Kiki Dee - Talks about Touring, Getting Signed,Elton John,Motown & more - Radio Broadcast 17/01/2023
[Music] I fly good evening good evening great to have you with us again thanks so much for sitting in on our great conversation uh if it's your first time listening because we do seem to be gathering up new listeners every day which is lovely well this next hour basically does what it says on the tin our great conversation is guaranteed to provide a good time a good distraction to chase away those January blues as we hear all about The Life and Times of a different special guest every night we chart their life from childhood to Superstar and to current day with musical memories and shared significant stories uh we just heard the track star a hit in 1981 by my special guest this evening who is guaranteed to give us a good time we finally pinned her down it's Kiki D yes I'm very elusive Jackie well it's lovely to have you here and before we do take a meander through those musical memories as we do in our great conversation I know that you put together a tour didn't you with your musical partner Carmelo legere and did uh some dates in the latter part of last year more coming up shortly starting in March I believe in Helmsley is it an all singing all dancing show how's it been going uh we do a semi acoustic show just the two of us you know we're getting good crowds and you know we're all having fun excellent right well let's let's dive straight in shall we and play a track from yourself and Carmelo this is the long ride home [Music] people in the paradise so let's let's go and let's have a take a Wonder then and and sort of have a look back in time at where this sort of love affair with music began um I I know that you you were out to Nick your Big Brother's vinyl is that true yeah I was born in Bradford Yorkshire or Bradford as we call it and my my older brother um had a lot of vinyl you know from Elvis Presley mid 50s we're talking now and I was a little girl uh it's Presley Fats Domino Jerry Lee Lewis you know all these big American pop stars that were happening in around 56 1956 and I you know those were my first impressions really apart from the radio with my mom and dad um you know the top hits of the day which weren't rock and roll in the early 50s but uh yeah so I one of my first uh Records I loved was sweet nothings by Brenda Lee all right because she had a kind of husky voice like me and uh kind of related to it you know and and when did you sort of realize that you that you had a voice that people stopped and listened to what age would you have been then well I was probably around five it sounds terribly precocious but wow I was the youngest of three children and came from a very loving home and the way I got attention because there was it was a busy household I used to say if anybody came around to the house I'd say Mom can I sing can I sing you know and I stand up people so that's kind of how it started and and Did you sort of what at what stage do you think you you realized you know what I think I could actually make a living from this this could be my my career well I suppose probably around 11 12 years old I I started to realize right you know I didn't have a great education I wasn't academic and I could see uh it was my winning formula you know to do something in music I guess I had that incident and uh you know I had one proper job when I left school at 16 at Boots chemist in Bradford for about 12 weeks and I've managed to get by from then on without doing a proper job which they call it oh it's amazing that's amazing and um I know that you were very young when you first were signed to a record label in London right it was just about 16 or something yeah my dad and I uh drove down to London in our Hillman Minx family car yeah and we stayed Finchley at B and B it's like a movie really and I did the audience got got signed to a label called Fontana uh Phillips Fontana records and yeah I was with them for a while so it was and and and were you sort of working on your own music as well as doing session music or yeah I mean I got signed and then uh the record company put me in touch with a guy called Vic Billings and he became my personal manager she was kind of looking after me and you know taking care of all the business and all that and the creative side yeah and then after signing me for management um he signed Dusty Springfield so I got to start singing on some of her early records as a kid you know wow which one did you sing on uh some of your loving Carol King song around 1965 and uh little by little and then I did some live performances with her uh the enemy musical ex new music express uh live shows I also did sessions with a singer called Madeleine Bell an American singer and we used to get six pounds right for a session Jackie but it paid the bills in those days you know everybody little by little I hit the dusty Springfield in 1966 and with 19 year old Kiki D on the backing vocals no less and we'll be back with more from Kiki on the evening show next welcome back to the evening show with Jackie brambles we are getting some cracking Stories being shared tonight and the discovery of significant musical moments in our great conversation with our special guest Kiki D very closely associated of course with Elton John not just because of the duet that you did together but what people might not realize Kiki is that he was the one who signed you to a record deal it's all to do with who you know and uh there was a gentleman called John Reed who was managing out John yeah and prior to that he'd worked at EMR reckless in London he was connected to Tamil Motown and I'd met him met him and spoken to him and worked with him and I called him when I got back from America a couple of years after I'd done the stint motor and I said I'm not really quite sure how to move forward now and he said well I'm managing an artist called Elton John would you like to meet him we're going to start a label so I often wonder if I hadn't made that phone call you know what would have happened just shows you just shows you doesn't it you don't ask you don't get yeah and also I think for anybody out there listening make the phone call because what have you got to lose you know and it can just change yeah of course change everything you've spoken very fondly of Elton and I know you've collaborated and performed quite often over the years it's it's clearly a friendship that's endured a long long time but um what about professionally once he'd signed you to his label he continued to be very very involved with your career wasn't he well when I got signed to Rocket records um I he produced my first album and on the album was Amber Rose and I got to be on top of the ports and so I had an Amber Rose and then I had I've got music in me loving and free what was that first top of the pops like do you remember oh it's fantastic I don't remember much about the actual moments of singing it but I've seen a couple of reruns um it was lovely to be able to call my family and my friends and say I'm going to be on top of the pot because it was a big deal in those days just light up on a bedroom floor and I mean that that connection with with Elton did that come about um I've read a story that originally Dusty Springfield was meant to be doing duetting with them on Don't go breaking my heart but she was poorly and you sort of were were brought in to replace her is that true as far as I know I think it's a bit of a fantasy um I might I adore it all right I adore Dusty I think she's one of the