Bassey Talks Bond On The Beeb

Dame Shirley Bassey has been very much in the news this week in Britain with two programmes devoted to her on consecutive days on the BBC (or ‘Auntie Beeb’ as the channel is affectionately known in the UK). And there was plenty on offer for James Bond fans. As well as talking about the production of her new best-selling album, ‘The Performance’ (produced by Bond composer David Arnold), Dame Shirley made some interesting comments about her relationship to the world of 007.

Her first appearance of the week came on the BBC’s popular late-night chat show ‘The Graham Norton Show’, alongside fellow Welsh actor Michael Sheen and Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert. The show, which was a Welsh-themed edition, included an audience packed with Shirley Bassey fans, some of whom had specially flown in from the USA and the Netherlands to witness her being interviewed live.

During the course of Norton’s interview, Bassey dealt humorously with her close shave in a helicopter emergency landing after her appearance at the Glastonbury music festival, and also touched upon the various pressures she has faced during her long career. Norton mentioned that “rumours are rife” that Dame Shirley (who has, of course, sung three Bond themes), might be in line to do a fourth Bond song. Dame Shirley seemed surprised at this, but confirmed she would, of course, be interested in singing a fourth Bond theme, if it was offered.

Norton also mischievously mentioned that “rumours are rife” that Michael Sheen is a ‘baddie’ in the next Bond film. At this point, Dame Shirley intervened and asked Sheen directly whether he was playing a baddie, and Sheen took the opportunity to (once again) deny this.

One has to feel sorry for Sheen. Sheen, whose latest role is a 3,000 year old Vampire in the second of the ‘Twilight’ films, has been regularly dogged in recent months by internet rumours that he might play the lead villain in the next Bond film, given that Oscar-nominated screen-writer Peter Morgan has been selected by EON to help write the Bond 23 screenplay. At one point, Sheen was even linked to a possible revival of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The origins of such rumours are down to the fact that Sheen has worked with Morgan before (on ‘The Queen’ and on ‘Frost/Nixon’) and are also good friends.

Dame Shirley was also quizzed by Norton about the new album and her recent emergence from semi-retirement, and the Norton show ended with a very welcome live performance by Bassey of her beautiful ‘Tiger Bay’ song, with a backing group that included David Arnold on guitar. This went down a storm with the appreciative audience.

The ‘Girl From Tiger Bay’.

 The following day, the BBC screened an intimate portrait of Dame Shirley and her musical career as part of the ‘Imagine’ series, presented by Alan Yentob. ‘Dame Shirley Bassey: The Girl From Tiger Bay’ was a rare profile of Bassey to coincide with the release of her new album. It traced the story of her life, from her birth in 1937 in the tough Tiger Bay area of Cardiff as one of seven children, through to her early emergence as a talented child singer. Dame Shirley revealed that her mother once commented that Bassey “could sing before she could walk”. Bassey left Tiger Bay as a young teenager and travelled around Britain as a part of the cabaret circuit, demonstrating the amazing power of her voice. By 1955 she had landed her first recording deal, and eventually went to the USA to sing alongside some of the ‘greats’.

After singing ‘Goldfinger’ (1964), Shirley’s success, as Yentob noted, “was colossal”. She had her own TV series which lasted into the 1970s, sang a second Bond theme (‘Diamonds Are Forever’), made numerous guest appearances on other shows (including giving a memorable performance of ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ on the BBC’s ‘Morecambe and Wise Show’ in 1971), and was invited back to do a third Bond song by John Barry in 1979 (the less memorable ‘Moonraker’). In the late 1970s, Bassey went into effective semi-retirement in Monaco, after experiencing a number of personal traumas.

Inevitably, during the course of the programme, Yentob asked Bassey about her Bond years, and the programme included contributions from Bond composers John Barry and David Arnold, and lyricists Leslie Bricusse and Don Black. Dame Shirley said when she first learned from John Barry that he had been chosen to write the theme for ‘Goldfinger’, an eager Barry came over to her place to play her his musical composition for the third Bond film. She said when she first heard Barry’s music, she “got goose-bumps”, even though Barry had not even written the words yet!

Barry, in his contribution to the programme, commented that, from the opening to the closing of Bassey’s rendition of ‘Goldfinger’, “you believe every word she sings”. Bricusse also supported this view, saying he had not “heard a voice like this before”.  Similarly, Don Black (who co-wrote ‘Diamonds Are Forever’) shared the general awe at Bassey’s powerful voice, saying she had the “perfect voice for Bond”. Black also added his view that there was a “sense of danger” in her songs, as well as glamour, which fitted perfectly with the world of James Bond.

The Performance.

Some of the most revealing sections of Yentob’s programme, however, involved a rare one-to-one interview with Dame Shirley in her residence in Monaco, conducted by Yentob, who noted (and Bassey agreed) that she is actually a very private person, who has faced considerable personal sadness in her life, given the death of her husband and daughter. Close coverage was also given of the actual daily production of Dame Shirley’s new album, where she was filmed in early rehearsals of the new songs, meeting with the main song-writers, liaising with David Arnold at recording studios in Ireland, and meeting the backing orchestra for the various tracks. These sections provided some excellent insights into the sheer hard work that has to go into the initial rehearsal and production stages of a brand new album.

At one point, it seemed that one of the most challenging of the new songs for Bassey was, ironically, David Arnold’s composition, and Arnold briefly faced the possibility that he would have to pull his own song out of the new album he was producing for Bassey. Thankfully, things came together and Bassey was able to skilfully fit the song’s lyrics and tempo to the shape of her own voice.

All in all, Yentob’s profile was a very entertaining and, at times moving, programme about a true star performer, whose new album has been enthusiastically reviewed in much of the music press.