THE LIFE & LOVES OF LULU
Something to Shout about!
that accident is persistent problems.
“It’s a recurring problem with my knee and lower back, but it also affects my neck and then my jaw,” she says. “If you’ve been jarred or bashed about, it’s very hard for you to heal because the muscles have a memory and you will tend to lean in a certain way to stop any discomfort – which creates another discomfort.”
It seems that although she’s still charging about on stage like Mick Jagger, this is only because of careful treatment. A stint on the ballroom dancing TV show Strictly Come Dancing didn’t help her knee problems and she can no longer ski.
“It all comes from that car crash,” she says. So is she by nature conservative or one for living on the edge? In truth, you can see both sides of her.
The fun, feisty, devil-may-care Lulu runs alongside a darker character – she can be quite the diva.
At several points during the interview, she’s downright difficult, making sweeping references to her troubled childhood (she would frequently watch her father beating up her mother) and becomes irritated when details from her autobiography are referred to.
“I wouldn’t go by that,” she snaps when her own anecdotes are quoted back to her.
She admits she’s a mass of contradictions. “I have a natural propensity to be... what’s the word, not irritable, more kind of restless,” she says at one point.
Doubtless this conclusion has been born of many years of therapy and she does at times sound like a self-help manual. She talks about having post-traumatic stress disorder. “Not as serious as our soldiers have, but I do have an anxious post-traumatic stress. I can be quite frantic.”
Where does she think this comes from? “Because of my past. You grow up anxious because of situations. My
‘[David] was a magnetic sort of personality that was intoxicating to be around’
childhood, my nature, all mushed together. I’m a very anxious person. I have a natural tendency to tip over the edge. I think a lot of people do.”
Interestingly, she feels her personality isn’t necessarily suited to being in the volatile music industry. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“If you’re in the music industry, you’re a gambler and I never gamble,” she reveals. “Maybe because I had the type of childhood where I had to go to the pawn shop with my mother’s ring. I grew up wanting to feel secure.”
Which is something you can never do in showbiz? “Exactly!” she agrees. “It’s not secure. But sometimes it’s your destiny too.”
Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, Lulu was performing on stage at the age of 12. By 15, she was signed to Decca Records and had left Glasgow for London.
By 16, she was being asked by Eric Clapton, no less, what she was doing that evening. Lulu jokes she’d be able to think of a better answer these days. Her mother went to pieces after she left. “I was a child. None of us had any idea what would happen.” Would she sanction such a thing with her grandchildren? “No way!”
Obviously the story of her early days in showbiz – hanging out with the Beatles and taking career advice from Frank Sinatra – is the stuff of legend. Less clear is how she emerged seemingly intact. Why did she never go over the edge?
She cites the early influence of her manager Marion Massey, who insisted Lulu stay with Marion’s mother when she moved to London. Marion had been an opera singer before finding her way into the pop scene. “Maybe if I’d been with a younger manager who looked after rock ’n’ roll bands I’d have been influenced differently,” admits Lulu.
Crucially, she never got into the drug scene. However, she did encounter the world of rock ’n’ roll excess through her four-year marriage to Maurice Gibb, whose heavy drinking was a big factor in their break-up. Similarly, Lulu and David were heading in different directions.
There have been equally eyebrow-raising relationships since, though. While recording with Take That, she enjoyed a fling with Jason Orange. Is she single now? She cuts off that line of conversation, saying it’s “not what I want to talk about”.
She will confess to a recent crush, though, admitting that her ideal man is Barack Obama. “I want to meet him. I’ve always had a crush on him. He’s just an amazing person. I like the way he thinks. He’s unreal.”
Obviously 2016 was a sobering year for anyone in the music industry, seeing so many legends die. David’s passing left Lulu reeling, though they hadn’t been in touch for years. “It’s so shocking when people like Bowie just die like that. George Michael just died like that – no warning.”
Does the loss of some of her contemporaries make her consider their own mortality? She considers the question. “I wouldn’t say people dying puts the fear of God into me; what it puts into me is the sense of unbelievable gratitude for what I have,” she says. “When you get to my age, it’s not about sitting in fear. It’s about being grateful and enjoying the present.”
She’ll be touring the UK in October and talks of how, when she did return to live performing a few years ago, she was terrified she wouldn’t be able to sell tickets after not touring for a while. “Three years ago, I did my first solo tour in about eight years. There was a lot of worry and anticipation. Were people going to come? It sold out, so we did another last year.”
There are plans for some US gigs too. “I’ve never toured there before, so I’m excited. We have added dates to the UK tour because there’s demand for an old fart like me,” she says, only half-jokingly. “I never want to sit still.”