Barbara Dickson

Born in Dunfermline, in Fife, Scotland, Barbara Dickson first made her mark on the British folk circuit of the 1960s after beginning in local clubs. Her clear voice, roots in folk and traditional song, and subsequent move into orchestrated pop and musical theatre have defined a distinctive career across stage, record and theatre. After her first solo album, Do Right Woman (1970), she recorded with Archie Fisher and broadened her audience in the mid-1970s with Answer Me (1976) and Another Suitcase in Another Hall, written for Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Her meeting with Willy Russell was also significant, first on John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert and later in Blood Brothers, where she originated the role of Mrs Johnstone on stage. Alongside that, Barbara Dickson sustained a musical career drawing on folk, pop ballads and narrative repertoires, with albums such as Full Circle (2004), Time and Tide (2008), Words Unspoken (2011), Through Line (2018) and Time Is Going Faster (2020). She also collaborated with Gerry Rafferty and recorded the duet I Know Him So Well with Elaine Paige, while maintaining regular work in theatre and television.