She's our black-eyed girl
Celebrity Interview, Brighton & Hove, 14 February 2001

She was voted the UK's sexiest female by Gaytime TV, has vowed never to appear naked on the cover of a lad mag and may ditch the world of rock and roll for family life. Jakki Phillips says what she wants about Texas frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri.

Staring out from beneath thick, ruffled hair, Sharleen Spiteri is best friend, rock chick, sex symbol, tomboy and sultry songstress.

She is a flammable mix of opinions, attitude, intellect and intrigue. But beneath the smouldering exterior, lies a pixie smile and dusky eyes which hint at the gentler soul within.

It is this alluring and highly likeable creature who has managed to rise to rock megastardom without suffering the harsh slap of a critical backlash.

The industry is obsessed with Sharleen and the media respect her because she has never alienated either her male or female audiences.

She is not a stroppy diva or an awkward prima donna and refuses point blank to pose naked for lads mags.

Her beauty is refreshingly quirky and her solid confidence has stopped her playing the all-too-predictable babe card (Gail Porter take note).

Today, Texas's greatest hits album is selling in its millions, Sharleen's face is framed on the cover of countless style magazines and her status is confirmed on the UK rich list.

It seems the girl from the southern shores of Loch Lomond just keeps getting more and more cool.

Her androgynous, scruffy chic has been the perfect antidote to the poisonous wave of PVC pop stars and while others parade their pseudo-celebrity chic around London bars and clubs, Sharleen reserves her energy for her music.

She keeps a tight hold of who she is, where she came from and her position within the celebrity solar system.

"I don't know how to describe myself," she says in a sweet Scottish purr.

"Big mouth, lips, you know, someone who can't hold their tongue. I can only describe myself as a personality."

Sharleen's powerful features - rough crop of ebony hair and china pale skin - are inherited from her father, Eddie, a merchant seaman of Italian-French extraction and mother Vilma, who has German-Irish roots.

She was brought up in Balloch with her younger sister Corinne and was a creative child.

She had an initial passion for ballet but gave it up when children at her school teased her for being "posh".

So with dancing out of her life, Sharleen turned to more tomboyish pursuits.

"When I was about seven I used to go to sea with my father. I'd be running around these massive oil tankers on the high seas playing blackjack with the crew. I felt like Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon.

"Once you've navigated the ocean, dolls just won't do. I started hating girlish things. I just wanted to go out and get filthy. I was forever making dens or go-karts or sliding down mud-piles. I was up the hospital every week with some break, or getting stitches."

This rough-and-tumble past goes a long way to explaining Sharleen's dislike of her nose.

Apparently she's broken it four times and wants an operation to reshape the bone, but she refuses to let vanity win and turned the operation down for fear it may affect her voice.

"I wasn't pretty like the other girls. No one ever fancied me. I was just everyone's mate. But that didn't matter because I didn't want to belong to any tribe."

Sharleen's defiant individualism reared its head at an early age and is still clearly apparent in her personality.

She refused a financially-tempting offer to be Miuccia Prada's face of Miu-Miu, saying: "People offer you a million pounds to wear an outfit, then you have to sign a contract saying you'll wear nothing else for a year. I don't think any amount of money is worth that."

She also walked away from the opportunity of playing the female lead opposite Ewan McGregor in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge.

"I didn't want to be in the middle of someone else's vision, but it was very flattering to be asked."

Nicole Kidman eventually took the part.

With fierce teenage determinism, Sharleen went in search of her dream career but never once considered music.

"My sister and my mother sing just as well as me - if not better - so I never thought I was that special," she says with hushed modesty.

In 1987, Sharleen started working as a hairdresser in Glasgow and mixing in fashion-conscious circles.

But it wasn't until Johnny McElhone, a former member of Scots-pop bands Altered Images and Hipsway, asked her to audition for his new band Texas, that she decided to give music a chance.

McElhone heard Sharleen had an "all right voice" but got way more than he bargained for.

