Barbara Dickson

A Scottish singer who went on to major pop hits with the likes of Another Suitcase Another Hall and I Know Him So Well, plus a TV acting career, Barbara Dickson started her career singing traditional songs in folk clubs. Working regularly with the well-established folk singer Archie Fisher, Dickson made her first album in 1968, but her career took a new direction after her friend Willy Russell wrote the stage musical John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Bert and asked her to perform Beatles songs as a backdrop to the narrative. The show was a major success, going on to achieve a long run in London's West End, leading to her successful album Answer Me, with the title track becoming a hit single in 1976. Andrew Lloyd Webber subsequently asked Dickson to record the hit song Another Suitcase Another Hall from his musical Evita and this was followed by further hits Caravan Of Love and January February. She also worked with Ringo Starr on his children's album Scouse The Mouse and sang back-up vocals with Gerry Rafferty before teaming up with Willy Russell again to act in his musical Blood Brothers. A duet with Elaine Paige, I Know Him So Well from the musical Chess, became the biggest-selling single ever by a female duo, and Dickson also starred in the musical Spend Spend Spend. Various TV acting roles followed, including Band Of Gold, Taggart and The Missing Postman, but she continued to sing, returning to her folk roots for the Full Circle and Words Unspoken albums in 2004 and 2011.