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The Look Of Love

As reported by The White Lady Of Soul some months ago, The Look Of Love is the name of the new double CD released by Universal Music on March 1st, 2004.

This CD contains a number of Dusty's top twenty hits, plus live performances of songs such as Sandra and Lose Again, together with remixes of In The Middle Of Nowhere and If It Hadn't Been For You. This ensures that so there is something here for fans old and new alike!

This set brings together an exciting and eclectic mix of material from Dusty’s career and as such this is a promising compilation. The range of material showcases Dusty’s versatility through the inclusion of a wide range of musical genre. Click here to see the complete tracklist.

Click here to purchase this album directly from HMV

The Dusty Springfield Bulletin reports that a dance mix of Son Of A Preacher Man, which will not feature on The Look Of Love, will be released in March 2004 and will feature Spooky as an additional track.

Dusty Springfield - The Essential Hits

Dusty Community Member Dustyobe, who also owns this CD, says “The CD sounds absolutely brilliant, clear as a bell!”

Dusty Day 2004

The venue for Dusty Day 2004 is the Henley Rugby Football club, a larger venue than last year, and Sunday, April 18th 2004 is the date to put in your diary.

A good time was had by all!

Dusty on the radio

SAGA 105.7 FM in Birmingham ran a tribute to Dusty on Tuesday, March 2nd to mark the 5th anniversary of her passing.

The station played a Dusty track at the start of each hour from 06:00. Saga 105.7 FM's sister station in Nottingham, on 106.6 FM, celebrated by doing something similar.

The play list for the day can be seen by clicking here.

Dusty DVD for Australia, US and UK

As fans we’ve been waiting for this for some time, but The Quantum Leap Group Limited released Dusty Springfield – My Very Best, Love Dusty, the very first Dusty DVD, on September 15, 2003.

This exciting DVD credits the White Lady of Soul as “the” Dusty Web site. Whilst this is a great honour, we must point out, once again, that there is no official Dusty web site, just fans who want to pay tribute to an amazing woman and performer. The links page on the WLoS lists many other Dusty sites that pay equal tribute to Dusty.

Presented by Petula Clark and B J Thomas, the DVD includes colour and B&W material, with these extra features: individual song selection, biography, UK discography and US discography. The full track list can be found here.

Play.com are offering the Region 2 DVD at £12.99 including delivery, beating the Quantum Leap Group's own web site at £15.

American edition on DVD and VHS

White Star Video will be releasing the same Dusty material in the United States and Canada a day later, on September 16, under the title Dusty Springfield: Reflections.

This will be available in both DVD and VHS formats and can be ordered directly via the White Star website at www.whitestarvideo.com, or by calling 1-800-573-3782.

Australian version with extra tracks

DVD'Z Pty Ltd have scheduled the Australian release of the Dusty Disc in mid October with two bonus tracks: Upside Down, a duet with Tom Jones, and Quiet Please, There's a Lady Onstage.

Both tracks are from the Tom Jones TV Series made in Canada in 1981.

Mail order company ChaosMusic are offering a special limited edition of the DVD plus bonus Cameo audio CD for Au. $39.95, which may still be available.
 

Dusty Springfield’s
Dusty In Memphis

Thirty Three And A Third Series

Warren Zanes has written a book that looks at Dusty’s critically acclaimed album Dusty In Memphis. The publication date for the United States is September 15, 2003 whilst it will be available in the UK and rest of world after November 2003. Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk are both taking advance orders.

The 128-page book, measuring 5x7”, will be published in paperback (ISBN no. 0826414923) at $10.95. Clearly another must for all Dusty fans!

The publishers, Continuum, say of the series:

“33 ¹/3 is a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books dispense with the standard biographical background that fans know already, and cut to the heart of the music on each album. The authors provide fresh, original perspectives – often through their access to and relationships with the key figures involved in the recording of these albums.

“By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music. (A task, which can be, as Elvis Costello famously observed, as tricky as dancing about architecture.) What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors – musicians, scholars, and writers – are deeply in love with the album they have chosen.”

