Sharleen Spiteri
from Attitude magazine - December 2003

She’s the Glasweigan rock-chic-gay-icon-u-like. We put Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri through her paces with your questions….

Texas have stayed the distance. Unleashed on the record buying public in 1988 with the smash hit I Don’t want a lover , the Glaswegian pop rock outfit have proved that they have what you to out manoeuvre the fickle hand of pop. After a brief lull in the mid nineties, they stormed back in 1997 with the smash hit album White on Blonde. A succession of hit singles followed with profile raising moments such as the re-working of Say What You Want with the Wu-Tang Clan at the Brits and Sharleen’s supporting of Madonna at her exclusive Brixton Academy gig, before their 2000 Greatest Hits sold over 5 million copies worldwide. This year they are back with thea brand new, they just released Careful What You Wish For and have a forthcoming single released from the soundtrack to the smash hit heartwarmer Love Actually. And actually, love is what significant number of gayers have traditionally felt for Sharleen. Hey she’s got balls, she sings pop and she used to be a hairdresser, what more do you want? We put your questions to the feisty, first androgyne of pop and lesbonique hero, Ms Sharleen Spiteri…

You said in a recent Times interview you’d punch a journalists lights out if he wrote something nasty about you. Would you and have you?
Audrey Longyard, Camden
If I’d punched every journalist that’s ever said something nasty about me then I would been banged up for assult a long time ago! I had a run in with one journalist once and I said ‘You’re a fucking prick’ and that was it. He tried to do that gibbering ‘But I never…’ and I was like ‘Look!’ When you confront them they shit themselves. I don’t seek that kind of thing out, but it’s when they’re in your company and they’ve written something vile about you a and they say ‘Hiiiiiiiii!’. Don’t fuckin say ho to me! You can’t stand me, you wrote a shit piece, fuck off-why are you saying Hi!?!

What was Madonna like ot work with when you opened for her amazing Brixton Music launch gig? And have you bought the Madonna childrens book for your daughter Misty? And if not, why not?
Jeremy (Madonna’s biggest fan) via e-mail
No my daughter is too young at the moment but of course I’d buy them! I like Madonna, I think she’s a lovely lady and she’s a mate. We first met because Stella (McCartney) is our mutual friend and when she first arrived in London she invited me and Ashley over to her house. Stella called up and said ‘Madonna wants to know if you want to come over to the house’. I was like ‘what does she wanna meet me for?’ Stella was like ‘She’s cool, she’s my mate, we should meet up’. It’s that kind of thing when you think of your friends would be quite good together and that’s what happened. She’s wicked. She’s really cool. After that she called up and said ‘I’m doing this thing at the Brixton Academy and I’d really like you to come on and do something. Do you want to do it?’ and I was like ‘Of course I’ll do it.’ I was really flattered. She’s really real. I respect her for everything – in life as a person and her work as well. Honest to God, she’s really really, really nice. The gig was stupid though, from my point of view, badly organised, I went on too early when three quarters of the audience was outside queueing to get in so harldy anybody saw me. They screwed it up.

What inspired Careful What You Wish For?
Daniel, Glasgow
I never really like to say this is inspired by this and that’s what it’s all about because I always feel you steal something straight away from the listener. I want them to listen to the song and literally go ‘that’s about this’ or ‘that reflects a part of my life’ then it becomes their song. I don’t mean it in a poncey way, but I see songwriting as an art and that art doesn’t exist when it’s just mine, it only exists properly when it’s between me and a stranger and often they’ll see something I don’t. That’s why I stopped putting lyrics into albums. I think it messes things up.

What were the last Cds you bought?
Peter Dollpart, Liverpool
And yes I do buy them, I don’t blag them! I just bought the new Texas album. Damn right! I always buy one album and one single for luck everytime. Last ones I bought were us, the Dizzee Rascal album, the Diana Ross Diana re-issue – that’s amazing – and the Donna Summer Bad Girls re-issue and that’s it. There’s not been a lot of great records out recently. Gareth Gates? I can’t stand him. They say he’s on the way out now, he was never on the way in! I’m sorry but… come on, now!

