Clodagh Rodgers

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Disc.

Clodagh Rodgers0:05

The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

Toddy, you're from Northern Ireland, aren't you? Whereabouts exactly?

Clodagh Rodgers0:10

Um, a place called Warren Point. On the seaside.

Presenter0:13

On the seaside.

Clodagh Rodgers0:13

That's right the seaside. A very nice place. Left there when I was about

Clodagh Rodgers0:18

twelve.

Presenter0:18

Yes. Do you come from a musical family?

Clodagh Rodgers0:21

Um, no, not a musical family. We haven't had any singers. My father and mother went my mother sang in the choir, I think it's good.

Presenter0:27

Yeah.

Clodagh Rodgers0:28

Well that that was her limit. But my father was in show business, he was her promoter.

Presenter0:32

Of concert?

Clodagh Rodgers0:32

A lot of concerts in that period when we lived in Ireland used to take over artists like Adam Faith and Alan Goban to tour around the Ballham Circuit.

Presenter0:38

Dear

Clodagh Rodgers0:39

And that's how I became interested in singing.

Presenter0:39

Uh

Presenter0:41

They do take music lessons.

Clodagh Rodgers0:43

No, my one big regret. I I went to the piano, but thought I knew it all, you know, and left.

Clodagh Rodgers0:48

when I was at school and now I regret that. I'm going to actually take lessons again.

Presenter0:48

When I was at school and now I

Presenter0:53

When did you start to sing?

Clodagh Rodgers0:55

Um when I was twelve and I was still at school I used to sing um on weekends on my father's shows.

Presenter1:00

Oh my third.

Presenter1:01

You won't be the very first public appearance.

Clodagh Rodgers1:02

Do you rem

Clodagh Rodgers1:04

Yes, it was in a town called Balamena and it was with the late Michael Holliday.

Presenter1:09

Pad.

Clodagh Rodgers1:09

And I sang Lipstick on Your Carla, which was a big hit for Connie Francis.

Presenter1:15

Did that first appearance give you the idea that you wanted to be a professional singer?

Clodagh Rodgers1:19

Oh, yes, I thought I was I thought I was terrific standing up there in my knee socks, you know, and the crowd cheering for me. I thought Michael Hardy was going to have a tough time following me.

Presenter1:25

Not

Presenter1:28

And you continue to work as a youngster, as an editor.

Clodagh Rodgers1:31

Yeah.

Presenter1:32

What was that doing to your school work?

Clodagh Rodgers1:34

Well, nothing much actually because I was never a brilliant scholar. I didn't sort of shine in any subject.

Presenter1:39

Here.

Clodagh Rodgers1:40

And um I was just looking forward to leaving school and and turning a professional singer.

Presenter1:44

So it's really a question of what was your schoolwork doing to your professional career?

Clodagh Rodgers1:48

Exactly, yeah.

Presenter1:50

So when you left school, what happened?

Clodagh Rodgers1:51

I left school at fifteen and um my father had m Mike Preston.

Clodagh Rodgers1:57

um, in on tour at that time and he said when he went back to London he'd try and get me audition with the record company, which he did. And I my father and I came over here, I auditioned and the company signed me up.

Clodagh Rodgers2:09

And that sort of give the family

Clodagh Rodgers2:11

Great courage and they all packed the bags and came over to England. This is nine years ago.

Presenter2:15

This is not

Presenter2:16

How many of them?

Clodagh Rodgers2:18

Um, well when I left home this morning there were

Clodagh Rodgers2:22

There was a mother and father, two brothers, a sister and two dogs.

Presenter2:25

And they'd all come over to give you your chance, so you just had to make it.

Clodagh Rodgers2:29

Oh, I had to, yes. Everything rested on me making it.

Presenter2:33

So here you were in England, aged 15, a contract with a record company. Apart from that, did work come fairly easily?

Clodagh Rodgers2:40

Um well, I thought about the age of fifteen it was very hard to get work. I was completely n unknown and a real amateur, you know, I didn't know what to do with myself. But my father had shows in Germany during all the American forces and um I used to go out on tho those shows, you know, and I I did that until I was about eighteen.

Presenter2:47

We didn't know what to do with the sound.

Presenter2:58

Yes.

Clodagh Rodgers2:58

And um

Presenter2:59

You used to sing country numbers as well as pop in those days.

Clodagh Rodgers3:01

Oh yes, I wa I was a country and western singer up until I was about nineteen.

Presenter3:05

Mm-hmm.

Clodagh Rodgers3:05

Um, because that's what they like to hear on the American basis when they're far away from home. And, um, I love that kind of music, you know, I've always been a great fan of of Western stuff.

Presenter3:15

Yes.

Presenter3:16

And then you'd make a record occasionally. Had you started radio and television?

Clodagh Rodgers3:20

Um, not television, but I had done an awful lot of work for the BBC on things like Parade of the Pops and The Beach Show, which were all those live shows, lunchtime shows at that time.

Presenter3:28

Two.

Presenter3:29

And how were the rare courts doing?

Clodagh Rodgers3:31

Not very well.

Clodagh Rodgers3:33

I've made quite a few for this company, and I think they were getting a bit fed up with me. I hadn't had a hit, so they gave me the boot.