The Critical List

Dusty was the featured artist on Radio 2's Critical List: A Buyer's Guide programme, with Stuart Maconie, broadcast Wednesday 6th August 2003: "Stuart focuses on Britain's greatest ever white soul diva Dusty Springfield". The featured tracks were:

I Only Wanna Be With You, Wishin’ And Hopin’, Oh No! Not My Baby, I’ve Been Wrong Before, Son Of A Preacher Man, Just A Little Lovin’, A Brand New Me, Losing You, Nothing Has Been Proved, The Look Of Love

International Dusty Day

ABC Radio in Perth dedicated “a whole radio show to Dusty Springfield” on what broadcaster Eoin Cameron dubbed International Dusty Day.

Eoin is a lifelong Dusty fan and with Brad McCahon, producer of ABC Perth's popular 720 Breakfast show hosted by Eoin (right), worked hard to organise “a whole host of star-studded guests” with every record played a Dusty track.

Fans worldwide were able to listen to the show via the Internet, and visitors from the UK and USA joined in the dedicated Dusty Day online forum during and after the event.

Selected interviews from the guests were available to replay or download in Real audio format via the Breakfast show page at http://www.abc.net.au/perth/breakfast/, where you can still vote for your favourite Dusty song in their online poll.

Many thanks to Eoin and Brad for such a successful show. You can read our special report on the day with photographs here.

The Singles Plus

The new Dusty double CD The Singles Plus is available from Amazon at £10.99, with Import version at £19.99.

The full track list can be found here.

New book celebrates “the Dusty influence”

Fremantle Arts Centre Press, “Australia's finest small publisher”, is publishing Rolling into the World, a memoir by broadcaster and former Australian federal parliamentarian Eoin Cameron, in which, among other things, he celebrates the effect Dusty Springfield had on him as a teenager. And, of course, International Dusty Day.

"Rolling into the World: memoirs of a ratbag child"
Author: Eoin Cameron
Publisher: Fremantle Arts Centre Press
ISBN: 1 92073 106 7
RRP: $24.95 AUD

The book can be ordered online direct from the publisher at www.facp.iinet.net.au

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Dusty tribute CD

Cabaret Artist Lori Le Verne has recorded a Dusty tribute CD, Gatherin' Dust.

This new release is available from PigHut Records at www.pighutstudios.co.uk

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Dusty “In Pieces”

Alice Shaell is a digital artist living in Hove, United Kingdom. As part of the Hove Arts festival, Alice exhibited a diptych of digital portraits of Dusty, entitled “In Pieces”, which are shown here. The exhibition ran every weekend during May 2003. The Hove Arts festival itself is the country's largest open house arts festival and there are many venues showing a diversity of work. Please click a picture to see a larger image

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Dusty Day 2003

Dusty Day 2003 took place on Sunday April 13 2003 and was a very successful day. Read our special report with photographs and a personal letter to organiser Colin Lench from the Royal Marsden Hospital here.

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Dusty Day New York 2003

The New York Dusty Day was on Monday April 14th at Joe's Pub (www.joespub.com) in Manhattan and all proceeds were also to go to the Royal Marsden Hospital.

Performers included Kate Pierson of the B-52s, Gail Ann Dorsey (bassist and vocalist for David Bowie), Carole Pope of Rough Trade (friend of Dusty and author of Anti-Diva), Andrew Abelson (son of Frankie Vaughan) plus many others.

Thanks to Richard Fox for this item.

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Artist of the Week

Dusty was Artist Of The Week on Ed Stewart's afternoon show on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday, 16th March 2003. The programme was broadcast over the Internet as usual via the new-look Radio 2 homepage www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/.

Featured tracks were You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me (The Very Best Of Dusty Springfield), Broken Blossoms (Demo CD), I Had A Talk With My Man (Ev’rything’s Coming Up Dusty) and I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten (The Very Best Of Dusty Springfield). The eclectic playlist for this week ranged from Monty Python to Led Zeppelin!

The last time Ed featured Dusty in this way, the top three were: 1YDHTSYLM, 2 Goin' Back and 3 AISIY. It is believed that a poll on DM at that time had the same top three, but with Goin' Back first and YDHTSYLM second.

Ed also recently featured All I See Is You from Goin’ Back - The Very Best Of Dusty Springfield (Philips 848789 2).

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Karen Noble Tour

Karen Noble has just completed a major UK theatre tour as Dusty Springfield.

