Texas: Sharleen, a model of a rock-star
by Thomas Erber for Jalouse magazine, November 1997
translated for texasindemand.com by Luc Ghys
the photos can be found here


Sharleen Spiteri, along with her band Texas, is dragging her bag down the road of rock for 10 years now with an invariable natural. She’s androgynous but deadly attractive all together and she handles her success with a casualness like someone who doesn’t see it as a finality. Scotswoman, Sharleen reached the age of thirty with both feet firmly on the ground and a head full of dreams. She proves to be a happy rock-star, completely at ease with herself.


Reporter : Thomas Erber / Photographer : Jan Welters / Stylist : Annett Monheim / Streeters N.Y.C. assisted by Salvatore Caputo / Hairdresser : Malcolm Edwards / Public for Toni & Guy London / Make-up : Houda Remita & Brigitte Hébant.

Sharleen is a nearly unseizable woman. Charming and enchantress. People who know her are addicted to her good mood, her lust for life and they just love to be with her. If you watch her nonchalant but firm gait, then it looks like she has no real goal in life. But as soon as you get the chance to look into her eyes you know it is anything but that. Spontaneous and attentively, supported by a determined, activist look, this is clearly a woman holding her destiny in her own hands. She doesn’t take the things she attempts lightly, a behavior associated to her childhood of which she speaks very unreservedly.

“I grew up in Glasgow in a well balanced family. My grandmother was French and my grandfather Italian. As my father was a mercantile marine captain, my mother took care of us while he was away. There was always a musical atmosphere in the house because everybody could play an instrument or was singing. Music has always been a daily part of our life. My mother loved jazz, blues and soul music. My father was more into The Byrds, Gene Clark or Bob Dylan”. However, raised from the cradle in a universe favorable to rock music, it took some time before she headed into a musical direction. Sharleen had other ambitions, more specific, she established the desire to become independant and that stimulated her very quickly. “From the very beginning of my adolescence, she admits, I wanted to be autonomous and do as I please. I hated school and the concept of groups of people all heading in the same direction, just like I hated my teachers who took themselves too seriously. The only one I could appreciate was my literature teacher who I once caught in a bus with her boyfriend and that made her look a little bit more like a human being to me. I really prefered to spend my spare time in record shops looking for some rare pieces, discovering new directions listening to Blondie, Echo & The Bunnymen or The Clash which affected me more then anything else”.

Her aversion for a classic education made her move to one of those art schools of which England seems to overflow. Infatuated by fashion she becomes a hairdresser and she starts to work at photo sessions for magazines which enables her to travel across the European continent whilst earning a comfortable but good salary. “During that period of my life, I didn’t want to make music in a band, absolutely not. I had an interesting job, secure, and everything went well. Until the day a boy ( Johnny, who plays the bass in Texas ) looked me up and asked me if I wanted to become the singer of his band. First I thought he was joking, trying to seduce me you know. However, the next day, after I didn’t go to the rendez-vous, he called me again and insisted that I should give it a try. So I went and I sung just like I did when I was with my family. We both liked it very much and as a result, we formed the band. I then abandoned everything to start this new adventure. Needless to say that all my friends and relatives, with the exception of my parents, were taking me for a fool. But, most importantly, I sincerely believed in it”. This decision shows us Sharleen’s true colours: a flawless will pushing her to follow her instincts rather than to use her common sense, a strong desire to assert herself into a direction of her own choice rather then to listen to those people telling her where to go. “At that age I was certainly helped by an overwhelming feeling of carelessness”, she emphasizes, but we can’t ignore the fact that all these efforts paid off very well in the end. When Texas found the way to the charts at the end of the eighties, there was no Sheryl Crow nor Alanis Morissette to facilitate the intrusion of a charismatic singer in an overcrowded environment dominated by men only. Maybe Sharleen can be considered as the link between the “late 70’s” goddesses like Blondie, Joni Mitchell or Patti Smith and today’s new generation of female artists on the music scene. She admits that, as a debutante, she really dreamed of being just like Patti Smith because she disliked the way women were treated in her new environment. “The female attitude, let it be in music or somewhere else, and the way people look upon it, is very different and much more positive today. All because one day, women woke up to say “enough is enough, we’re no objects”. Today, women are believing in themselves and they’re capable to fight for their ambitions without the worry of all the prejudices. And when I said that I wanted to be Patti Smith, it’s only because she had the right attitude. She fell short of the ordinary criteria of beauty, but she imposed herself by using her talents just like Joe Strummer of The Clash imposed himself by ventilating his anger. They were my guides, I followed their footsteps”. Her language is clear and direct, without flourishing, unveiling that lucid and almost impetuous stubbornness Sharleen’s carrying inside.


“Nowadays, I feel strong, very strong. When we started, I often said to myself that it’s so damned hard to be a woman in a rock band. I had to repeat everything a dozen times before they would listen. That’s also the reason why I never appeared alone but always accompanied by the band. We were a gang, a clan. The right equation never was: Texas = Sharleen + the boys, but Texas = a band. Things are much better now. We left that big circus called show business far behind and we learned how to retreat and how to invest only into choices that seamed more appropriate to us. We’re capable of living in a completely autonomous way only concentrated on our music and the projects we’d really like to realize”. This firmness just isn’t some kind of a circumstantial way of living, on the contrary, it’s applied both in their personal and professional lifes. Texas refused all kind of promotion when their second and third albums were released. Sharleen exiled to Paris for more then a year after their last tour. “I moved to Paris because I felt it would have been so easy to return to Scotland. That kind of situation would have been very flattering for my ego but in the end, it makes you loose all sense of reality. My best friend ( Corinne Cobson, a stylist ) lived in Paris and I rented an apartment in the same building, I was the perfect stranger and I worked with the band over the phone. After that period, I felt completely regenerated”. Three years later, their new album “White On Blonde” came out. It was well accepted by the critics and by the public. The English press, magazines like GQ or The Face, all showed a high degree of interest. What has changed in your life since then? “Nothing, absolutely nothing! My life is turning more and more to normal. I’m very happy and I’m continuously amazed by most of the things happening around me. That’s also what I like about this job, it gives me the opportunity of learning from other people, to discover books, to open up. What more can I ask for”?

Sharleen’s disconcerted obstinacy and disarming nature largely contributes to her unique charm. She has the ability to convey happiness without really taking herself seriously, without asking herself thousands of unnecessary questions. It makes you feel good in this universe where we become used to feel disappointed or falsely tormented. She was a little girl with a mother that drenched her into the music of Marvin Gaye, The Staple Sisters or Curtis Mayfield and who transmitted her the musical fibre. She was an adolescent who dreamt of being Patti Smith. She became a woman so pure, graceful and full of will-power. A model of her kind.

Albums : “Southside” 1989 / “Mothers Heaven” 1991 / “Ricks Road” 1993 / “White On Blonde” 1997 ( Mercury ). French Tour in December.


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