Cilla Black to tilt at U.S. scene

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 6

Cilla Black to tilt at U.S. scene

Cilla Black a “punk mum?” Certainly not in New Zealand where she has returned for her first tour since 1974, making five twice-nightly appearances in nine days. But in Los Angeles, where she is about to attempt a breakthrough into the United States music scene, she is “underground,” she says with a familiar giggle.

She might jokingly call herself a "punk mum.” but she actually defies definition. After 15 years at the top, she is about to concentrate on an old ambition to “make it big” in the States. Yet she proclaims herself equally happy about the unlikely prospect of her returning to Liverpool to live, and singing to herself in the bath. Cilla Black works “morning. noon, and night” at a career which she says is not glamorous. Her thoughts of the future, she says, are only of her “kids.” She arrived in Christchurch yesterday afternoon 'ired after a long flight from Singapore and a connecting flight from Auckland but looking fresh, young and vital. She hubbies with enthusiasm. Next year, she will attempt her big breakthrough in the United States, recording in Los Angeles and. if in demand, following up her records with appearances.

“It has alwavs been my ambition to make it big in America.” she said. “I have had a minor hit over there, but it’s always been rather frustrating because I have only been on three-week tours and you need longer. I have appeared on shows like the Johnnv Carson show and they say, “Cilla, you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread.’ You go back six months later and they sav ‘C'Ha? Cilla who’?”

Miss Black’s agent will travel to Los Angeles after the five-week Australasian

tour to “start the ball rolling,” but things are “very much up in the air at this stage.” Although she plans to live in the United States for about 18 months. Miss Black denies any suggestion that she might join the permanent exodus of British talent across the Atlantic. “Oh no. I’m too European for that,” she said. Understandably confident about her chances of becoming well-known in the United States, she says her name is “respected” in show business circles. Asked her opinion of Helen Reddy’s recent success in the United States with a cover version of her own hit, “You’re My World.” Miss Black said she considered it a "ereat compliment to me.” “If I went to America sineing a song that is already a hit over there it would make it easier for me. Anyway, it’s 14 years old. which proves what a great song it rea’ly was.” It was almost impossible to buv Cilia Black records in the States, particularly in Lo« Angeles, she said.

“In L.A. I'm underground— I’m a nunk mum,” she said. In her view, the music world has “never been better.” “All avenues of music are being accepted,” Miss Black said. “I certainly don’t say that punk rock is the best thing since the Beatles but some of the records, which sell very well back home, are great pop songs. The young kids have to have something they can identify with. I remember what I was like at their age. I used to wait outside stage doors to see Cliff Richard. “I was 14 and he was 18, and when he apneared on my show for the first time he begged me not to say anything about waiting round to see him then, because it made | him seem so old.” i How do Miss Black’s own 'children — Robert, aged

seven, and Ben, aged three —; feel about having such ai famous mother? “It has always been like this for them. Robert watches! the other channel if I am on! television. I am just his mother. He does not really get involved — it is much more exciting if I do a guest (spot on the Basil Brush

Show—then I've really made it. "He does get upset, though, if I go to pick him up from school and one of his mates comes up and says he loves me. He tells him to go and love his own mother.” Miss Black has just completed seven months in a West End revue, working six

days a w'eek. When she returns to Britain from this gruelling tour, she will star in a television special for ITV, the 8.8.C.’s opposition. ITV made a “great offer,” allowing six weeks rehearsal for the special show. This compared with the five-day period normally alloted for a special, she said. But Miss Black was less enthusiastic about the four days scheduled for filming of the show. “I like to film it in one go with the audience seeing everything, including the mistakes — they are much more enthusiastic that way.” Working as she does, sometimes 18 hours a day, how does she combine mother hood and her career? “With difficulty . . ,’’ she admitted. Her own television series, however, gives her time in the morning and evening to be with her children as she starts work between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and finishes about 5 p.m. As for her own future, shei says she does not think about'

“The only way I think | about the future is the future! of my kids — how we will I take care of them and how I they will develop. “I have had an incredible innings — I have been 15 years in the business, but I’m a realist. It would not bother me to go back to living in Liverpool. This life is supposed to be terribly glamorous, but it is not glamour. If nobody wanted to listen to me, I would happily go back to singing to myself.” Miss Black has no urge to take up a serious acting career. For one thing, she (much prefers to work with people in show business — “gypsies who can have a good laugh” — and for another: “Why do thev need me in films when they have Glenda Jackson? Mv working in films would be like Glenda Jackson singing ’You’re My World'.” Point taken.