Play Misty for me
from the Daily Mirror - 17 October 2003 by Gavin Martin

Sharleen Spiteri on being a mum and the dubious future of Texas

She counts Madonna, Stella McCartney, and her dad Sir Paul, among her friends, while Debbie Harry sends her old stage clothes to wear. But Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri still doesn't consider herself a celebrity. "I don't put myself in that category," she says, curled up on a couch in a private room of a plush West End members' club.

"To an extent I am, but I'm not right in the heart of it. I run away from it, too. I feel very comfortable in London, although I still have a house in Glasgow. I'm lucky I can do that because it's good here as I'm a small fish in a big pond. In Scotland I would be a big fish in a small pond."

The years of living in London have barely softened her accent. So doesn't she go round to Madge and Guy's house for lessons in how to speak proper Cockernee.

"Cockernee?" she says flatly. "Nah, I'm not really interested in learning to speak any way other than the way I already do."

Sharleen is the straight-talking Scottish pop princess who refuses to play by the rules. Trends come and go but Texas - the group she formed with guitarist and co-songwriter Johnny McElhone in 1986 - endure.

The new album, Careful What You Wish For, mixes rap and ragga, a Joe Strummer tribute, a homage to "proper" celeb friend Madonna and a big, lush ballad written with Robbie Williams' old partner Guy Chambers. For any other outfit the blend would be suicidal, but for Texas it's business as usual, following their passions and instincts rather than tired formulae.

"I'm a terrier," explains Sharleen, 36 next month. "I'll hang onto something to the end because I cannae let go. Johnny's like my brother. We believe in what we do, we fight for what we do and we fight about what we do because we believe in it. That's our strength, that we truly believe in it."

While making the new record, Sharleen and the other man in her life, publishing executive Ashley Heath, became parents to their first child, daughter Misty Kyd. She's now a year old, but Sharleen's not sure how pregnancy, birth and motherhood affected the album.

"There's not a song on the album that links to motherhood in any way," she says, "but it was a really good experience. For the first few months of pregnancy you feel a bit podgy and you can see people looking at you thinking, 'Oh aye, she's having her Fat Elvis period', because no one wants to ask if you're pregnant.

"I didn't make it public until I was four months because I didn't want to put pressure on myself or my family if anything went wrong."

Misty was born to the sound of Bob Dylan performing the Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid soundtrack. "But I had Blondie's Parallel Lines there too," Sharleen adds. "It was better than the dolphin music they put on at the hospital."

Was it an easy birth?

"I can never understand how men long. Ashley was there the whole time. I think he was thinking, 'C'mon hurry up'."

Sharleen had a successful career as a hairdresser in Glasgow and travelled the seas with her merchant seaman father before joining Texas. But her schooldays were far from happy.

"I remember feeling physically sick going to school, not wanting to get off the bus," she says. "I couldn't wait to leave because I'd get bullied, which was horrible. It went on for a few months until it came to a head when I was approached in a corridor by 10 girls.

"One girl thought I fancied her boyfriend, which was complete bull. She grabbed me and I just lost it. It took two teachers to pull me off her and I never got bullied again. I never lost my temper like that again either."

Learning to stand up for herself has been the key to Sharleen's success in the music business, too. She's remained a star without following any marketing plan.

"No one ever has to do anything that they don't want to do," she says determinedly. "I chose not to be on the cover of men's mags with my tits out because I don't want to. I get asked a million times by the record company and magazines, but it's not what I choose to do with my image."

She thinks young performers desperate for celebrity in TV shows such as Pop Idol don't know what they're letting themselves in for. "I don't think they are stupid," says Sharleen. "I think they are just blinded by the illusion of what can happen. Just standing there while someone tells you are totally crap is gentle in comparison to what it would be like in the music business.

"Everyone talks about Simon Cowell but, trust me, that's soft, The real thing is much more harsh."

With what she regards as the best ever Texas album now under her belt, Sharleen is looking forward to a tour next year. She hopes the band can find a whole new audience, not that she's tired with the old one. Not all of them, anyway.

"Doing it this long, of course I've encountered nutters," she admits. "It's when they turn up at your door at two in the morning that I draw the line."

Just before making the new album, Sharleen was preparing to make her movie debut in the cyber thriller Three Blind Mice with Eddie Furlong. The production was delayed and by the time it was ready to go she was too pregnant to play the role. Although she denies rumours of a solo career, she has considered quitting, and from now on it will be daughter Misty not Texas who will decide her future.

"The problem will be when she gets to school age," says Sharleen. "I don't even know if I'll be doing this at that point. I've always contemplated a life beyond music, always. I love music and love doing it, but if my child wants something, it's more important than anything."

Not of course that motherhood has turned her soft.

"It's hardened me," she says. "You get this weird form of Tourette's when somebody is taking ages trying to tell you something. You're like, 'C'mon c'mon. I dinnae have all day. I've got a lot of things to do'. Time becomes precious."


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