Silver disc

On 3rd. October 1994 Dame Shirley Bassey received a silver disc for her album: “Shirley Bassey sings the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber” during a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The silver disc was handed to her by Michael Ball and they did a duet: “When I fall in love”.

Here a report by Susan of the event and a clip from the Michael Ball show from that same year where they also did the duet with Shirley as guests star on the show. (Special thanks to Audrey for the photo)

Report by Susan:

Shirley Bassey Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, 3rd October 1994.

Shirley had just given a fabulous performance of ‘New York, New York’ on her opening night in London and was introducing her next song: “If you saw the Michael Ball Show you’ll have seen…..” when who should walk on stage to great surprise and cheers from the audience but Michael Ball himself! “This is a shock”, said Shirley.

“I’ve come as both a friend and a fan”, said Michael, “to present you with something I’m very proud to do. A silver disc for your new album”.

“That’s wonderful”, said Shirley. “Thank you Michael. Bye!” (there was much laughter when Shirley said ‘”Bye!” so abruptly).

She then said, “Whilst you’re here, do you want to do something from that show?”

Michael Ball said he’d had a little chat with Mike (Alexander) and that he had all the parts. “Will we do the song that we did on my show?”

“If I remember the words!”, said Shirley. “If I don’t, I’ll bluff them”

They duetted on a brilliant performance of ‘When I Fall In Love’ and Shirley didn’t forget the words.

Michael Ball left the stage and then a female fan shouted, “Record it, Shirley!”

“Record it? Do you think we should?”, replied Shirley. “Do you hear that, Michael?”

“Take him home as well!” shouted a fan.

“Take him home?” said Shirley. “Don’t mix business with pleasure! Or is that don’t mix pleasure with business? It’s one of the two! The song I was speaking about before I was so pleasantly interrupted was Sir Andrew’s ‘With One Look’ from Sunset Boulevard”.

She then went on to perform the song magnificently!

Here is a clip from the Michael Ball show where Shirley sings “With one look” and does the duet with Michael Ball.

Astrid’s Simply Bassey #103

For this week’s blog the first of two special requests for Steven, who wrote to me recently…

“As a younger Bassey fan of 25 years old I was introduced to this fine Diva in the latter years of her career but was always brought up with Bassey playing on my grandparents record player. It was in my mid teens when I first really started to take note at what an incredible and charismatic woman this was and had to find out more. The first real introduction to Bassey was when I sat down to watch An Audience with back in 1995/1996 and was bowled over, I remember my mum going to bed and I just kept watching the show over and over again through then night as I just couldn’t get enough. A bit later came my very first Bassey Album, The Birthday Concert and WOW what a performance she gave. It was only then that I started reliving early Shirley and dug out the records my grandparents had played when I was a child. I new then I wanted more, to read about her, see her perfrom on stage, Bassey was singing songs even I could relate to at different points in my life with pure emotion felt through each song she sang. My first concert I went to was the Millenium tour, Newcastle. We arrived at the venue and already I was getting excited, really nervous and I don’t know why, I was only going to watch the show but I had total butterflies in my stomach. The goldfinger intro started and from then on it was magical it was almost like being held in a transe for the hour and a half’s performance, mesmerising to say the least. So through the years I’ve bought more cd’s practically toured with Bassey around the UK, been to the filmings of Another Audience with, Graham Norton and the Electric proms.

He has requested two songs for the blog, the two songs that mean the most to his.

First of all, Thank You For The Years from the Parkinson TV show in 2003.

He said of this song: “Thank You for the Years – Was a dream song for me and my ex partner. It was a song that summed our relationship up, wanting to be together but at the same time thanking each other for the 7 years that we were together. The lyrics was the dream that we both hoped for, but unfortuantely sometimes you can have too much of a good thing and we parted last year. Thank you for the years will always remind me of the times we shared together good and bad.”
I hope you enjoy listening to this song today Steven. I shall play your second choice next week.

Thank You For The Years (2003 Parkinson Live) 

Dame Shirley in Istanbul.

Here are some photos taken of Dame Shirley in Istanbul.  They appeared in a Turkish article but unfortunately I am unable to read what the article was about as it was in Turkish.  I understand she loves Instanbul now she has actually visited it as a tourist as before she was only there when appearing in concert.  It also said she was returning there to buy a house.

Astrid’s Simply Bassey #102

Today is the second of two requests for Mike. Another beautiful
recording from the This Is My Life album. Who Am I was made famous by
Petula Clark but Mike prefers Shirley’s version, and so do I. I hope
you all enjoy this one today.

Who Am I