The tour commenced 29th January at Civic Theatre, Darlington - which was almost sold out in advance!

Please visit www.karennoble.com for details of future appearances.

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Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone gave the Dusty album Heart And Soul three stars in a recent review, with the following comments:

“Since the sixties, when Dusty Springfield was London's sturdiest girl hitmaker, her distressed mezzo-soprano has magnetized listeners. As shown by this anthology of Seventies and Eighties duets, soundtrack songs and live recordings, she could go uptown and still retain her white-hot rock-soul fire; for instance, when Burt Bacharach produced Springfield on The Look of Love, the result was her greatest track. That's why this often showbiz-y collection works: Springfield turns (But It's a) Nice Dream into pure regret, sings the splendid hell out of Private Number with Spencer Davis and, onstage, grabs -- authoritatively -- the Drifters' Up on the Roof. Her voice was like a Ferrari engine, great at 135 mph but sublime at 70 because of the sensed possibilities of wilder speeds.”

James Hunter
RS #911 – December 12, 2002

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Radio interview with Vicki Wickham

On Boxing Day 2002, Philadelphia public radio station WHYY-FM repeated an interview with Dancing with Demons author Vicki Wickham, which it originally broadcast in January 2002. The interview, by host Terry Gross, was featured in his popular Fresh Air show, and can be heard from the Fresh Air web site in Real Audio (.ram) format.

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Radio 2 gets listomania

UK's favourite Number 1 singles

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the UK Charts last November, The Official UK Charts Company compiled the first ever officially endorsed list of favourite Number 1 singles, as voted for by the public.

The chart of The Greatest Number One Singles sees The Beatles charting five times and Elvis Presley four, with Kate Bush the highest-ranking British female vocalist at number 11.

Dusty and You Don't Have To Say You Love Me didn't achieve a top 50 position, although it is understood that she is at number 61.

BBC News reported that very few Number Ones from the last eighteen years made the top 50, with only four hits from the past decade included in the top 100.

The full Top 50 can be found here. You can read more on the Radio 2 events page, and at The Official UK Chart Company web site.

The Top 100 Voices of the Century

The definitive list, as voted for by Radio 2 listeners, places Dusty at number 17 as the fifth most popular female vocalist. Visit the official Radio 2 page, which also contains details of the album, or view the full list by clicking here.

Thanks to Janet (jpw25) for the pointer to this item.

Top 50 British Songs

BBC Radio Two revealed the top fifty songs of the past fifty years as voted by the listening public to mark The Queen’s Golden Jubilee. People had been voting via the net and and other various means for quite some time and the results were broadcast in a special programme on 1st June 2002, presented by Simon Mayo.

Dusty featured in the chart at number 9 with You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, achieving the distinction of being the only female vocalist to feature in the Top 10. The full Top 50 can be found by clicking here.

More details below or click here for the full list.

“Dusty” in London

Stars In Their Eyes winner Emma Wilkinson performed as Dusty Springfield at London club night Rock'n'Roll Soul's Christmas party.

For information about future Rock'n'Roll Soul dates see www.rockandrollsoul.com

Thanks to Daniel Pennington for this item.

Click here to see larger poster

Brighton's celebrity Walk Of Fame

The city of Brighton is to follow in the footsteps of Hollywood by creating a Walk Of Fame. Jamie Theakston, Chris Eubank, Nick Berry and Steve Coogan are due to attend the official opening on the 9/10th November, 2002.

Plaques placed along the pavement of Brighton Marina's new £25m Waterfront building, complete with a Walk Of Fame Café, pay tribute to the many celebrities who have a connection with the city.

Among the names honoured are: Dusty Springfield, Abba, Zoe Ball, Norman Cook, The Who, Sir Winston Churchill, Norman Wisdom, Imran Khan and Annie Nightingale.

Click here for the full story from Ananova. The full list of names to be honoured can be found here at the official site.

Lynn Jackson

It is reported that Lynn Jackson, who ran Dusty Springfield International, has died of lung cancer. The DSI worked to provide fans with information during Dusty’s quiet years and a number of events were arranged, some of which Dusty herself attended.

Dusty Springfield International folded in the early 90s and now the Dusty Springfield Bulletin works hard to keep all earnest fans up-to-date with Dusty news, along with the Dusty web sites.