Presenter3:41

And disks of course make all the difference.

Clodagh Rodgers3:43

Oh, they make a fantastic difference.

Presenter3:45

I suppose it's the vicious circle too that if you're not making successful records you're not offered the best songs.

Clodagh Rodgers3:49

Yeah, that's the great trouble. Um my I can't blame publishers because if they've got what they think is a fantastic song, it's going to be a smash record. They don't want to take a chance on an unknown artist. They want to give it to an established name where they know it'll get the airplay, you know.

Presenter4:00

I want to get

Presenter4:02

Royal.

Presenter4:04

How many dots did you make before you had a winner?

Clodagh Rodgers4:06

I ha I made about eight or nine dogs actually.

Presenter4:10

Ben?

Clodagh Rodgers4:12

Then I made come back and shake me.

Clodagh Rodgers4:15

Yeah.

Presenter4:15

Oh yes.

Clodagh Rodgers4:15

Things completely changed overnight.

Presenter4:17

Mhm. Couple of long players since then and some more hits. If that first success made all the difference. Of course, you will now have a manager who takes a great personal interest.

Clodagh Rodgers4:26

Yes, my old man. John, my husband, he manages me. Well, I have to give the percentage of the family, don't I?

Presenter4:33

Where did you meet him?

Clodagh Rodgers4:35

I met him um about four years ago at a pop concert in Vinsbury Park and he was in an agency that had um Roy Orbeson was the top of the bill and they had him in and I thought well I'm every bit as good as the artists they've got on supporting Roy Orbes.

Clodagh Rodgers4:50

So I thought I'd chat this bloke up and get him to give me some work. But it all worked out wrong, Roy, because I married him in the end.

Presenter4:57

You chatted it up too well, I think.

Presenter5:00

Well now Clodia, you're going to represent Great Britain in the Eurovision contest. You have had some experience of some contests in the past, haven't you?

Clodagh Rodgers5:07

Uh yes, when I was um fifteen I went to Canock in Belgium and then I went

Presenter5:11

Come on down there.

Clodagh Rodgers5:12

about three years ago to um Greece, to Athens. They had their very first light song festival there.

Presenter5:15

What's that?

Presenter5:18

How did you do?

Clodagh Rodgers5:20

Well, the first time it was like a team effort in Belgium and we were beaten unfortunately by the French and in Greece there was thirty two countries and we came third, which wasn't bad at all.

Presenter5:29

Tongue.

Presenter5:30

And Neurovision, of course, is is the great special big one of the lot.

Clodagh Rodgers5:34

It is, yeah.

Presenter5:35

How many countries this year?

Clodagh Rodgers5:36

Well, there's quite a lot this year. There's eighteen. There was only twelve last year.

Presenter5:40

Hmm.

Clodagh Rodgers5:40

But um there's eighteen this year and I think w

Clodagh Rodgers5:43

Coming out of the hat now. I think we're ninth on actually halfway through.

Presenter5:47

How big is the audience going to be for that television show?

Clodagh Rodgers5:50

Well, I believe it's about three hundred million, which is um quite a thought. Actually, I don't think I'll think about it.

Presenter5:56

Do you get very nervous?

Clodagh Rodgers5:58

Um

Clodagh Rodgers5:59

Not on some of our shows we do for T V are record.

Clodagh Rodgers6:03

So um you know that if you're going to fall flat on your face that it's you're going to be all right. They'll say stop and we'll retake that. But for something like the Eurovision, which will be live and actually happening as you watch it, I think it is quite an ordeal, yes.

Presenter6:17

And your song has been chosen for you by listeners' panels all over the country.

Clodagh Rodgers6:20

Yes, unfortunately, with the post-strike. It was a bit disappointing. I I'm very disappointed that the viewers couldn't vote.

Presenter6:26

Isn't it true that songs specially written for song contests aren't in the top rank? They're they're inclined to be computerized rather than written from genuine inspiration.

Clodagh Rodgers6:35

Yes, but I I think if you sit down and analyse something like the Eurovision where there is like three hundred million l uh viewers.

Clodagh Rodgers6:43

You can't be very clever in your songs. It's got to be very simple and with a great hook line. Because I should say three quarters of those people can't understand a word I'm going to be singing about, so they've got to link themselves with something in that song. And this is why th I think all the Eurovision songs are of a similar

Clodagh Rodgers7:01

Nature

Presenter7:02

Yeah.

Presenter7:03

Now this is a pretty big event for your career. If you do well in Dublin, it's going to open things up for you internationally.

Clodagh Rodgers7:09

Oh, it's fabulous. It opens up all the doors on the continent, you know, because if you win it, um you'll have a number one hit all over Europe and it's a marvellous opportunity.

Presenter7:12

Yeah.

Presenter7:18

Yes. Is pop singing the whole scene for you, or do you want to move over into wider fields as an entertainer, an actress?

Clodagh Rodgers7:25

I've always wanted to do a musical comedy. I wouldn't do anything like that now because um it'd be like jumping into the frying pan I think. But um later on I would love to do something like that. But first of all I want to really establish myself as a singer, you know.