York with the late legendary producer Phil Ramone and he asked me who my favourite artists were,” she said.
“Listing quite a few I finished with Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Jim Webb and I thought as I said it that sounds rather good Nilsson, Newman and Web.
“So they were really my inspiration for the concerts - I looked back to that period in my life, the 60s and 70s, when I was listening to a lot of music.
“I’ve always been a fan of lyrics, in fact it was Jim Webb’s work way back then that made me start to take notice of lyrics and the stories behind them.
“So lyrically some of the songs I sing have taken on a new meaning. ‘Memory,’ for example, has taken on a completely new meaning to me now that I’m older.”
Elaine, coming from a very musical family, always knew she wanted to perform on stage.
She explained: “There was always music in our house - my father was a drummer and loved jazz and my mother loved vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Perry Como.
“It was my music teacher at school who first noticed my singing voice. I think it must have been when my school staged ‘The Boy Mozart’, and operetta based on the composer’s life and work.
“I sang the mezzo role, Basitenne, from the opera Bastien and Basitenne, the first of many emotional songs that have shaped my career.
“When I sobbed at the end of the aria the audience gasped. They thought I’d forgotten my lines - didn’t they know, I was acting!
“My father did though, and duly asked: ‘Would you like to go to drama school?’ A dream come true. I could hardly believe it.
“My parents were wonderful, and encouraged
There was always music in our house - my father was a drummer and loved jazz and my mother loved Ella Fitzgerald and Perry Como . . .
Elaine Paige
me to explore this further and helped me to get a place at the Aida Foster School to learn singing and acting.”
Elaine continued: “My first job in the theatre was in ‘The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd’.
“I auditioned under my real name [Elaine Bickerstaff] and didn’t get the job, but Aida Foster, who ran the stage school, was convinced I was right for the show and suggested I went back under another name.
“I thought she was mad. Wouldn’t they recognise me? How naive. Well I got the part, a Chinese urchin, and kept the name Elaine Paige.”
Since then, Elaine has reprised some iconic musical roles including Eva Peron in ‘Evita’, Grizabella in ‘Cats’ and Florence in ‘Chess’, all in London’s West End. And, when asked, she found it difficult to pick a favourite role.
“It’s so hard to choose my favourite but I guess I should say Eva Peron in ‘Evita’ as that is the show and role that gave me my big break,” Elaine said.
“And Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard