I've had it with going on stage, says Dame Shirley Nov 22 2009 by Rachel Mainwaring, Wales On Sunday
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DAME Shirley Bassey has revealed she can’t read a note of music – and would be happy if she never had to perform live again.
The 72-year-old singer has just released her first studio album for more than 20 years but she has said she was quite content living a quiet life in her luxury home in Monaco.
And it was only the fact that the likes of Take That’s Gary Barlow, the Manic Street Preachers and the Pet Shop Boys had written songs specifically for her for the album The Performance that she was persuaded to come out of retirement.
Dame Shirley, who wowed the crowds at the recent Electric Proms concert, makes the revelation on a fascinating fly-on-the-wall programme Imagine – Dame Shirley Bassey: The Girl From Tiger Bay, which follows the singer as she rehearses and records the new album.
When asked by presenter Sir Alan Yentob if she misses performing, she said: “No, not at all. I haven’t done a concert tour for five years.
“Glastonbury was, what, three years ago, and I’m quite content not to do it.”
But she said the pull of recording songs written by such brilliant songwriters, including KT Tunstall, on an album which interprets her life from a girl in Tiger Bay to a worldwide megastar, was too great to miss out on.
She said: “I think it was the fact that they were all famous and I said, ‘My God, what an honour. I can’t turn this down, I’ve got to find some way of getting my voice on to these songs.’
“It’s like they got into my head. I mean, how do they know so much about me?”
The documentary, which is shown on BBC1 on Tuesday night, follows Dame Shirley as she hears the songs for the first time, rehearses them, records them and subsequently performs them at the Electric Proms.
And it will come as no surprise that Dame Shirley, who remains fiercely tight-lipped about her private life, proves she is a real perfectionist, working tirelessly to get each song right.
During the footage, she admits she turned to singing as a child because “it was better than crying” and hopes Tiger Bay, which no longer exists, will live on through her song The Girl From Tiger Bay, written by fellow Welsh musicians Manic Street Preachers.
She said: “Singing was better than crying, it really was. Instead of crying I used to sing. In the middle of the night too.
“Sleeping between two sisters who would come in on top of me, I would start to sing to make myself comfortable. And then my sister would say, ‘Mum, Shirley’s singing again.’
“I was terribly shy and how I ever got to go on stage in front of hundreds and then thousands of people I’ll never know.
“I left Tiger Bay so young. It will always be in my heart but it’s changed beyond recognition. There is no Tiger Bay any more. They pulled it apart and made it Butetown and now it lives on for ever in my song.”
Nicky Wire, who co-wrote the song with James Dean Bradfield, said: “I’ve always tried to get Tiger Bay in song titles but it always seemed crass, but this time it seemed perfect.”
The footage shows Dame Shirley, who moved away from Cardiff when she was 16, learning each song, often getting frustrated if she doesn’t get things right after a couple of attempts.
And Gary Barlow, who wrote This Time, said it was an honour to work with one of the world’s greatest performers but the pressure to produce the best made it a real effort.
He said: “There are so few of these artists around any more to write for and I think that’s probably why everyone has been so excited about it.
“She doesn’t just use her voice to sing songs, she uses her real heart and soul when she sings.
“I think for any young writer, we dream of being like those characters and have a fantastic catalogue of standards.
“I was very excited to write for that voice and instantly went on to research because I just wanted to hear whether over time her range had reduced because she was always known for having the classic three octave ability.
“I had the verse and the chorus and I kept getting calls from the label to go in with the song and I kept saying, ‘I’m a bit busy, can I come in another week?’, and of course I wasn’t busy, I was just trying to sort all the sections out. I was trying too hard.”
In the end Gary didn’t send a demo but chose instead to perform it in person to Shirley.
He said: “I sat down at the piano and my hands were shaking. Playing in front of an audience is one thing but playing in front of an artist like her, I mean, she’s a legend.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz....5223752
The crew ... Dame Shirley Bassey with Gary Barlow, KT Tunstall, Tom Baxter, Rufus Wainwright and David Arnold 
Sealed with a kiss ... Gary and KT plant smackers on Dame Shirley’s face 
