What's It All About? by Cilla Black

Author:Cilla Black [Black, Cilla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Women, Music, Genres & Styles, Pop Vocal, Performing Arts, Television, General
ISBN: 9781407025162
Google: 1oZNVBaHoDIC
Amazon: B0031RS6TQ
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2003-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

18

It’s Different Now

MOTHERHOOD GAVE ME a new lease of life and new sense of purpose. There I was in the new decade, doing and enjoying all the things I’d done before – putting on glamorous dresses and teetering off in my stilettos to walk the walk before the footlights and cameras, and tread the boards not only in the UK but also in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore – then going home to cradle my baby in my arms and continue my first steps into motherhood.

Far from flagging during the seventies, my career as a singer and TV performer was on the up. My Cilla series and other star-studded specials were still winning the battle of the ratings for the Beeb; and between 1972 and 1974 readers of the Sun newspaper voted me ‘Top TV Personality’ continuously. On the music front, I was voted ‘Top Female Vocalist’ by NME and Musical Echo, and was presented with a gold disc by EMI to mark my first ten years in the business!

Despite all my feelings of insecurity as the sixties gave way to the seventies, I’d had no need to worry. Far from my showbiz days being numbered, I saw my workload increase quite dramatically. In many ways I couldn’t believe my luck.

~

I loved doing The Cilla Black Show. A really lavish £100,000, twice-nightly, eight-week Palladium production, it was directed by my friend Dickie Hurran, the creative genius who staged some of the UK’s most spectacular shows during the heyday of variety. Roger Whittaker appeared with me on the show, and I have very fond memories of the absolutely stunning, satin-trimmed white trouser suit that Tommy Nutter made for me for the opening night.

During the lead-up to this extravaganza, little Robert must have thought his mam was crackers! I was forever walking around the room at breakfast time in the incredible sequined gowns I was going to wear on stage. But that was simply because I couldn’t feel happy in them on stage until I got used to wearing them at home! I had to test how safe it was to throw myself around without a strap breaking or a seam going. Unlike some of my earliest performances when I stood with my arms absolutely riveted to my side, with no Bassey-type theatrical flourishes, I now liked to be able to free-wheel around the stage and do some twirls while holding a hand mike.

After seeing the preview of the Palladium show, the London journalist James Green wrote, ‘She’s a kind of northern Bisto Kid who gets a great deal of pleasure out of singing and doesn’t give a thought to nerves on the big occasion, lucky girl!’ And it was true. My knees no longer knocked, my hands no longer shook and my tummy no longer turned somersaults while I was standing in the wings. Ten years had passed since I first hit the boards and I was still as keen as I’d been in my Merseyside club

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