greatest female popular singers that have ever come out the UK um but I was on Rocket records I've been on there for three years right and I went into the studio actually originally to do some backing vocals on it because Elton was going to record it on his own right and it was Gus judge that was producer said you know why don't we make it into a duet so I can't imagine that yeah you know the story that you've heard it's true although he I think I suspect that Elton adores dear daughter as well and maybe would have wanted to sing with her at some point [Music] so we all know him as a this amazing performer of course but what's he like in the studio one-on-one as a producer brilliant yeah he he co-produced it with a guy called Clive Franks who was his live engineer for years and years and I think and we had so much fun and it's the first time I'd written anything so if you can imagine being in a studio and hearing something you wrote last time played by great popular musicians you know top session book guys as well and David Johnson who was in Elton spand he played on it so it was uh quite an experience you will forever be have you know your name said in the same sentence as Elton you know Kiki D and Elton John with Don't Go Breaking My Heart and it it's become Timeless actually hasn't it it's become a beloved favorite everybody um everyone knows all the words yeah I mean it's a milestone and it's something that I've always got because Elton went on to become an iconic figure in music and as a character you know he became Sarah and John and you know you could I did once do an interview and they said Don't Go Breaking My Heart Milestone or Millstone interesting and I'd always say bathroom because you know you can always turn it into a positive having that kind of exposure we do it we do it acoustically now slow down just I sing it it has a little bit more pathos but everybody enjoys it and you know I don't sing it the way I used to and when you sort of look back on because I know you toured the world with Elton you did obviously you've done your own um shows and tours and you were at Live Aid as well one of the questions that we ask people is of the many shows that you have participated in um is there a particular one that has a sort of a spine tingling memory attached to it as just that moment when you look around yourself and think I can't I can't believe I'm on this stage with these people well doing Dodger Stadium as a guest with Elton um uh you know in the 70s and also I was at Madison Square Garden the time that John Lennon got up and sang without me oh wow and uh the whole stage was was actually moving because the audience went wild [Music] good [Music] look at me [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] don't matter John Lennon joined Elton John and Kiki D on stage in 1974 Madison Square Garden in New York City for what was tragically to be his last ever live performance what an incredible musical memory to have and there's more where that came from as we continue our chat with Kiki D next welcome back to the great conversation here on the evening show Jackie brambles with you uh we are hearing the musical memories of our special guest the one and only Kiki D now you did some amazing things when you were starting out what you were the first British Artist to be signed to tamla Motown weren't you and and you've spent some time recording in their studios in Detroit I mean I imagine you were surrounded by some pretty impressive artists yeah met Jimmy Ruffin who had a couple of hits and I met Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye very briefly wow but I went on both a couple of times down the line you know I met stevia couple of times when he came to see Elton when I toured America with Elton John right and um and I've got a great story about Marvin Gaye actually because this this the reason I haven't done a biography of my life yeah my memory is so rubbish and uh a friend of mine said to me the other day Lyricist in the business said uh do you remember that time in 1981 when we were in a studio in London and Marvin Gaye was next door and he invited us in to listen to his new song he was recording and it was Sexual Healing wow and I said no I don't remember that at all [Music] Marvin Gaye Sexual Healing his first single after leaving the Motown label where our special guest Kiki D was also signed for a while big hit for him in 1982 and uh he was recording that in the next door Studio to Kiki invited her in for a listen not that she remembers I do sympathize actually I've got a lousy memory too so Marvin Gaye John Lennon Stevie Wonder of course Elton John all these amazing male artists what about female artists that you have admired um perhaps haven't yet worked with would like to work with I'd love to have sung with Bonnie Raitt actually and there's a lovely song called I can't make you love me that she did that would be a nice song to to sing I think George Michael covered that didn't he it's a very very uh touching Universal lyric I think you know we've all been there um we've all been there when someone you love someone and they've decided they don't want to be with you anymore it's such a beautiful song it really is [Music] thank you and final question then is um the one that we ask everybody at the very end is if you and it's an awful question to ask anyone let alone analysis but oh yeah if you have to pick if you had to pick one like a life-affirming song that you that you had that you had to pick it's enough to be your all-time one if you can't come up with that but just maybe the one that you are particularly fond of now what would be your life affirming song always look on the bright side of life I like it's a really good one and what about and you also I think you'd also mentioned Benny King Stand By Me I just like that kind of sentiment of um you know when I write songs now with carmelo they're more mature I don't write songs with baby in them anymore oh baby I love you right you love me you know all that stuff so they're all mature and I think Stand By Me is one of those it's like No Woman No Cry Bob Marley they just touch a certain thing you know the human well you know I love people and I love um I always look for the good in people if I can find it and um you know those songs that have that Humanity like Stand By Me yeah very special [Music] I meant to ask you as well when we're chatting there about um Elton just finally were you in um the movie Rocket Man was your character portrayed by somebody in that movie yeah so I was played by a young actress can't remember her name now Rachel something and I was on for about a minute and a half but it was thrilling to be actually played on screen and did they did they nail it did they act did they get it did they get you right do you think well I mean the the whole movie Rocket Man for me it's a bit of a stage musical I could just see it on stage and I think it had a fantasy element to it yeah and so you know in their way I think they got it right um I was wearing the dungarees when I recorded the song which I never would have worn the dungarees when I was actually recording Don't Go Breaking My Heart they came later when we did the video [Laughter] it came pretty icon IC dungarees you're a trend set I think it's been absolutely lovely to speak with you best of luck to you and Carmelo leggeri with your live shows and um we're just absolutely thrilled to have you on the evening show well it's really nice to talk to you thank you so much Kiki D how lovely
2023-01-27 23:52