Although often criticised by fans on a number of fronts, the DSI was for some time the only source of news for Dusty fans and for this Lynn will be fondly remembered.

Movie project back on track

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, the Dusty Springfield movie, is now back on track having been dropped due to management changes at VH1. Now in the hands of Tavel-Cameron Productions, the project is going ahead.

VH1’s 100 Greatest Women

Hosted by Denise Van Outen, VH1’s 100 Greatest Women includes candid thoughts and opinions from the likes of Pink, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Atomic Kitten, Wyclef Jean, Noel Gallagher, Tina Turner, Victoria Beckham, Drew Barrymore, Gwen Stefani, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Sharleen Spiteri, Yoko Ono and Anastasia.

The poll was conducted by VH1 as part of its 100 Greatest series and the full list of 100 Greatest Women can be found here!

Heart And Soul

The beginning of October saw the release in the US of Varese Saraband’s CD. Heart And Soul will contain rare tracks and TV appearances. Here are the details, courtesy of Varese Saraband and Paul Howes from Dusty Springfield Bulletin:

“For more than three decades Dusty Springfield’s voice captured the attention of audiences from all over the world. Although she recorded relatively little, she has become renowned for the quality and depth of her repertoire which grew ever richer from her first releases in 1963 through to her final recordings, 31 years later.

“This collection of Dusty’s work, appropriately titled Heart And Soul is a superlative mix of live performances, rarely heard duets and soundtrack selections. It complements existing collections and other rare recordings, and features eight previously unreleased tracks as well as seven songs new to her collections. These 15 new tracks include live performances from the sixties of three of Dusty's most famous hits – Son Of A Preacher Man, The Look Of Love, and A Brand New Me. Also included in the sleeve notes are many photos never seen before.”

Dusty in Memphis on vinyl ...

Dusty in Memphis was re-released on vinyl by the label 4 Men With Beards in the US during the summer:

“Dusty grooves in Memphis! Britain's greatest pop diva Dusty Springfield was the finest white soul singer of her era and this landmark Atlantic Records album from 1969 is a masterpiece, a perfect marriage of pop and soul... Contains her top 10 hit Son Of A Preacher Man plus several other hit singles and classic tracks... Dusty In Memphis was picked as the #9 coolest record of all time in the April 11, 2002 issue of Rolling Stone and chosen by Mojo magazine as one of the best 100 albums ever released... A recognized classic around the world!

“This reissue has new exclusive liner notes by maverick '60s music historian Alec Palao and guitarist/songwriter Chuck Prophet... audiophile remastering from the original master tapes... 180 gram HQ vinyl... original artwork... gatefold sleeve...”

... and on CD

Dusty’s classic album, Dusty In Memphis, has been re-issued, once again!

This most recent version of Memphis has eight bonus tracks and the full track listing for the album can be seen by clicking here

The bonus tracks are mono versions of Son Of A Preacher Man, Just A Little Lovin’, Don’t Forget About Me, Breakfast In Bed, I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore, The Windmills Of Your Mind, In The Land Of Make Believe and So Much Love. This is a UK release and has the UK Memphis album cover.

The Look of Love 12 inch single

From Classic Records comes a 12 inch single of The Look of Love. It is the version from the movie soundtrack of Casino Royale, recorded with Burt Bacharach, and not the more familiar one. Here is what their website says about the single, released August 2002:

“Dusty 45/33 - From Casino Royale, everyone's favorite track on this highly collectible album, The Look of Love is sung by the silky and sultry voice of Dusty Springfield at her peak. This is a comparison disc cut at 33 1/3 rpm on one side and at 45 rpm on the other. The amount of information and level on both sides is the same with the only difference being the speed at which the lathe was travelling during cutting. The difference is that a cartridge can better track the 45 rpm side compared with the 33 rpm side and the difference is worth changing the speed on your turntable - at 33 Dusty sounds alive, at 45 she is in the room with you!”

Michelle Collins To Play Dusty?

Ex-EastEnder, Michelle Collins, revealed her desire to play Dusty Springfield whilst being interviewed on the BBC chat show Parkinson.

Talking to Michael Parkinson on May 4, 2002, Michelle said that the movie was in development and that it was something she really wanted to do. She went on to say what a wonderful woman Dusty was and that she had led a very “interesting life”.

