Ahead of her first Australian tour Lulu discusses her affair with David Bowie and career rebirth

ICONIC singer Lulu has opened up about her affair with David Bowie during his heavy cocaine years shortly after her marriage to Bee Gee Maurice Gibb ended.

Scottish singer Lulu was married to late Bee Gee Maurice Gibb

LULU has just come off stage on her UK tour and is juggling some Australian press with some light reading to wind down.

The evergreen singer’s book of choice? War and Peace.

“I dip in and out of it,” Lulu admits. “Reading War and Peace isn’t very rock and roll is it?”

Now 67, the Scottish-born singer has outlived many of the rock stars that feature in her incredible history, from John Lennon to Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie.

At 67 Lulu played Glastonbury last year and is in this year’s Ab Fab movie.

Indeed in 1974 Bowie approached Lulu telling her he loved her voice and wanted to make “a f--king hit” with her. She covered his classic The Man Who Sold the World, with Bowie telling her to smoke heavily in the studio to get the tone he wanted for her voice. He also provided backing vocals for the remake.

“It was something no one expected to happen, least of all me,” Lulu says of the collaboration. “He was at the height of his Ziggy Stardust fame, I didn’t think he’d follow through on the idea but he did.”

The song (which Nirvana also recorded on their Unplugged album) remains a constant in her career-overview live show, but has taken on a different tone since his death.

“I have to do that song,” she says. “The audience have a different feeling when I sing it now, as you’d expect. When David died it was extremely sad.”

Bowie and Lulu recorded several songs together, one duet, Dodo, is unreleased but available on YouTube.

“There’s a few I haven’t heard in years. He wrote Can You Hear Me (from Young Americans) for me. I remember putting a vocal on it but I never heard it again. There was another song too, but I can’t remember the name. He was going through an interesting period, it, er, wasn’t my thing so I left quite quickly.”

Lulu is politely referring to Bowie’s heavy cocaine years — he’d also adopted an open policy with wife Angie and had a brief affair with Lulu, something she now talks down. “I don’t think you could call what we had dating, we had a little intimacy. I don’t think David Bowie dated people did he? He maybe just called up on them or invited them in!”

Lulu and David Bowie made beautiful music together in 1974. Picture: Australscope

The Bowie dalliance came a year after her split from Bee Gee Maurice Gibb after four years together; the marriage soured by his heavy drinking. They remained friends until his death.

“I was married to a Bee Gee, I was around when a lot of those big hits were made. I’d sit there while they made them in the studio. Wow. I got lessons in songwriting. There’s nobody better, nobody.”

Her music career began in the UK when Shout was a hit in 1964 (Johnny O’Keefe’s version was a hit in Australia) and she scored a global hit with To Sir With Love in 1967. Her song Boom Bang-a-Bang won Eurovision in 1969, although she’s since disowned the record as cheesy.

Lulu moved into TV and acting in the UK, while still recording — scoring a surprise hit in the 90s with boy band Take That on Relight My Fire.

There’s also been a recurring role — playing herself — in Absolutely Fabulous. She’s one of many celebrities who has a role in the new Ab Fab movie

“It was as much fun as you would think it was,” Lulu says of the movie shooting. “I’ll be walking in New York and someone will shout (her Ab Fab catchphrase) ‘Champagne for Lulu!’, usually one of my gay fans.”

Maurice Gibb and Lulu in 1971. Their marriage wouldn’t last but the Bee Gees’ songs did.

Last year she released Making Life Rhyme, the first album in her career where she co-wrote all the songs (her writing credits also include Tina Turner’s I Don’t Wanna Fight). That album’s strong reviews led to a slot on the iconic Glastonbury Festival.

“To play Glastonbury at my age, who would have believed that?,” Lulu asks.

“It’s a very good time for me right now. I think there’s many reasons for it. I know what I’m doing. I have so much gratitude for the fact I can still cut it and people still want to come and see me. And this is what I love to do.

“My whole life I’ve wanted to connect and I can do it through music. I’ve always said I’ve got angels on my shoulders. No matter what happens I always manage to get back on my feet. And my feet are firmly planted right on the ground.”

Lulu listens to more new music than old, hailing everyone from James Blake to Justin Bieber (”after his last album I’m now a Belieber!”) to Rihanna, but says she is disappointed in some of the younger female artists.

Lulu pictured in the ‘80s.

“I feel sad as a woman if they dress like pole dancers, but who am I to comment on what they want to do?

“The music business is for young people, mainly. I understand and accept that but I’m not sitting and taking it. It’s never been easy for women. Never. But the great actresses have the same problem. It doesn’t mean to say you give up. It makes you more determined if anything.”

While she’s visited Australia twice, Lulu has never performed a concert here. In June she’ll break a long drought with a joint tour with Leo Sayer, her friend from the UK who is now an Australian resident.

“He’s got an unbelievable voice, we can both still do it,” Lulu says of Sayer.

“There’s a few of his songs I want to sing, I want him on some of my stuff. It’s been a long wait to tour Australia but maybe I’ve finally got it right now. Maybe I’m finally ready. Australia is going to get me when I’m just at my best.”

Lulu and Leo Sayer, State Theatre Sydney June 23, Hamer Hall Melbourne June 24, Festival Theatre Adelaide June 29, QPAC Concert Hall Brisbane June 30, Concert Hall Perth July 3.

Originally published as Ahead of her first Australian tour Lulu discusses her affair with David Bowie and career rebirth