Barbara Dickson

Barbara Ruth Dickson OBE born 27 September 1947 is a Scottish singer and actress whose hits include I Know Him So Well a charttopping duet with Elaine Paige Answer Me and January February Dickson has placed fifteen albums on the UK Albums Chart from 1977 to date and had a number of hit singles including four which reached the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart The Scotsman newspaper has described her as Scotlands bestselling female singer in terms of the numbers of hit chart singles and albums she has achieved in the UK since 1976 She is also a twotime Olivier Awardwinning actress with roles including Viv Nicholson in the musical Spend Spend Spend and was the original Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russells longrunning musical Blood Brothers On television she starred as Anita Braithwaite in Band of Gold Dickson was born in Dunfermline and went to Woodmill High School and Dunfermline High School In the 1960s she lived in Dunfermline and in Dollytown Rosyth a prefab housing estate that was demolished in early 1970 Her father was a cook on a tugboat at Rosyth Dockyard and her mother was from Liverpool She went to Camdean Primary School and Pitcorthie Primary School when she moved to Dunfermline Dicksons singing career started in folk clubs around her native Fife in 1964 Her first commercial recording was in 1968 Her early work included albums with Archie Fisher the first of which The Fate O Charlie a collection of songs from the Jacobite rebellions was released in 1969 Her first solo album was Do Right Woman in 1970 She became a wellknown face on the British folk circuit of the late 1960s and early 1970s but changed her career course after meeting Willy Russell He was at that time a young student running a folk club in Liverpool He showed Dickson the first draft of what later became the awardwinning musical John Paul George Ringo and Bert and asked her to perform the music The combination of his writing the cast including Antony Sher Bernard Hill and Trevor Eve who were unknown at the time and Dicksons idiosyncratic interpretation of Beatles songs made the show hugely successful The shows coproducer Robert Stigwood signed Dickson to his record label RSO Records for whom she recorded the album Answer Me arranged and produced by Junior Campbell the title track becoming a top 10 hit in 1976 John Paul George Ringo and Bert also led to her guest residency on The Two Ronnies which brought Dicksons singing to the attention of more than ten million BBC Television viewers every week Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice also spotted Dickson in John Paul George Ringo and Bert and invited her to record Another Suitcase in Another Hall from their new musical Evita which became her second hit in 1977 She contributed two tracks to Scouse the Mouse a childrens album 1977 with Ringo Starr and others During the late 1970s Dickson also contributed backing vocals to two bestselling albums by the Scottish singersongwriter Gerry Rafferty City to City 1978 and Night Owl 1979 Other solo hits including Caravan Song and January February followed for Dickson in 1980 Source Article Barbara Dickson from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30