With a place in the band confirmed, Sharleen set about writing her first song, I Don't Want A Lover, which leapt straight into the Top Ten, kicking dust over her former hairdressing career.

On Top Of The Pops she appeared to the world for the first time with back-combed hair and moody charcoal make-up. Her image lasted as long as the band's success.

Within months they were written off as a one-hit wonder and their two albums Mothers Heaven and Ricks Road dived spectacularly.

But all was not lost.

During the next ten years, a series of people and places helped recreate the image of the band from out-dated Eighties to Nineties cool.

It turned out to be a strategic transformation which clinched the incredible success which they have today.

Aged 26, Sharleen moved to Paris to escape the depressing failure of Ricks Road.

Away from the pressures of the UK, she relaxed, grew up, and set about writing their come-back album White On Blonde and - oh yeah - she fell in love.

She met Ashley Heath at a party and came to the instant conclusion that he was terribly rude.

But Heath turned out to be the editorial director of The Face and, despite an abrupt introduction, they embarked on a relationship which remains strong to this day.

Some have rather simplistically attributed the trendy make-over of Texas, or more importantly, Sharleen, to Heath, a former style journalist.

But Spiteri is not the sort of girl to let anyone take control.

It's more likely that Heath and Sharleen worked together to find the perfect person to devise the creative launch of the new album and the first single, Say What You Want.

The solution presented itself in the form of Juergen Teller and his camera lens. His photos presented a pure and powerful image of Sharleen with no make-up and straggly, wet hair.

Her androgynous features presented a new sexual freshness which proved popular with fans and the press.

The new, sensuous look attracted so much attention that Sharleen even found herself receiving Gaytime TV's award for Sexiest Female In The UK.

But while her new image was seductive, Sharleen ensured is was never overtly sexual.

Although some people found the video to Summer Son, where Sharleen can be seen rolling about on a bed (fully clothed) with a semi-naked hunk, controversial.

"Our video was banned from children's television. Apparently it's provocative, even though you can see more cleavage on that gardening programme, Ground Force."

During her revamp it would have been all to easy for Sharleen to have played the babe card and go naked for the boys' mags. But Sharleen has too much respect for herself and her female fans to indulge in male titillation.

"I've always refused point blank to go on the cover of nearly every men's magazine in the UK. Sorry boys, but I ain't doing push-up bra tricks for you. There are plenty of others chomping at the bit to do that. I think I have a good idea of what other women will respect."

With the old image buried, a string of hit singles and a prominent front woman, Texas are back from the dead.

But while the reinvention was phenomenally successful for Sharleen's image, it excluded the visual presence of band members Johnny McElhone, Eddie Campbell and Ally McErlaine.

Teller's photos focused entirely on Sharleen, as did band videos and album covers.

"We made the decision as a band," explains Sharleen.

"I am the most confident about having photographs taken. They've no desire to do it, no desire to be in the videos. That's why I'm called the front person. Because I front the band."

But, of course, it would be ridiculous to attribute Texas's massive success to Sharleen alone.

"It's not about image. It's about songs. If you don't have the songs, you have nothing."

Since their relaunch in 1997, Texas have sold more than four million copies of White On Blonde, 15 million copies of their Greatest Hits album, performed sell-out concerts around the globe and Sharleen supported Madonna at Brixton Academy last November.

But having transformed once, it may well come as no surprise that Sharleen is up to her old tricks. For the video of their latest single Inner Smile, Sharleen dressed up as the king himself - Elvis.

"I didn't feel the spirit of Elvis possess me. But I was tempted to go down to the nearest McDonald's, put on my best Memphis accent, and order a stack of cheeseburgers."

But all this dressing up, being a rock star and performing to thousands of people does get even the rockiest of chicks down sometimes.

"I'm 33 and the allure of the tour bus is fading," says Sharleen. "I'll still write songs, but I want a family. I feel like I ought to be getting the ovulation charts out."

Texas plays The Brighton Centre on Monday, February 19, with support from SemiSonic, whose hits include Secret Smile and Closing Time.


back to the articles page

If you dont see a toolbar on the left then please click here