Lone Star
from The Scotsman - 30 November 2003 by Fiona Leith

SHARLEEN Spiteri ponders the question for a minute. "How Scottish do I feel right now? Well, I’m using Ewan McGregor’s sporran for a handbag - does that still qualify me?" These hip, young, brash, sexy ambassadors of the Scotland many would like to inhabit were recently at a charity bash together when "Supershar", lead chanter in Texas, confessed to the actor she had nowhere to put whatever small change is needed for a glitzy night out when you’re a pop star who’s sold more than 20 million albums.

She loves the sporran, and vows that McGregor won’t be getting it back. He’s unlikely to miss it. His tackle, flashed so often in his films that you wonder if co-starring roles are written into his contract, has become as fixed a Caledonian pop-culture motif as Sean "007" Connery’s throbbing Walther PPK or Stanley Baxter’s engorged nostrils or even Harry Lauder’s, er, droopy walking stick were for the generations that went before. Truly, the tadger is iconic. But what is Spiteri’s trademark?

The first time we heard her voice was on Texas’s debut single ‘I Don’t Want A Lover’ in 1988. Fifteen years ago, every record company wanted a chick singer. But back then Spiteri, who turned 36 earlier this month, wouldn’t play the game, give good quote, dress sexy. In a baggy hooped top, she was one of the boys in the band. "I don’t want a lover," she sang, "I just need a friend."

The image has changed, though not as much as some would claim - Spiteri is most definitely not that "radge wee midden", Christina Aguilera. The voice, though, is more or less the same. On record, a little more breathy, perhaps, but her conversation is still pure dead brilliant Glesca, like that of the coolest, cutest, most unchat-upable hairdresser who ever strutted on the dancefloor of Clatty Pat’s nightclub.

Spiteri, who used to be that hairdresser, has won the top honour at the Spirit of Scotland Awards which are staged by your favourite Sunday newspaper and can be seen on STV tonight. She is chuffed with her prize, not least because it has brought her back to Scotland. "Although I live in London now I’ve kept on my old flat in Glasgow," she explains. "When I’m in London I talk about going back to ‘the house’. But when I go back to Scotland, I’m going ‘home’."

It’s as good a subject as any so we talk about Scotland some more. I ask Spiteri - currently being chauffeured around her adopted city en route to a photo-shoot - for three characteristics which for her best sum up the essence of Scottishness. "Warm, friendly, funny," she says, "but I’m going to need some more: loyal, strong, fierce - in a good way - and what’s the word that means a desire to want to see the world but never, ever forget where you come from...?"

Sheena Easton went from Bellshill to Bel-Air and, in 1990, returned to Scotland for Glasgow’s Big Day with the must-haven’t accoutrement of a mid-Atlantic accent. Somehow you can’t imagine Spiteri, no matter how far she travels, making the same faux-pas - and being met with a response that, while displaying some of that innate fierceness she talks about, wasn’t wholly inappropriate in the circumstances: a hail of bottles. "Talkin’ American doesn’t become me," she says. Neither, unfortunately, does selling records in the States, although this is entirely down to the fact her band’s albums aren’t available there, a bit ironic for a group calling themselves Texas.

You would think their music would work in the US, given it’s now a one-stop convenience-store of the kind of moves, grooves and smooth soul licks that appeal to the masses - and for those who prefer to shop around, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the girl from the city that gave the world "Tongs, Ya Bass" once took on the Wu-Tang Clan in a recording studio and didn’t embarrass herself. Spiteri would like to crack America but isn’t losing sleep over it not happening. "I think that after 9/11 it’s become more difficult for Scottish or British or any kind of culture to impact on America now. It’s really turned in on itself."

OK, so Spiteri hasn’t "lost it". She’s still "in touch with her roots". But one thing still niggles: at the MTV Awards in Edinburgh recently, where she handed out a gong, she told an interviewer she’d made it to the capital in the nick of time after a "30-minute journey" from Glasgow. Assuming she didn’t travel by Lear-jet, has she forgotten how long it takes to drive the M8, the bonniest road in all the land?

"Cheeky sod! That’s all it took me - straight up! And don’t think about getting me to do a ‘How Scottish Are You?’ test because I can still tell you the price of a bottle of Irn-Bru. But I thought the MTVs were fantastic. I get invited to lots of these bashes but that’s been the best by a mile, and I’m not just saying that because I’m Scottish. I spent the whole day telling the Beyoncés and the Kylies how to pronounce ‘Edinburro’ properly but everyone thought it was just the loveliest place."

Spiteri does the "house" thing in London with her partner, publishing executive Ashley Heath, and their one-year-old daughter, Misty Kyd. She is on first-name terms with Madonna (all right, even you get to call her that), Stella McCartney (she was a guest at the fashion designer’s wedding on Bute) and Thierry Henry, the Arsenal striker dedicating one of his goals to her baby girl. But, try as you might, you won’t hear any crumbs of gossip from the stellar dinner-table out of this one.

