Dana Gillespie - Interview

by Eoghan Lyng

published: 19 / 12 / 2024

Irish singer-songwriter Dana Gillespie talks to Eoghan Lyng about her new album 'First Love' and her friiendship with George Harrison.

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"I was the opening act for Bob Dylan in 1997," Dana Gillespie says. "He asked for some of my Sanskrit albums because he was going to meet up with George Harrison. I knew George from the old days, and he and Dylan were big into Indian culture. I have visited India many, many times over the last forty years." Gillespie, calling from Vienna, surprises me when she says she has recorded ten Sanskrit albums. "I don't really speak it," she admits, "but I know what it means when I sing it. I wouldn't know how to order a cup of tea, but it's not really that sort of language." Gillespie presents herself as an elegant English woman, and apologises for mispronouncing my name ("Sorry for my ignorance," she giggles.) Gillespie attended a Dublin-based David Bowie convention in 2022, and admits to having enjoyed her time in Ireland. "I used to have an Irish guitarist in my band. His name is Ed Deane, and he used to play with people like The Pogues. He's a very good blues guitar player, but he left London to move back to Ireland, so I don't really see him that much anymore." Gillespie's calling to discuss her new album First Love, a breezily produced record that promises to make a splash with fans yearning for something raw and ready for action. Gillespie recently made waves online for her rendition of 'Spent The Day In Bed', a feisty number that deeply impressed its original author. "Morrissey told me that my version was far better than his," she heartily laughs. The pair met for "tea", and seemed to enjoy each other's company. Gillespie demurs from my question about Morrissey's political leanings, but admits: "One does hear rumours." Opting to change the focus back to the song, Gillespie claims Tris Penna - who acted as the album's co-producer with Marc Almond - suggested the ballad in question. "I wasn't familiar with the song before it was suggested," Gillespie explains. "I came up with one third of the songs, and my producers came up with two thirds. It was the first time in a while I put myself in their two - or four, should I say - hands. Marc suggested a Lana Del Rey song to me that I had never heard of." She's referring, of course, to 'Gods and Monsters', a sprawling Del-Rey canticle that espouses the virtues of good in a labyrinth of evil. "It has a swear word in it," Gillespie points out. "Americans swear all the time, but I'm a bit more English about it. As a songwriter first and foremost, I would hate anyone to change my lyrics,so I sing it as she wrote it. But because there are a few swears, I don't know if the BBC will play it on a morning show." Gillespie has nothing but praise for Del-Rey's craft as a songwriter. "I'm so tired of listening to boring lyrics," Gillespie sighs."She has original stuff in her work. And I think that's why Bowie appeals to so many people. He wrote imaginative lyrics, and oddly 'Can You Hear Me?' is one of the closest things he had to an ordinary love song. Most of the time he was trying to be an alien." This gives me a window to ask about 'Andy Warhol', a David Bowie composition that allowed Gillespie to demonstrate the full dexterity of her voice during the 1970s. Her arrangement, I insist, is more powerful than the version that ended up on Hunky Dory. "Other people have said that too," Gillespie confesses. "He said he wrote it for me. We recorded it before he released his version, but his came out first because at that time I was still playing Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar. I recorded it with Bowie, and you can hear him on my version playing twelve string and singing backing vocals. During that recording, he liked it enough to do it by himself." Another window of opportunity: Can Gillespie confirm that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were considered for the roles of Christ and Magdalene? "I have never heard that story before in my life," she chortles. "I think it's a hilarious story. I mean, rehearsing for a West End show is hard work. I had to watch Crucifixions eight times a week. It's a discipline to do the same thing every night." Gillespie commends co-star Paul Nicholas, who had to sing from a Cross, and to my surprise reveals that Paul Jabara who played King Herod was the same man who would go on to compose 'It's Raining Men' for The Weather Girls. Her memories of The Palace Theatre mean a great deal to her. "I have a lot of stories in my book: Weren't Born A Man..." She stops: "I don't suppose you read it?" "I read the Keith West book [Thinking About Tomorrow – Excerpts from the life of Keith West]," I reply. "Oh," she mutters. "Well, I introduced Keith to my publisher, so I'm surprised you haven't read mine." The title of her autobiography isn't particularly "p.c." she says, but it's one she stands by (she declines to comment any further about "gender" issues.) "I recorded it for Audible for people who don't read. That was interesting because it allowed me to read through my life, and bring out the humour from it." Gillespie is warm and gentle. I can see why she got on with George Harrison, the garrulous Beatle who felt most at home in the world of alternative comedy. "He produced a film I was in called Scrubbers." I know that one; a riveting watch about female prisoners. "A depressing story," she says. "But George always brought such life to the set whenever he visited. I had acted before, but it was mostly being chased by dinosaurs in Hammer movies." Gillespie is unconvinced that Bowie shared Harrison's love for Indian culture. "You have to remember I met him in '63,'64, and have some photos of him that I took with my polaroid. Later on, he got more interested in Japanese influences. A lot of it was about image, and his image." Instead, she says Jimmy Page accompanied her to exhibitions of Indian music during the 1960s. "Thank God for the Indian shops, because shops stayed open until eleven or midnight." "George Harrison and Ravi Shankar travelled to meet Sathya Sai Baba," she continues. "I attended Sai Baba’s ashram over the years, and I sang at a concert celebrating his birthday. You can see it on YouTube : I sang to a million people." She can scarcely believe the number of attendees gathered by the stage ("Obviously they were there to see him, but still..") Here's something many of you PennyBlack readers might not know: Dana Gillespie was the only Western performer invited to sing at the event. "An honour," she says; rightly so! Back to Bowie. Gillespie's work First Love features a makeover of a Bowie standard 'Can You Hear Me', one done with a twist worthy of the singer's attention. "I don't like copying songs, so we listened to the original demo, and followed that, because it wasn't released to the public," Gillespie says. "It sounds different to the way Bowie did it on the Young Americans album." First Love features a Jake Bugg cover ('Simple As This'), a Bob Dylan number ('Not Dark Yet') and a feisty duet with Marc Almond ('Dance Me To The End of Love'.) "The album is only two and a half weeks old," Gillespie says. "I've done blues shows here in Vienna, and I tend to shut off to the outside world when I'm not in London." But she's happy to consider performing with the album in the near future. "I will appear at a Marc Almond show, and I'll perform a song at that," she says. The rest, she feels, depends on the record's success. "There is a song on my album Weren't Born A Man called 'Stardom Road'. Marc told me he always loved ‘Stardom Road’, so he performed it himself." Perhaps, one day, the two of them will sing it together. Photos by Christina Jansev