As a follow up from the “Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber” this series of newspaper articles from the Bristol Evening Post also from 1993. A particular busy year for dame Shirley Bassey. Also because she celebrated her 40th. year in showbusiness. There were three days of newspaper articles about Shirley (June 24, 25 and 26) and a special newspaper that is all about Dame Shirley.
I hope you enjoy this one and the next ones from Rien’s collection. Plus a video from the same year: An interview with Alan Titchmarsh for BBC-tv. Here is part 1 from June 24th.
There is an exhibition of photos taken at Glastonbury at the National Portrait Gallery in London at the moment. The exhibition has been put on by Venetia Dearden and one of the photos exhibited is of Dame Shirley. Susan (Superfan bigspendah) has been and sent us the following report.
A trip to the National Portrait Gallery, Saturday 1st May 2010
My friends John & Carole and I took a ride on the London Eye in brilliant sunshine. We enjoyed the views over London, especially that of the Royal Festival Hall as we reminisced over many a fabulous Bassey concert there.
After that we walked up through Whitehall and Trafalgar Square with the sun beating down to reach the National Portrait Gallery and be met with an advertisement for Venetia Dearden’s Glastonbury exhibition. There ‘stood’ Dame Shirley, resplendent in her pink Julien MacDonald gown and DSB wellies! We took some photos there, attracting a few passers-by who wondered what the attraction was.
We entered the building and first of all went to Room 39 to look at the photo of DSB by Mary McCartney, taken in 2009. http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ss&LinkID=mp19375&page=1&rNo=7&role=sit
Afterwards we made our way down two floors to the Bookshop Gallery. As we stood on the stairs of the gallery itself the first thing we could see was a poster of Dame Shirley on a pillar advertising the exhibition.
To tell the truth we did not really look at any of the other photographs on display. There was only one exhibit we had come to see! We found it and stood there for a while, then went into the bookshop to ask if there were any postcards available to buy. “Yes”, replied the assistant. “There is only one postcard available to purchase from the exhibition. It’s the one of Dame Shirley Bassey”
How fortunate! Between us we must have bought about 20 copies.
But guess what? After we left the gallery – in a reversal of Dame Shirley’s Glastonbury 2007 appearance – our brilliant sunshine turned to rain. Such a pity I had left my diamante-encrusted wellies at home! http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/glastonbury-photographs-by-venetia-dearden.php
Glastonbury Exhibition PosterExhibition Poster at the National Portrait GalleryApproaching poster of DSBExhibition PosterDSB photo in the exhibition.Information label under DSB photo.
Many thanks to Susan for the report and the photos.
Dame Shirley was at a reception at Buckingham Palace last Thursday 29 th April. It was to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. It was attended by HRH Prince Charles. Dame Elizabeth Taylor was also there as a bust of the late actor Richard Burton was donated to the college and it’s new theatre is to be named after him.
Andrew (a great fan) sent me the following link which shows a clip of the event. DSB can be seen near the beginning and again towards the end.
Dame Shirley Bassey Blog 
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