Fresh up and exclusive to cherryred.tv – The Dana Gillespie Story – interview by Iain McNay
Dana Gillespie has recorded over 50 albums during her long career, starting as a Folk artist before moving into the world of psychedelia and establishing herself as a very successful Blues artist – and she still records today for Ace Records. In our latest cherryred.tv interview, Dana tells the eventful story of her life; meeting a very young Davy Jones (who became David Bowie) at London’s Marquee club who she establishing a long friendship with; being produced by Jimmy Page, working with Donovan, John Paul Jones Official and Bob Dylan; being managed by Mainman’s Tony Defries; playing Mary in Jesus Christ Superstar; and discovering the Eastern Mystic Sai Baba which led to her changing her life. Watch Dana’s full fascinating interview here…
On 29th March, we release ‘What Memories We Make‘ – the first proper retrospective of Dana’s recordings for MainMan/RCA. Many album tracks make their debut on CD and have been joined by a raft of rarities and previously unissued material.
All five tracks from the legendary BOWPROMO album from 1971 are included: this was an album circulated by MainMan featuring rough mixes by David Bowie on one side (made prior to him signing with RCA) and Dana Gillespie on the other.
Also present is the semi-mythical, previously unheard original demo of ‘Andy Warhol’ featuring backing vocals from Bowie, and the rare Libido single (issued on Mooncrest in 1973), plus sessions from late 1974 for what would have been Dana’s third album for RCA/MainMan.
Housed in a plush Digipak with lengthy sleeve-notes by David Wells within a 24-page booklet also boasting an embarrassment of photographic riches, What Memories We Make is a long overdue tribute to a rare British singing/songwriting talent.