Counting music titans Davie Bowie, Bob Dylan and Morrissey among those you have rubbed shoulders with over the years is not a feat many have achieved. And while British singer and actress Dana Gillespie is among those who have worked with and called these men friends, she remains a largely undiscovered secret of the music industry.
Born in 1949 and raised in London during a period of artistic rebellion, Gillespie began her recording career as a teenager aged 15. By the late 60s she began releasing albums, kicking off her hefty discography which now includes 74 records released in various countries and styles.
She further found her feet with her 1973 release Weren’t Born A Man, which Bowie helped produce as well as lending his vocals to the record.
Gillespie first met the late Ziggy Stardust singer a decade prior and they remained friends until he left for American in the mid-1970s. Not only did she secure his help with the album, but Bowie wrote his song Andy Warhol for her and she reciprocated by singing backing vocals on his 1972 Ziggy Stardust album.
“He was very, very much a part of my life, even in the early 60s when I met him,” Gillespie, now 75, tells me on a video call.
“We always went to the same kind of music venues.”
The former music show, Ready Steady Go!, was among their regular haunts as Bowie would go to network in the green room while Gillespie would work as a dancer.
“He helped me in a lot of ways, not just with Andy Warhol, although to this day I don’t quite know why he wrote it for me,” she admits.
“The thing is, I think he wrote it for him and gave it to me and then he liked my version so much that he then recorded it after me, but he got it out before me.”
The pair of them came up in a golden period for British music when acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones dominated. But Gillespie recalls that there were not a lot female artists in the business at this stage, and many of those who did cut through, like Lulu and Dusty Springfield, opted for a more innocent look compared to her hippie style.
Music was my first love and music is still my last love, in between there's loads of guys who have come and gone— Dana Gillespie
Another musical great who appreciated her approach was none other than American singer Bob Dylan, who she met in 1965.
“I can say (he was) a bit of a boyfriend,” she says. “But ‘boyfriend’ is the wrong term. First of all, I don’t use that disgusting American word of dating.
“I don’t date anyone. You can sleep with them or not, but that’s not dating. So he was a boyfriend, in a way, but he lived in America and I lived in England.”
Later down the line in 1997, the connection proved fruitful again as he asked her to be the opening act for his British tour.
In her latest project, her 74th album titled First Love, she reflects back on some of these pivotal relationships within her life by covering a number of their songs. It marks the first time she has taken on a Dylan song, selecting his 1997 track Not Dark Yet for the occasion.
“Not Dark Yet is a fabulous song, and it’s quite a dark lyric,” she says.
“Let’s face it, we’re in a rather dark age at the moment, so it’s not dark yet but it’s getting there and I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
“I don’t want to be a pessimist, but that’s how I feel.”
Produced by Soft Cell musician Marc Almond And Tris Penna, the 11-track record also features a cover of Bowie’s Can You Hear Me as well as her version of classics including Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams and Dance Me To The End of Love by Leonard Cohen. Each track was specifically selected between Almond, Penna and Gillespie to reflect on aspects of her career, which also saw her try her hand at acting.
Alongside the covers, she has released her new track First Love, Last Love – where she delves into how the love interests in her life have shaped her. And while many men have come and gone, it is her passion for music which has withstood the test of time.
“I wish I could say it was Bowie, but Bowie and I always had a musical relationship,” she says as she reflects on her first love.
“OK, there was a bit of horizontalism in there too, but I was a young teenager and he was a teenager, there’s no way either of us wanted to get settled down.
“(Calling it) love will give it the wrong angle. It wasn’t hearts, that kind of love.
“Music was my first love and music is still my last love, in between there’s loads of guys who have come and gone.”
While she has had many relationships over the years, she says she chose never to get married or to have children. She currently has a man who she spends her days with, but she now prefers to keep the details of her relationships behind closed doors.
“The first love you never forget, even if it was s*** or it was nice or mediocre, you never forget your first love.
“But your last love is the one that’s actually going to mean the most to you because hopefully the last love is going to see you to the end when you’re dribbling and senile or in a wheelchair, or taking you to Dignitas.”
The discussion surrounding assisted dying has become a pressing topic recently as Dame Esther Rantzen announced earlier this year that she has signed up for the Swiss Dignitas clinic.
Gillespie tells me she hopes to be put into a residential home when she gets older, and in the mean time she wants their to be a vote within England to try to reverse the legislation preventing assisted dying in the UK.
“I’m with Dame Esther Rantzen on this,” she says. “Younger people probably don’t care, but when you get older and you see some of your mates dying in agony, you want them to be able to step off the planet gracefully.”
As she looks back on her life, she does not dwell on anything that could have been different but instead sees each obstacle as part of the journey.
“(I have) no regrets because what’s the point in looking back and thinking: ‘I wish I’d done that?'” she says.
“Sometimes going down the wrong path may lead you to the right path, and I often feel you learn your best lessons through mistakes.”
Dana Gillespie’s new album, First Love, is out now.
