Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A singer and actress best known as a symbol of the 1960s counterculture of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
On the island
Eight records
I chose it because when people hear it they will know where they are. They're in the sixties. I knew Jimmy. He was a wonderful man. I really wanted to have A Ho by Jimi Hendricks, on my desert island, so I could think about him.
I was er discovered. or seen. at a party by Andrew Oldham, who was the manager of the Rolling Stones. And um it was literally I walked into the room and everybody stopped talking. And I was discovered. So it was simply a matter of finding the right song for you to sing, to record. Yeah. I recorded it, it came out, nothing happened. And I remember feeling sort of intense relief, because I had a vague idea that if this was a hit, all hell would break loose. This all went on in my summer holidays. So I was just by I was just thinking I'd got away with it and I would go back to school in September and get on with my A levels. And then in October it took off, and that was that.
H.K. Gruber and the Ensemble Moderne
I put this in because of my parents. It's a Kurt Weil song. It's Berlin im Licht.
The Night They Invented Champagne
Amanda Waring and Geoffrey Burridge
when I was twelve or thirteen, I remember going with my mother in Reading to see Gigi and it made a very deep impression on me… I thought that's exactly how life was going to be… And that's why I chose The Night They Invented Champagne, because I still believe in all that.
One of my greatest all-time favourites. I couldn't live without it.
I really wanted to give you a picture of what it was like and this really is a picture of our life and how it felt. Shell Cottage is so isolated, it's very like my desert island. I can sit there at four in the morning and play Dear Mr. Fantasy as loud as possible and I have great speakers and it's wonderful.
Small AxeFavourite
I wanted to to play for you a a something that really represented the seventies for me… I've realized that the the bit of the seventies I really hold with me and meant more to me than anything has been Jamaican music and reggae. It's a great spiritual charge, this music. And um so from that bit of my life I wanted to play Small Axe Bob Marney.
Monteverdi Choir conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
It's something again I play very loud. After midnight at the Shell Cottage. It's Orfeo, Monte Verdi… And to me, this whole story is everything. That's what I've been through.
The keepsakes
The book
Daniel Defoe
I decided I would take Robinson Crusoe. For inspiration. For inspiration, for tips, for philosophical well being. It's all in there. It's a wonderful book. I've always loved it.
The luxury
pen and paper (with a magnifying glass pen)
I want to take pen and paper to write. ... I'm going to write what it's like to be on a desert island with Bob Marley record.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:00Why do you say that phrase 'people accept me as I am'?
I don't feel I have to put on an act, I think. That might be what it is. They like me. I always like people who like me. Surprise, surprise.
Presenter asks
2:31Are you lonely?
No. I work hard and it involves a lot of talking to people and a lot of meeting people and a lot of being out. So for me coming home to Shell Cottage and to Ireland is is a wonderful relief.
Presenter asks
4:21Does it all seem crazy now when you look back? Or do you know how you fell into it all?
Well, I fell into it all because I was incredibly beautiful, I think. Did you know you were incredibly beautiful? Not really, not like that. No, it's only with long distance and sort of perspective. Now, when I look at pictures of how I look, now I can understand it. It isn't unusual. I've seen very, very pretty girls that obviously didn't know how pretty they were yet. It's something about being very young, I think. But it was also, in your case, to do with looking like you were supposed to look then. I mean, as it happened, you know, long legs, blonde hair, blue eyes, pouty lips. It was exactly how the face of the sixties was supposed to be and you had it. It was the dream. I'm glad. I mean, I di it got me into a lot of trouble. I wouldn't exchange a lot of it if I could. I really wouldn't. The only bit I would leave out if I could, of course I can't, is the drugs.
Presenter asks
5:30You're often represented as a victim. You weren't, were you?
No. People are often trying to do that, sort of to try and get me off my own hook. But I prefer, if I have to be on the hook, I'll be on it. You know, I'd rather take responsibility for it than not.
Presenter asks
16:17You believe that was a set-up, the work of MI5?
There are two actual examples of this in the sixties. One is the drug bust at Redlands, Keith Richards Country House, and the other one is the Oz trial. I would love to see the the details of this. There must be records of all these things. It all came out in America. If they were doing it in the States, they were doing it here. … I think that the authorities took much more seriously than we knew the whole youth culture and what we stood for to young people. And I think they were determined to maintain the status quo and not let this happen. And this drug bust was an attempt at that.
Presenter asks
26:04Do you think they have any sense of guilt about you?
I don't know about that. I don't know. Yes, but that doesn't mean anything. Obviously, to be the Rolling Stones, to be the greatest rock and roll band in the world, you have to be very, very tough. And I rather admire that, really. And you have to use people up and spit them out. I don't know. I first of all, I don't wish to be seen as a victim. I don't wish anybody to feel guilt about me, thank you. I will feel my own guilt.
“I tried, and I wish I'd gone. It's my one of my only regrets in my life.”
“No. People are often trying to do that, sort of to try and get me off my own hook. But I prefer, if I have to be on the hook, I'll be on it. You know, I'd rather take responsibility for it than not.”
“Gotten over it a bit. That story really took away my good name as a woman. It's my feminine self that was hurt by that.”
“I found out about the basic goodness of human beings and I really stand by that. When they've got nothing, they will give give the little bit they have to another human being. I think that's amazing.”
“I don't wish to be seen as a victim. I don't wish anybody to feel guilt about me, thank you. I will feel my own guilt.”