Do you watch The Salon on TV and think back fondly to your days working in a hairdressers in Glasgow? Do you ever do your own hair to save money?
Clive Davies, Dundee
(Laughs) I watched the first one of The Salon and I loved it, it was exactly like working in a salon – all the fights, all the arguments, the huge effort you had to make to force yourself coming into work in the morning. When you work in a goddamn salon you have to dress with this razor sharp precision. I remember coming into work at eight o’clock when I started at nine, just to get my hair done. I loved it, really, I did it for years. I still cut my own hair. I cut the front, and I get my hairdresser Rafael to cut the back. It’s easier like that ‘cos I know exactly how I like it. He’s great, he’s never gotten upset about the way I’ve done it yet. He cuts what I don’t.

What was Guy Chambers like to work with? Was it his work with Robbie that made you want to work with him? Do you think Robbie will survive without him?
Michael Evans, Southampton
We didn’t work with Guy because of the Robbie thing… (pauses). Actually, no that’s a lie – of course, we worked with him because of the Robbie thing, because those songs are great and that’s how people know the majority of his work but I’ve known him for years from his World Party days and always admired him as a songwriter from then. Over the last few years there had always been that appreciation between us as songwriters and we’d say ‘We should do something together’. But I didn’t want to do it while he was with Robbie because obviously all the best stuff would go for him. When people ask us to write songs for them I always say ‘we would really love to write a song for you, but any great songs we have got are going to be Texas songs and you don’t want the dregs do you?’. It just seems obvious to me. So when he split with Robbie we met for lunch and a coffee and it came from there. I think them splitting is stupid. Bands have tiffs and songwriters have massive tiffs, me and Johnny fight like cat and dog. I don’t think Robbie gets enough credit because he’s an amazing lyricist. I think they should get back together and they will eventually. That’s my hot prediction.

You once sang “I don’t want a lover. I just need a friend.” If you had to choose only one for the rest of your life, which one would it be, and why?
Simone, Soho
It would be a friend, definitely. If it had to be one person it would be my daughter. She’s so cool. She’s 13 months old and a nutter. She’s the only person who can wake me up at 7 o’clock in the morning, screaming and won’t piss me off. Anyone else can fuck off. She’s headstrong and funny. She hears me screaming at her dad so that’s what she calls him now – not dad, but Aaaashhhh!

Have you gotten over your fear of flying and if not I’ll send you Alan Carr’s How to get over the Fear of Flying. It worked for me.
Matthew, London
No I haven’t gotten over it! I have to fly sometimes so I just get on the plane. During White On Blonde we were doing planes, private jets, helicopters, sometimes 3 flights a day. I have had some horrible experiences – things going wrong, engines noises, eurgh! The band were on one plane from Charles de Gaulle and they had engine trouble and had to turn back and make emergency landing so they were put on another plane to Edinburgh and on that one, the flaps wouldn’t come down and they had to do an emergency landing on that flight as well. So now if we don’t need to fly then we won’t. They’ll be taking the sleeper train back up to Glasgow tonight rather than fly. So maybe I should read that book, but I know I’ll still hate it.

What do you think of Alex Parks (Fame Academy winner)? Another pop wannabe or the real deal?
Caroline, Greenwich
As soon as we saw her we were like ‘she’ll win’. She’s got a good look, she’s quite strange but beautiful. She looks a bit like a little animal, like a little bush baby. Very beautiful. And she’s got that sort of edge and passion that the other ones just didn’t have. In most regards, I don’t like those shows because I think it gives them an unrealistic experience and unrealistic expectations. To get that level of exposure you normally have to work for it and once you’ve had it that way how can you keep it up? I think often they train any soul or personality out of their voice straight away. The things they should be teaching them is mic control and practical performance techniques more than anything. I do love the fact she’s not all tits and arse. I think there’s a way of exposing yourself in an imaginative way and then there’s just tits and arse which so many people do at the moment. I’ve never done tits and arse, at the times when really I needed to do tits and arse, I stuck to my guns and I didn’t do it. There’s nowhere to go from that. The coming out thing doesn’t make any difference to me. Everyone was like ‘You know Alex has come out on Fame Academy’ and I was ’and?’. I don’t understand why they made such a big deal about that when at the same times there was that couple on Teen Big Brother getting it on on TV. Now that I thought was scandalous.

