Enthusiasm is Cliff’s secret

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 1

Enthusiasm is Cliff’s secret

Cliff Richard, perhaps the most glamorous evangelist in contemporary music, had only a handful of fans to greet him at Christchurch Airport yesterday, although his concert was sold out soon after tickets went on sale. Slim, nervy, youngish-look-ing, Cliff Richard believes that he is still successful after 23 years in showbusiness because he is a very enthusiastic performer, and because he picks his songs well. "I listen to hundreds of songs a year, but only one in a 100 gives me goosepimples and I put it aside and. have a go at it later on/’ he said. Discerning goosepimples aside, another reason for his enduring success was that he toured regularly and kept in contact with his fans. But fans could be demanding and inconsiderate, he said. “I refuse to become like a lot of rock stars. I don’t accept that I owe everything to my fans. I take my privacy whenever I can.” He went “on the road,” he said, because he liked it and because it was more challenging than studio recording. “To make a record is comparatively easy. You have only got to be able to sing a little. But to communicate a song on stage is more difficult.” , \ ■ Cliff Richard interrupted himself at this point to add artificial sweeteners to bis coffee. He confessed to being “sensitive” about his appearance and eats only one meal a day to keep his weight down — he weighs 64kg. To supplement his diet, he takes vitamin pills. “But you need to be fairly wealthy to take vitamins. It costs a lot to look good these days,” he said.

Perhaps the vitamins explain bis good health — he bas had to cancel only three concerts in his long career. Live concerts are his greatest source of exercise, but. he also plays tennis and is practising for a pro-cele-brity tennis tournament to be held in England in 18 months time. “Tne world’s oldest teenager” said that rock ’n’ roll no longer belonged to the young, but to the generation which discovered it. His concerts still attract a young audience. “Most of them are not as old as my career,” he said. Much bad been made in the news media of his applepie image — non-smoking, non-drinking, and non-swear-ing. Yet most of the criticism he got was “very personal and rarely constructive.” He thought that interviewers were waspish because they felt guilty. “They see someone that perhaps they would like to be like.” He did not want to be “one of the boys” if it meant “sleeping around” and taking drugs. He wanted instead to combine the material and the spiritual. “Most people kill off one or the other,” he said. Part of this was being a Christian, and being wealthy, and not feeling guilty about it. “People assume that I have not thought this out,” Richard said. Asked about his performances in South Africa, Richard said that he had done more against apartheid inside the country than he could have done from outside. The posters advertising his concerts there said that ail races were welcome.

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