"I think being Scottish does ground you," she adds. "I could be having a laugh with the girls and fantasising about getting a swimming pool. But we’re inbuilt with that wee devil that perches on your shoulder and says: ‘Who’s going to clean the bloody thing?’"

Is this "No’ for the likes of us" attitude not another Scottish trait? And what’s wrong with a rock star having her own pool, anyway? "Absolutely nothing, but I’m not so sure that Scots have that attitude - Glaswegians are not impervious to a bit of flash, don’t forget. After all, I could have decided to stay in Scotland and been a big fish in a small pond, but for a number of reasons, personal and professional, I’ve moved to London where I’m a small fish in a big pond who’s trying to fatten herself up. You’ll notice how I keep saying ‘pond’. I still haven’t got that pool."

Mother’s Pride. The smell of the rain. The mountains she continued to climb even after breaking her nose four times in various outdoor misadventures in her youth. These are some of the things Spiteri misses about Scotland and she’s grateful for the upbringing she had, emphasising that she’ll try to replicate it as a parent for Misty Kyd.

Although Spiteri is proud to call herself Scottish, her father had Italian-French roots and her mother was of Irish-German extraction. Quite a mix. "My house was also Protestant and Catholic and the most important thing my mum and dad taught me was to accept people for what they are. Yeah, my folks were really sound."

What did a Scottish schooling do for her? "Well, I wasn’t too impressed with the history teacher who told us that boys always outperformed girls at the subject. Needless to say, he was a man. But I loved my English teacher. She said: ‘You’ve got to read these books. Some people reckon they’re classics, but if you decide they’re rubbish, that’s OK.’ I thought she was dead cool, even more so when I saw her snogging her boyfriend on the train home from school."

Spiteri insists that pass marks in snogging eluded her in her youth. "I was pretty quiet. In fact I lived on my own planet most of my schooldays. I was the kind of girl who boys would approach with that look in their eyes so you think you’re about to be asked out and then they’d say: ‘You know your pal Isobel McNiven?’"

All of which brings us back to her looks. They intrigue the movie world: she was offered a role in Moulin Rouge but turned it down because of recording commitments. "That story has got out of hand - I’m sure it wasn’t the Nicole Kidman part."

Then she was slotted to appear in a French film, Three Blind Mice, only to pass it up when she became pregnant. "I only said yes because the director chased me for a whole year, but I really don’t know about movies.

"In the video for the new single, ‘I’ll See It Through’, it’s me and Jean Reno. He’s my dark angel so acting is an itch that’s going to stay scratched for a while. Right now, I’m concentrating on my music. I’ve got to do my Texas homework and re-learn some of the old stuff."

The old Sharleen used to cringe when record bosses demanded: "Get the bird down the front!" The new version emerged after Texas found themselves heading for a no-horse-town with even fewer record shops. Out went the slide guitar, to be replaced by a sound that doesn’t seem to come from anywhere, but which everyone - real Texans apart - seems to love.

Big deal - most bands at some point change their clothes. Nor is their singer the first to discover that sex sells. "I honestly don’t think my image has changed all that much," insists Spiteri. "All that’s happened is that I’ve got a bit more confidence."

Her old school chum Isobel McNiven - wherever she is now - cannot fail to agree.

The Spirit of Scotland Awards, STV, tonight, 8pm. Texas’s new single ‘I’ll See It Through’ is released on December 8

And the winners are…

SHARLEEN Spiteri was in good company on Friday night as she picked up not only the Top Scot accolade at the glittering awards ceremony at Edinburgh’s Prestonfield, but also the award for excellence in music for her band Texas, presented by fellow Scots singer Ricky Ross.

The Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards began in 1998 with the aim of recognising individuals who are leading the way in Scottish culture. The awards were hosted by Fred MacAulay and Kirsty Wark. A judging panel led by John McGurk, editorial director of Scotsman Publications, John McLellan, editor of Scotland on Sunday, Iain Martin, editor of The Scotsman, Sally Gordon of Glenfiddich, and Sandy Ross, managing director at Scottish Television, drew up a short list of nominees.

The people of Scotland decided the final winners by voting in their thousands via telephone hotlines and the internet.

Elizabeth Blackadder OBE scooped the art award, which was presented by STV’s Sarah Heaney.

Author Liz Lochhead presented the writing award to Alexander McCall Smith. McCall Smith is best known for his series of novels featuring Precious Ramotswe, the founder of a Botswana detective agency.

Actor Ewan McGregor won the screen award but was unable to attend in person. His family were there to toast their son.

Ex-Rangers star Ally McCoist presented the sport award to Ronald Ross, known in shinty circles as the Ronaldo of the Glens.

The prestigious business award was won by Sir Ian Wood, chairman and managing director of Aberdeen-based Wood Group.

Fi Buchanan, behind the hugely successful Heart Buchanan deli in Glasgow, won the food award. She picked up her award from Gleneagles-based chef Andrew Fairlie.

Fiona Leith

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