Who we've worked with

Barbara Dickson

Barbara Dickson was born on September 27, 1947 in Dunfermline, Scotland, the daughter of a policeman turned Rosyth dockyard worker. The family's strong interest in music led to Barbara taking up the piano from the tender age of five.

By the age of twelve Barbara had also started to play the guitar and upon leaving school at seventeen, she moved to Edinburgh combining a job in the Registrar General's office with evening spots as a folk singer in local pubs and clubs.

In 1969, Barbara was offered a short-term contract singing at a club in Copenhagen and when she was refused time away from her day job, she resigned deciding to try her luck as a professional singer.

The late 60's and early 70's saw Barbara 'paying her dues' as a singer on the Scottish folk club circuit, gradually building her reputation and working with the likes of Archie Fisher and Rab Noakes. Three albums for Decca Records in the early 1970's were well-received, but Barbara began to become disillusioned with the fading Scottish folk scene of the time, and on the advice of Hamish Imlach and Christy Moore she began to look for work south of the border in the booming folk scene of the North of England.

Fate intervened one evening late in 1972 when Bernard Theobald attended one of Barbara's shows in Wolverhampton and offered to become her manager. So began a successful business partnership which has endured thirty years.

Barbara also became acquainted with Willy Russell, who managed a folk club in Runcorn and was himself a well-known face on the Merseyside folk circuit with his group The Kirkby Town Three. Their friendship led to Barbara being offered a major role in Willy's 1974 musical 'John Paul George Ringo...& Bert',  staged at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre.

Barbara was on stage throughout the entire show, singing The Beatles' songs at the piano, and the show became an instant success, quickly transferring to London's West End.

There the show was seen by music impressario Robert Stigwood, who signed Barbara to his record label, RSO Records, and in 1976 she enjoyed her first UK hit with the single 'Answer Me'. TV exposure in shows including "The Two Ronnies" quickly followed and she became a familiar face on British TV screens.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who had also seen Barbara in 'John Paul George Ringo...& Bert'' invited her to sing on the studio cast recording of their new musical 'Evita' , and the subsquent single, 'Another Suitcase In Another Hall', released early in 1977, became a huge hit.

Barbara signed to CBS Records in 1978, and 1980's single 'January, February' provided her biggest hit to date, with the accompanying LP, 'The Barbara Dickson Album' quickly going gold in the UK. 1982's phenomenally successful "All For A Song" collection shot to the top of the British charts and cemented Barbara's status as a major recording artist.

http://www.barbaradickson.net/