Was there ever a time before White On Blonde brought you back to the top of the charts that you thought about breaking up the band and getting ‘proper’ jobs?
Nigel Harrington, Hampstead
Never, never, never, it was just never something we considered. We were never living in some stupid la la land as down and outs. I never thought things were that bad. People have portrayed it as if we were living in Glasgow as down and outs or something. The reality was we weren’t – I was living in Paris, having the life of Riley. It was a hard time to an extent because we were just at the point of being ‘we know we’re good’ so why isn’t it happening? We’d meet other songwriter performers and we’d be like ‘we’re better than that’. It was that that fed the determination and drive to come back with something fantastic and do it again.

Did you know that Roger Sanchez said that you were the most exciting vocalist he’s ever worked with?
Nigel, Portsmouth
(Laughs) He’s full of shit. I love working with Roger, he’s good fun. How can he say that? He had Kathy Sledge working at the studio, Kathy Sledge is outstanding, just amazing.

I loved it when you dressed up as Elvis on your last tour and in the video to Inner Smile – so sexy! Were you consciously doing that to keep us girls excited??
Rhona, Croydon
I did it to keep myself and the audience generally excited, male or female. The girls loved it because it was me being Elvis and the boys loved it because it was me in a bit of leather. But that actually freaked a lot of men out, women love it, straight women, gay women, they love it. Straight women come up to me and shake my hand and say ‘well done’ being a woman and then suddenly becoming a man, playing with it, they really respected that. Gay women come up and say well done for having the bottle to do it, it was really sexy. So they both see something different. But some straight men were freaked out – their little brains were going, ‘that’s a woman, I like her normally, she now looks like a man, this is too much for me!’ I like that is made people stop and think. I don’t think we do mind bending music but I like that sometimes we do things like that that people love.

Who would you most like to duet with?
Karl, Cambridge
Debbie Harry. She’s my all time favourite. There’s talk of us doing something together but I don’t know if it will happen or not. Fingers crossed. She’s such a cool, beautiful lady, I love her. She gave me some of her Blondie dresses.

Do the other members of Texas get jealous of all the attention you get given?
Michael Bradford, Paris
No, because my band are realistic. They know about the business, and they get to avoid the paparazzi side of it that’s been happening over the last few years. They get the benefits and they don’t get the hassle. Plus, it’s always been crystal clear in Texas: okay, you’re the guitarist, you’re the drummer, people aren’t that interested in you. It’s never been that game of ‘we are a band’. Johnny and I write the songs, it’s Johnny and my band, we started it, we sweated for it, and that’s it. If anyone else wants to join come ahead, but that’s the way the band is. If you don’t like it, then fuck off and go and join another band. There’s no kidding on, there are no false promises, that’s just the way our band is.

Did you know that Tamsin Greig who plays Debbie in The Archers is the spitting image of you? My sister went up to her in Lakeside Shopping Centre and asked her to sign one of your CDs and she was really rude apparently!
Jamie, via email
Really? Thank God it wasn’t me then! I’ve never heard that. I have no idea. I’ll have to look it up. No one’s ever come up to me and asked me if I’m Tamsin Greig. Is she good looking? I hope so! She’s probably a scarer.

Did you ever have arguments with your boyfriend Ashley (Heath) about him putting you on the cover of his magazine The Face?
Donald Stoke, Newington
I’m not sure what the question means exactly. He was the editor of The Face at one point. Ash is the editor of Arena Homme Plus now. I keep my distance from those magazines because they are my boyfriend’s magazines. I was on the cover of The Face with Wu Tang Clan and at that point Ashley was not the editor of The Face and it was the editor who wanted me to do it. It was a big story for them and it was a great cover and it was a big seller. But it didn’t do me any favours because now they always use it and say the boyfriend things was the only reason we were there. But no, it was because we were a fucking massive band and we had done something with the Wu Tang, something that loads of other bands would cut off their right arm to do. But it was good for me and it was good for them. So it was fine. Mostly it’s a great thing that he does what he does. I think I understand a bit better through Ashley what it takes to put a magazine together, I understand the decisions that are made for things to run or not to run and how important it is to present a magazine as a complete magazine. I think it also took the fear out of it for me, I think I was probably scared of journalists till I met him. He made me realise in interviews that you control it, you tell them what you want to tell them, that’s the way it works. He’s got great eyes, he’s in touch with photographers and art directors and really helps me with my work, he’s very involved with Texas. We’ve been together for 9 years now and we help each other out like any normal couple would do.

