You never learn how she manages to stay so young looking
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Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, better known as Lulu, was born in Glasgow on 3rd November 1948.
Lulu’s father, Eddie Lawrie, worked as an offal dresser, at the Glasgow meat market and tried his best to provide for his family. Lulu has vivid memories of him always clothed in bloodstained clothes and of there always being a fire warming the house after he had left for work.
She spent her childhood in the tenement slums of Glasgow, caught up between her constantly warring parents. Her mother idolised Lulu, to the detriment of her younger brother Billy. Lulu had to learn at a young age to fight for survival amongst her peers, this was the only way the people where she lived knew how to deal with grievances.
Most of her mother’s violent rages stemmed from the fact that she had been adopted as a baby, but the matter was never discussed fully in the household.
Although Lulu’s father had a drinking problem, he provided for the family, but still her mother spent a great deal of her time in the pawn shop, as she was useless with money. Lulu remembers her father often coming home drunk, which then started arguments, that left Billy and Lulu cowering in their bedrooms until they stopped. Her mother would invariably have bruises and black eyes the following morning, but always took advantage of her husband’s stupors to steal money from his trousers.
In September 1958 Lulu’s sister Edwina was born, and Lulu then virtually ran the house on her own. Her mother preferred to stay in bed with the baby, apart from keeping her hairdressing appointment on a Saturday.
Lulu’s first taste of her future singing career started at the age of four when she was entered for various talent contests whilst on holidays. At the tender age of 8, she was taken by a friend to a recording booth, to lay down her first record. A few months later, whilst only 9, Lulu joined a local accordion band and played with them in a variety of Sunday concerts.
When Lulu was 12, the manager of The Bellrocks approached her mother, and asked if she would be interested in joining the band, which consisted of four lads in their late teens and Lulu as the singer. Lulu loved it, and they spent their time doing gigs on Saturdays nights. She developed a passion for rhythm and blues music at this time, and the money earned from playing in the band enabled to get her hair done and buy some fashionable clothes.
At this time Lulu lost all interest in school, and after an incident in which she died her hair bright red, and was humiliated by the head teacher in front of the whole school, she left to attend another school.
She left The Bellrocks to join a band called The Gleneagles, when she met her first boyfriend, who was a member of the band. In 1962 they saw a concert performed by Alex Harvey at which he sang the song “Shout” that was later to become Lulu’s trademark. The band began to get a name for themselves and were invited to appear on television on a programme similar to Jukebox Jury. Richard Stern and Alex Houston became managers of the band, and their first taste of publicity came when a London club owner approached the media in a bid to uncover Scottish talent.
Lulu’s mother was by this time pregnant again, and Lulu set off for an audition in London with Colombia Records. Although they felt she was not for them, they advised her to approach EMI/Decca. This she did, but the company only wanted to sign her and not the rest of the band. Lulu dug her heels in, Tony Gordon negotiated her contract and in 1963 Lulu and the Luvvers were born and “Shout” was recorded.
In April 1964, a launch party was held for the first single “Shout” and it was at this that the infamous photo of Lulu was taken with her cupping her hands in front of her face. She says this picture has haunted her for the rest of her life! On 15th April “Shout” was released and she was invited to appear on “Ready Steady Go”. Shortly after this, her brother Gordon was born.
Lulu was taken under the wing of Tony Gordon’s sister Marian, who became her manager, and found her a place to stay, with her own mother and father in London. It was the Sixties, drugs were available in abundance and so was sex, but Lulu was not at all sexually aware and she was vehemently anti-drugs. She met many famous people at this time, including The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and became firm friends with John Lennon’s then-wife, Cynthia.
Her next two singles flopped but the next “Leave a little love” fared slightly better and charted at No. 8. However, she then split with The Luvvers, as they were not happy with session musicians being used on some of the songs.
She was invited to do an advert for Lux soap, which was her first taste of television and enabled her to buy herself a town house in London and her mum and dad an apartment in Glasgow.
She was offered a part in “To Sir with Love” starring Sidney Poitier and although Lulu hated herself in the film, it had massive success in America, not faring so well in England. The title song of the film was released in both America and England.
Lulu then had her first shot at comedy. She appeared in the series “Two of a Kind” but admits readily that comedy was not her thing.
She met Scott Walker of The Walker Brothers and developed a crush on him, but the feelings were not reciprocated.
In 1967 she met Maurice Gibb and although she liked him, she did not want a serious relationship. She had also met Davy Jones of The Monkees at the same time and was torn between the two men. However, the relationship with Davy ended when she found out that he had a pregnant girlfriend at home.
Lulu was still popular in the UK, despite not securing many top ten hits, and she was then given her own TV series. At this point, her relationship with Maurice Gibb resumed, and they married in February 1969. Lulu entered the Eurovision Song Contest that same year, singing the infamous Boom-Bang-a-Bang.
Despite living the pop star life, surrounded by celebrities, and many becoming her close friends, Lulu confessed in the book that she only ever smoked dope twice in her life.
Lulu concentrated on a career in cabaret and TV series and in 1972 she was nabbed by This is Your Life, an experience which she hated.
Maurice had always had a drink problem, for as long as Lulu had known him, and this, together with his inability to communicate with her, lead to the breakdown of their marriage in 1973.
Lulu went on to have a fling with David Bowie, while he was in his Ziggy Stardust phase, during which time she recorded “The Man who sold the world”. She was then asked to sing the theme tune for “The Man with the Golden Gun”.
She started seeing her hairdresser John Frieda the following year, and in 1976 they married. Unbeknown to Lulu she was pregnant with their son Jordan. After his birth, she took a short break from working, but resumed three months later, with pantomimes and TV work.
One of the refreshing things about this book was a story revolving around her son never knowing she was famous until he was eleven years old, as she had never told him.
Lulu has tried her hand at a multitude of things over the years, music, films, TV, cabaret to name but a few, but her first love has always been singing. She has a keen interest in yoga and meditation, and she says this has helped her to discover her true self.
Although Lulu has two failed marriages behind her and a miscarriage; John left her in 1990, something which she has never come to terms with, she has remained positive and eager to reinvent herself, such as the time she performed on Relight My Fire with Take That, and ended up going on tour with the boys.
She recorded a spoof Spice Girls single for Comic Relief in 1997 with French and Saunders and never seems to mind laughing at herself.
The title of the book is taken from the song Lulu wrote for Tina Turner, which was originally used for the film about Tina's life.
I enjoyed the book immensely, I liked the light hearted style in which it was written. There are no airs and graces about Lulu, she comes across as being very down to earth and a nice person. Her love of her family is evident throughout the whole book, and it’s refreshing to read an autobiography that doesn’t go into the lurid details of the person’s sex life. You’re left in no doubt about what happens but there isn’t the constant references.
A good book and an enjoyable read, if only to look at the pictures and wonder just how she manages to stay so young looking.
I borrowed the book from the library but it can be bought from Amazon for £12.59.
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