She also revealed the reaction of a Dusty fan, to whom she was talking about wanting to play the role of the star. The fan replied “Michelle... Please don't sing!” Michelle, who used to work with Mari Wilson as a backing singer in the eighties, found this humorous, admitting that she “couldn't really sing”.

Talking of her time as a Wilsation she said:

“"Yes, I started out a singer. A long, long time ago I was in a pop group called Mari Wilson and the Wilsations. We never had any money, went everywhere in a Transit van and stayed in awful boarding houses, but as long as it's fun and you're doing it in the right way, then it's alright.”

Michelle Collins and Pat Rhodes

While talking to Parkinson,  Michelle revealed that she had recently met Pat Rhodes, who was Dusty's secretary for the majority of her career. Michelle said Pat had told her that she would be a “good choice” and that Pat and her friends wanted her to play the part.

Michelle Collins has successfully made the transition from soap star to actress.

Since leaving EastEnders she has starred in Real Women, Perfect, The Sleeper, Sunburn and 2000 Acres Of Sky. The latter is due to return for a third series later this year.

Michelle first spoke of her interest in playing Dusty when being interviewed by Woman’s Journal in January 2002. An excerpt from the article reads:

“Possibly Collins’s most exciting role will be as the late, great Dusty Springfield in a new drama currently being written by Martyn Hesford. ‘Martyn used to be an actor, and I've known him for years,’ Collins explains. ‘He even remembers me wearing a beehive when I was with Mari Wilson'.”

We wish Michelle the very best in this exciting venture!

Martha Reeves Dusty Tribute

Martha Reeves is currently touring the UK in a Motown Review entitled Dancing In The Streets. Accompanying her are the wonderful Edwin Starr and Freda Payne. I had the pleasure of seeing the performance in Bristol on Sunday 31 March, 2002.

Martha was in fine voice, and the audience responded with enthusiastic cheers, applause and dancing in the aisles! The cheering after her performance of Jimmy Mack was such that the audience would not let her go. This led Martha to say “I want to sing that again” and to the band she said “Let's take it from the coda”!

Not long into the first act Martha said “Recently I have lost a loved one, Dusty Springfield, who has gone on to Glory“. She then sang A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday). This track was the 'B' side to Heatwave for Martha Reeves And The Vandellas in 1963, and was covered by Dusty as a single in 1978. It made for a very fitting and emotional tribute with Martha delivering a fine performance.

For a full account of the show, please join the Mailing List where you will find an e-mail archived in the Messages section.

Rolling Stone magazine Top 50 albums

Rolling Stone magazine has produced a chart of 50 albums that it says no serious music fan should be without. Covering albums from both the United States and the United Kingdom, the chart places Dusty Springfield at number 9 with Dusty in Memphis.

The Top Twenty albums listed in this poll are as follows:

1. The Velvet Underground - The White Light/White Heat
2. The Rolling Stones - Aftermath
3. James Brown - Live At The Apollo
4. Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty Eight
5. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
6. Blondie - Parallel Lines
7. Aretha Franklin - Spirit In The Dark
8. Massive Attack - Protection
9. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
10. The Beatles - Revolver
11. Sly And The Family Stone - Fresh
12. Pavement - Wowee Zowee!
13. Steely Dan - Countdown To Ecstasy
14. Prince - 1999
15. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
16. Bjork - Vespertime
17. Various - Heavyweight Sound, A Blood And Fire Sampler
18. Otis Redding - The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul
19. Eric B and Rakim - Paid In Full
20. Chic - Real People

Life magazine:
100 Greatest Rock & Rollers

Dusty has been listed within the 100 Greatest Rock and Roll artists by Life magazine, where she charts at number 72.

Dusty has appeared in many such polls, and it's great that as well featuring in Pop, Soul and even Easy Listening polls that she has been recognised in a list of top Rock and Roll artists. Dusty is the only UK female artist to figure in this American poll, so, once again, Dusty is leading the way!

Dusty Springfield Sweet Pea

The Dusty Springfield Sweet Pea, created by Unwins Seeds, is now available in most Garden Centres in the UK.

A proportion of the cost of each packet sold goes towards breast cancer research at The Royal Marsden Hospital.