Do women come onto you and do you enjoy being a gay icon?
Martin, Southend
The biggest joke in Texas is that I always reckon I can pull the best women. They get a little bit jealous because they know I can. I always have the best looking women asking me out and I’m like ‘Hahhhhah!’. I guess it’s partly to do with the whole androgynous thing as well, it’s always been me, it’s always been a thing I’ve had since I was a little girl. I looked like a boy, no matter how long my hair was, I just had that sort of look that people would get me a bit confused with a boy. I was so skinny, and I didn’t have pretty little girl features. I looked quite different and I was a real tomboy, always in dirty jeans and caps. I’ve always had that. Maybe I liked it, I was into riding bikes, I never did the doll thing… But anybody fancying me is a rare thing. Really, I never got that when I was young. I was always everybody’s mate. I must have been asked out 5 times in my life and I went out with three of them. I’m more flattered when a woman likes me than when a man does - with a man it doesn’t take much, does it? With a woman it’s more of a big deal. They seem to have some quality control, they’re a bit more fussy, which I love. I met a girl the other day in Sweden who was straight and she was a journalist. She’s now had a relationship with another woman that she met at a Texas gig. She’d never been sexually attracted to a woman before. So come to a Texas gig, you never know who you might meet!

I once read that Gregg Alexander said that Inner Smile was his favourite track that he ever wrote with anyone? Is it true? What was it like working with him?
Mark, Vegas
We went in to record it and I think he was used to working with these bands that he does a lot with and said ‘Why don’t you try singing like this’. I said ‘Gregg, why don’t you fuck off? I’m a real singer and I’ve been doing harmonies and backing vocals probably 10 times the amount of years you have, so why don’t you sit there and let me sing and maybe I’ll teach you something’. I remember him bursting out laughing and later on he came back and said ‘You know what, you were absolutely right, you totally nailed it’. I said ‘I know you’re not used to that’ and I don’t think he was. It was just me, Johnny and Gregg and we all have a few ideas and we just work on it together and then start recording bits. Then Johnny and I would go back and start working on it at home and then we’d all meet again and carry on. I enjoyed it though, and I think Inner Smile is a great track.

Is it true that when you were a hairdresser in Glasgow one of the assistants dragged you out by the hair from the staff room and beat you up? My mum used to work there and always tells this story at Christmas!
Brian via email
A physical fight? There was one girl that worked in the salon I was a junior at the time and she went for me. I can’t even remember why now. She was just a bit of a med. A med? You don’t know what a med is? It’s Glasgow speak. You’ll have to look it up.

What’s it like being voted the act people would most like to see at Pride? And why didn’t you do it this year?
Mel Barning, Birmingham
Because we couldn’t. We were making a record at the time and rehearsing with the band so we just couldn’t. I need to get my crown back as number one gay icon! I think Madonna or Kylie stole it from me, I need it back! I’ve just done G.A.Y. again and I love it. It can’t get much camper than that. Ash said camp it up a bit and when I came off he says ‘you didn’t have to do it that much’ and I said ‘Honey, once a hairdresser always a hairdresser’. I had such a good time. I love the fact that the crowd gets it and I love the fact that I get that too. I just feel alive. I never feel stressed I just feel ‘come on, let’s party!’ I just love the sarcasm, and that they get the art of entertainment. I think I’ve found that in most of the gay clubs I’ve been too. I was going to this club in Glasgow called Bennetts when I was a hairdresser that really opened my mind to that whole thing. We’d all get dolled up on a Saturday night and pile down Bennetts. You’d walk in and there would be this big, wild, loud extravaganza, you’d be hit by the smell of poppers and to me it was like waving something shiny at a magpie. I loved it and it didn’t have that same agenda that straight clubs can have. And Mel’s forgotten that I did do Pride back in 1997 in Clapham Common. We did it at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon before we flew off somewhere. It’s been amazing to see things change. My wee nephews are pretty clued up on things. The word gay came up and I asked them if they knew what it meant and they said ‘it means when a boy kisses a boy or a girl kisses a girl.’ I’d love to go back and do Pride again. Hopefully they will invite us again next year. (a)

Texas’ new single I’ll See It Through is released on Mercury on 8 December


Back to the Articles page

Back to the Articles & Concert Reviews main page

If you don't see a toolbar on the left then please click here