Droutinelife: Dana Gillespie About
Dana Gillespie is a singer, an actress, a songwriter. She has been a radio person and a theater artist as well. She was also a sportsperson once British junior water-skiing champion. Dana has given many stage performances too.
Dana’s Birth details:
Dana’s Birth Name: Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie
Date of Birth: 30 March 1949
Place of Birth: Woking, United Kingdom
Parents: Father: Baron de Winterstein Gillespie, a retired Austrian radiologist; Mother: a cousin of Lord Buxton.
Dana’s Personal Details:
• Height: 5‘ 8”
• Birth Sign: Aries
• Ethnicity: White
• Eye Color: Dark brown
• Hair Color: Light brown
• Body Measurements: 34-25-35
• Breast Size: 34
• Waist size: 25
• Hip Size: 35
• Weight in KG: 62kg
• Affair with: David Bowie (1971), Mick Jagger(1976), Bob Dylan, Donovan, jimmy Page (1966)
• Movies: Mojo Blues Band (1981 – 1983)
First recording: at the age of 15, she recorded for Pye, with Donovan on guitar
Type of music: folk in the 60s, Bowie-esque glam-rock in 70s, and today the raunchy in-your-face blues.
Record labels: RCA Records, Decca Records, Ace Records, RCA, Bellaphon Records, Rev-Ola Records
Awards: Porin Award for Best Jazz Music Album
Stage appearances: Jesus Christ Superstar, The Tempest, Tommy, Cinderella and two one-woman shows Cora and The Dirtiest Blues In Town.
Dana’s current shows: An Audience with Dana Gillespie and Dana Gillespie & the London Blues Band.
Dana’s theatre shows: in London’s West End theatres, in shows:
the first run of Jesus Christ Superstar (playing Mary Magdalene)
The Who’s “Tommy” (playing the Acid Queen) and
the rock Othello, “Catch My Soul”
TV appearances: Ready Steady Go, Little & Large and Seaside Special.
Sit coms: ‘Til Death Do Us Part and Mum’s Boys.
More recently she has been on Pebble Mill and TV AM, William Tell, The Bill and Sunday Pursuit.
Albums: Weren’t Born a Man, Blues It Up, Boogie Woogie Nights, MORE
The British Blues Connection and Blueprint Magazine voted Dana as ‘‘Top British Female Blues Vocalist‘ between the years 1992 and 1996.
Dana is indeed an International Blues legend. Dana has been singing blues from a very early age. She has been into singing for over 45 years.
Dana says: “I discovered the blues when I went to the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962 and also to see the Yardbirds at the Marquee Club. I was in my early teens and hadn’t heard anything like it before – blues wasn’t easily available in the UK back then”. “Blues was my first musical love because it’s earthy, spiritual and honest.”
“I believe the blues should be sung by an older person because it’s about emotions and experience. I couldn’t do justice to it when I was younger because my voice didn’t have the edge it needed to convey the emotion, nor did I have the first hand experience to sing about blue themes convincingly”, she adds.
After a wrap of singles on Pye and two LPs for Decca, Dana enthused to RCA and made WEREN’T BORN A MAN in 1973.
Dana hosted a radio show:
named “Globe Trotting With Gillespie” on Blue Danube Radio.
Dana has already released six blues albums through Ace.
• BLUE JOB, recorded in 1982, a humorous risqué twist collection.
• LP, BELOW THE BELT
• LP, SWEET MEAT concentrated on “fat” and “thin”
• STAYING POWER
• Latest CD ‘Live with the London Blues Band’ on Ace.
Dana is a great follower of Indian Spiritual Guru
Sri Sathya Sai Baba and has also recorded thirteen bhajan-based albums in Sanskrit.
Dana has got three albums recorded in Sanskrit, under the pseudonym THIRD MAN.
Dana’s Book: Mirrors of Love. Through this book dana has worked together with the world famous Austrian artist Jorg Huber. A CD of the book is also available.
Dana’s upcoming tours in 2018
Date | Venue | Artist |
March 7/8/9/10 | Jazzland,Vienna | Joachim Palden Trio |
April 23rd | Banana Peel Club, Belgium | London Blues Band |
April 29rd | 606 Club, London | London Blues Band |
May 10th | Murderers, Norwich | Dave Thomas Blues Band |
October 19/20/21/22/23 | Jazzland, Vienna | Joachim Palden Trio |
October 27th | Norwich Arts Centre | Dave Thomas Blues Band |
Dana Gillespie Movies
Film | Director | Actor | Year |
THE LOST CONTINENT | Michael Carreras | Eric Porter and Charles Houston | 1968 |
MAHLER | Ken Russell | Robert Powell and Georgina Hale | 1974 |
PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT | Kevin Connor | Doug McClure, Patrick Wayne and Sarah Douglas | 1977 |
SCRUBBERS | |||
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES | Peter Cook, Denholm Elliott and Irene Handl | 1977 | |
BAD TIMING | Nicolas Roeg | Russell, Harvey Keitel and Denholm Elliott | 1980 |
SINK OR SWIM | the late Roy Kinner & Chris Langham | 1976 | |
PARKER | Jim Goddard | Hannelore Elsner & Cheri Lunghi | 1984 |
STRAPLESS | David Hare | Blair Brown and Bruno Ganz | 1989 |
BYRON’S MINE! | Nick McCann | Byron | 1992 |
Leave a Reply