Plastic surgery is a betrayal of the sisterhood, says West End star
Scots singer Barbara Dickson ‘cannot bear’ focus on appearance
SINGER Barbara Dickson has accused female stars who have plastic surgery of ‘betraying the sisterhood’.
The 72-year-old West End legend said she cannot understand ‘why my sisters in music and culture would do that to themselves’, adding: ‘I would never ever do anything like that because I just think it’s a betrayal of the sisterhood.
‘I cannot bear it. I want real women to be appreciated for what they are and how they are.
‘I don’t want to depress women of 60 because they just can’t afford to have something done.’
She added: ‘Look at Dame Judi Dench. She has not had a face lift and that is why we love her, she is a real, proper woman.’
The Dunfermline-born mother of three, who was made an OBE in 2002 for services to music and drama, is among a group of older celebrities who try out life in Pondicherry, India, for the new series of The Real Marigold Hotel, which begins on BBC1 at 9pm on Thursday. Others include the actress Britt Ekland, fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes and former cricket commentator Henry ‘Blowers’ Blofeld.
Ms Dickson, whose rendition of I Know Him So Well with Elaine Paige topped the charts in 1985, said she only agreed to appear because the show is not a contest. She said: ‘I don’t watch any television like that. I don’t want to do any programmes at all that would involve that sort of thing. I would run a hundred miles from it.
Ms Dickson, who starred in musicals Spend Spend Spend and Blood Brothers and won Olivier Awards for both, said she would continue to perform while her voice is still strong – but criticised stars who outstay their welcome.
‘The day I sing as badly as some people do when they are my age is the day I am going to throw in the towel,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry, no one will have to tell me.
‘There comes a time when you can’t sing any more. The size of one’s ego has to be commensurate with the amount of ability one has.’
Ms Dickson was born into a working-class family and first made music in the burgeoning Scottish traditional folk music scene in the 1960s. But her career changed track when she met musicals writer Willy Russell in Liverpool and she starred in several hit West End musicals.
She also hit the charts with pop songs in the 70s including January February and was a special guest star on the huge hit series The Two Ronnies. It was watched each week by around 15 million viewers, which projected her into the big time and Robert Stigwood signed her to RSO Records.
Her first hit single, Answer Me, made the top ten in 1976. Ms Dickson – who had a Scottish father and Liverpudlian mother – began studying piano at the age of five and guitar from 12. She developed an interest in folk music while at Woodmill High School in Dunfermline, which led to floor spots at her local folk club. Initially keeping a day job in the civil service, she steadily built a reputation, singing with Fife singer Archie Fisher and then with Billy
Connolly and Paisley singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, who had a massive hit with Baker Street.
He died from liver failure in 2011, aged 63.
During the 1990s, she had memorable roles in the TV dramas Band of Gold, The Missing Postman, and Scots show Taggart.
Having spent most of her career living in rural Lincolnshire with her TV director husband, Oliver Cookson, and their sons Colm, Gabriel and Archie, she has admitted to having a new ‘zest for life’ since returning to live in Edinburgh a few years ago.
Whatever the secret to her youthful appearance, it clearly works and three years ago she admitted she still has smitten male fans – even if they are too bashful to approach her.
She added: ‘Gentlemen of a certain age have always rather liked me.’
And while she has no regrets on leaving the glitzy pop music world behind, she said: ‘It was good for me. Everybody knows who I am, who Barbara Dickson is.’