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Musician

Dana Gillespie

Dana Gillespie

born on 30/3/1949 in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom

Dana Gillespie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dana Gillespie (born Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie,[2] 30 March 1949)[1] is an English actress, singer and songwriter.[3] Originally performing and recording in her teens, over the years Gillespie has been involved in the recording of over 45 albums,[3] and appeared in stage productions, such as Jesus Christ Superstar, and several films. Her musical output has progressed from teen pop and folk in the early part of her career, to rock in the 1970s and, more latterly, the blues.[1]

Career

Gillespie was born in Woking, Surrey, the second daughter of Anne Francis Roden (née Buxton) Winterstein Gillespie (1920–2007) and Hans Henry Winterstein Gillespie (1910–1994), a London-based radiologist of Austrian nobility. Her older sister, Nicola Henrietta St. John Gillespie, was born in 1946. She was the British Junior Water Skiing Champion for four years, in 1962.[4]

She recorded initially in the folk genre in the mid-1960s. Some of her recordings as a teenager fell into the teen pop category, such as her 1965 single "Thank You Boy", written by John Carter and Ken Lewis and produced by Jimmy Page.[5] Her acting career got under way shortly afterwards, and it overshadowed her musical career in the late 1960s and 1970s. After performing backing vocals on the track "It Ain't Easy" from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,[6] she recorded an album produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson in 1973, Weren't Born a Man.[1] Subsequent recordings have been in the blues genre, appearing with the London Blues Band. She is also notable for being the original Mary Magdalene in the first London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar,[1] which opened at the Palace Theatre in 1972. She also appeared on the Original London Cast album. During the 1980s Gillespie was a member of the Austrian Mojo Blues Band.

She is a follower of the Indian spiritual guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba.[7] She performed at his Indian ashram on various occasions, and has also recorded thirteen bhajan-based albums in Sanskrit.[8]

Gillespie is the organiser of the annual Blues festival at Basil's Bar on Mustique in the Caribbean, for fifteen days at the end of January and it is now in its eighteenth year.[1] The house band is the London Blues Band, which consists of Dino Baptiste (piano), Jake Zaitz (guitar), Mike Paice (saxophone), Jeff Walker (bass), and Evan Jenkins (drums) but there are also many other acts. In 2005, Mick Jagger appeared as a guest and sang songs such as: "Honky Tonk Women", "Dust My Broom" and "Goin' Down" but also many other Blues artists have appeared there through the years, such as Big Joe Louis, Joe Louis Walker, Billy Branch, Shemekia Copeland, Ronnie Wood, Donald Fagen, Rolf Harris, Ian Siegal, Larry Garner, Eugene Bridges, Big Jay McNeeley, Earl Green, and Zach Prather.

Selected discography

Filmography

  • Fumo di Londra (1966)
  • Secrets of a Windmill Girl (1966) - Singer
  • The Vengeance of She (1968) - Girl at Party (uncredited)
  • The Lost Continent (1968) - Sarah
  • Mahler (1974) - Anna von Mildenburg
  • The People That Time Forgot (1977) - Ajor
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) - Mary Frankland
  • Bad Timing (1980) - Amy Miller
  • Scrubbers (1982) - Budd
  • Parker (1985) - Monika
  • Sterben werd ich um zu leben - Gustav Mahler (1987) - Anna von Mildenburg
  • Strapless (1989) - Julie Kovago
  • Sunday Pursuit (1990)[1] - Maureen (final film role)
  • Hotel India (2014)- Herself

See also

  • List of British actors and actresses

Bibliography

  • Bowie, Angela, Backstage Passes, Jove Books, Berkeley Publishing Group (1993)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Dillon, Charlotte (30 March 1949). "Dana Gillespie – Music Biography, Credits and Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 
  2. ^ "Dana Gillespie Biography (1949–)". Filmreference.com. 30 March 1949. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 
  3. ^ a b Jurek, Thom (13 May 2003). "Staying Power – Dana Gillespie : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 
  4. ^ Internet Movie Database-Dana Gillespie biography Retrieved 11 September 2014
  5. ^ "Dana Gillespie – Thank You Boy (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 
  6. ^ "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – David Bowie : Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 
  7. ^ "H2H Special: Conversation with Dana Gillespie, British singer, actress and song writer (part 2)- Dec 2011". Media.radiosai.org. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 
  8. ^ "The diva of blues". The Hindu. 11 December 2002. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 
  9. ^ "Dana Gillespie Discography at Discogs". Discogs.com. 30 March 1949. Retrieved 2013-03-01. 

External links

This page was last modified 12.09.2018 14:07:15

This article uses material from the article Dana Gillespie from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.