SHARLEEN SPITERI ON BAND AND THE STORY BEHIND THOSE HITS
 

By Tim Barr, 29/11/09

In a special edition of the Sky Arts TV programme Songbook, due to be broadcast next month, Sharleen is set to reveal just how quickly the magic between her and Texas songwriting partner Johnny McElhone was established.

And they explain for the first time how they wrote their first hit, I Don't Want A Lover, in less time than it takes to get a bus from Sharleen's hometown of Balloch in to the centre of Glasgow.

She was just 18, working as a hairdresser at the city's famous Irvine Rusk salon, when she got the call from bass player and songwriter Johnny.

At the time he was still playing with Hipsway, the band he'd formed after quitting Altered Images.

"They were on tour in Europe with Eurythmics," Sharleen explains. "But Annie Lennox fell ill and some of their gigs in Germany and Holland had to be cancelled so Johnny flew home for a couple of days.

"A mutual friend, David 'Sparky' Bilsland, had told him about me so we met up at David's house to get to know each other and try out a few ideas. We both love the entire Motown back catalogue and things like The Clash, Blondie and The Pretenders, so it was pretty clear from the outset we'd a lot of music in common.

"Johnny had a drum machine with him, his bass guitar, a keyboard and a four-track recorder.

"He got a drum beat going and began playing that duh-duh-duh-duh bassline on the keyboard. I started singing "I don't want a lover, I just need a friend" and we had the song in 20 minutes.

"It was the week before my 19th birthday. But everything that happened afterwards started right at that moment, in that room at Sparky's house.

"Though I'd been DJing in a club on Sunday nights and I'd sung in the house and at parties before, I'd really never thought music was going to lead anywhere. I'd certainly never ever thought of it as a career - that seemed like the kind of thing only people in London got to do.

"But after that I was hooked. Johnny and I would be staying up until all hours, writing songs and I'd be going into work next day absolutely dying. It was a really exciting time."

After that first session in October 1986, Sharleen and Johnny recruited teenage guitar prodigy Ally McErlaine. Keyboard player Eddie Campbell and a succession of drummers followed.

And within a year, they had landed a record deal after recording three songs - I Don't Want A Lover, Everyday Now and Fight The Feeling - in Glasgow's legendary Park Lane studios.

Released as their debut single, I Don't Want A Lover then crashed into the Top Ten early in 1989.

For Sharleen, who'd been such a daredevil as a little girl that she'd broken her nose THREE TIMES by the time she was 13, it was the beginning of an incredible adventure.

"Music was all around me when I was growing up," she remembers.

SONGBOOK featuring Texas is on Sky Arts on December 10 from 8pm

SOURCE:http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_listings/scottish_music/621815/Superstar-Sharleen-Spiteri-on-band-and-story-behind-those-hits.html