Petula Clark loves Scottish hospitality – after her tour bus broke down and she performed at a pub!

WHEN Petula Clark’s latest tour hits Scotland, she has a few things on her wish-list.

They include getting the same warmth of welcome that’s always made it a favourite stop on her still-busy itinerary – and having a roadworthy bus.

The lack of the latter threatened a concert on a previous tour. But it also led to the pop icon, now 83, staging an impromptu gig that still lingers fondly in the memory.

“I always make sure Scotland is in my tour dates and I always travel on the tour bus as I like being with everybody,” Petula told iN10.

“On one of my tours a few years ago it broke down in what seemed like the middle-of-nowhere.

“The show was in the evening and because it was a Sunday, we had real trouble getting someone to come and repair the damn thing.

“Eventually we all got out and walked to a pub to wait. It turned into a real party.

“My piano player got on to the piano there and we started singing as word spread and people seemed to arrive from nearby villages.

“It was the most fantastic afternoon. I remember one lovely old guy asked if I’d sing him a song.

“When I asked what he wanted he said, ‘Can you do doon toon?’ I did, and it really stuck with me.”

Thankfully, transport was sorted to get Petula and her band to the concert “by the skin of our teeth” and Downtown, her global smash hit, was given a more polished airing.

It was the song that earned Petula the honour, in 1964, of being the first UK female artist to win a Grammy. The following year she repeated the feat with I Know A Place.

Downtown was a US number one and just the first of 15 consecutive Top 40 hits in America.

She was right at the vanguard of the 1960s “British invasion” of the States, alongside the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

But she had already tasted fame decades before. As a child star in the 1940s, she was known as “Britain’s Shirley Temple”, performing for the King and Winston Churchill, while in the 1950s she was a movie star.

It has been a remarkable career by any standards. And although she says she’s “not very nostalgic”, ask her to pick out a few highlights and legendary names trip off the tongue.

“My label want to put out a compilation of songs that haven’t been heard so much,” she says.

“So I had to sit in the studio listening to myself, which really isn’t my favourite thing to do, and it took me back to old sessions.

“I spent a lot of the 1960s in Los Angeles and it was a pretty amazing time.

“I worked with Phil Spector, Quincy Jones, Dean Martin and Fred Astaire – so many names.”

As we catch up, Petula’s in London but home is, and has for the past 40 years been, Geneva.

“I am a bit of a rolling stone,” she confides. “My son has moved to California, I have a daughter in New York and another daughter who’s a yoga professor who’s constantly travelling.

“I’m not quite sure where she is half the time.

“I’ve lived my life on the move. It sounds more glamorous from the outside than it actually is.

“These days air travel has become kind of stressful, especially with all the security. But I probably wouldn’t change it for anything.

“The beauty of being on tour is that the travelling tends to be relatively easy and I love it anyway, so I’m certainly not complaining.

“The simple truth is that I still get a great deal of joy from performing.”

Although fans can be assured of Petula performing many of her extensive back catalogue of hits, she’ll also be keeping things fresh with some of the tracks from her new album From Now On, out in September.

And she belies her age with a youthful vigour and a voice that remains in very fine form indeed.

“People seem to think my voice sounds the same as it always did,” adds Petula.

“I’m not sure it’s absolutely true but it’s nice to hear. I don’t really do anything special to keep it in shape.

“When I’m on tour I’m singing every night and I find the more I sing, the better my voice is.”

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, October 21 For tickets, visit ticketmaster.co.uk

READ MORE

Singing sweetheart Petula Clark has been a star for an incredible 75 years

10 Questions for world no1. men’s doubles tennis player Jamie Murray OBE