marv2
06-14-2013, 10:09 PM
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/a-motown-royal-reigns-supreme-20130614-2o8mp.html
Mary Wilson hits the high notes. Photo: Tony Lewis
It's not a bad job, being Mary Wilson. It may not seem quite as glamorous as being Diana Ross but still, you get to dress up in sequins, travel the world, and there's no apparent retirement age.
At 69, Wilson, one-third of the Supremes, is still making a living from what she started doing at age 13 in a housing project in Detroit. In the annals of music, she will go down as Motown royalty and as such retains an imperious air. After several cancellations, she offers no apology for the flaming hoops I have had to jump through and the piping hot coals I have had to cross for the privilege of spending 20 minutes in her company, albeit by phone, to talk about her upcoming visit to Melbourne.
Still, she comes across as less of a diva than her former colleague, Diana Ross, whose belligerence is legendary. In Wilson's biography, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, she reveals that standing behind Ross emitting melodious ''oohs'' and ''ahhs'' was not all it was cracked up to be. Doe-eyed Ross, it seems, was a tiger in false eyelashes; away from the glare of the spotlight there were plenty of tantrums. When asked about her relationship with Ross now, her warm, slightly guarded voice suddenly develops a steel ring.
Wilson [[centre) with the Supremes, Diana Ross [[left) and Cindy Birdsong [[right) in London in 1968.
''It is really good, we are friends. We are sisters,'' Wilson says. ''People ask this question but I really don't get it; you have fights and disagreements with your family members but you don't hate them. People think that but I don't understand it. Perhaps it is because we have not come back together as a career, but in terms of our personal relationship, we are fine.''
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The Supremes did in fact attempt a reunion tour in 2000 but a row over money scuppered the project. Both Ross and Wilson have carried on carving out successful individual careers long after going their separate ways in 1970. [[The third original member, Florence Ballard, died of a heart attack six years later when she was 32.)
Wilson is currently starring in Stormy Weather: The Lena Horne Project, a tribute to the African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist based on the book of her life by author James Gavin, which headlines at this year's Melbourne Cabaret Festival. [[It is also featured in the Melbourne Recital Centre's American Songbook series.) Video clips, narration and film footage of Horne are interspersed with Wilson's renditions of her songs such as the melancholic Stormy Weather, and Bein' Green - a poignant duet she recorded with Kermit the Frog about skin colour and acceptance.
''Miss Horne was an iconic figure when I was growing up,'' Wilson says from her home in Las Vegas. ''She was very prominent in the black community; all the females in my family adored her because she was so beautiful. In those days you didn't often see black actresses; for a black to become famous was very hard.''
Horne was a trailblazer for the young Wilson at a time when she was trying to navigate her own heady career with the Supremes. In the days when a black woman's future was either as a mammy or maid, she was a beacon of hope for something different. The Supremes went on to become one of the most successful acts of all time; second only to the Beatles for No. 1 hits. Songs such as Baby Love and Where Did Our Love Go have become firmly entrenched in the Western psyche [[surely everyone knows the hand movements to Stop! In the Name of Love).
All this at a time when black leaders such as Martin Luther King were taking a stand against discrimination. The Supremes did their bit by providing a placebo to the civic unrest, using style to challenge racial perceptions. While others went to war with guns and rhetoric they rustled their sequins, buffed their nails and became one of the first groups to cross the cultural divide.
Their look was sugary yet wholesome: oodles of chiffon and sequins, wigs and false eyelashes that bedazzled rather than bewitched. Wilson pays tribute to the likes of Horne, Josephine Baker and Eartha Kitt - black women who knew how to dress. She and her fellow Supremes had started out making their own clothes from patterns bought at the local five-and-dime store, but at the height of their fame they had designers conjuring up beaded creations that weighed up to 16 kilograms.
Wilson, the only member to remain in the group from beginning to end, now owns and curates a travelling costume collection that contains 50 of their most glitzy gowns. It is, she points out, much more than a show about frocks; there's also plenty of memorabilia putting the Supreme story in its historical context. A few years ago it visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London but will it be coming to Australia? ''It always can,'' she says.
Wilson's now a grandma who performs regularly. After 54 years, does she ever get fed up with singing Baby Love? ''You can get a little tired of it,'' she admits with a small laugh. ''There are some songs I like more than others, and some that I don't like at all!'' What are they? ''Oh, they change. One night I care for Reflections more than You Can't Hurry Love, but they were so well written and produced and I am just so pleased to have been there.''
She has just released her latest album, Life's Been Great to Me, in which she draws on her own experiences rather than just sings what is put in front of her. ''Now that I'm older I would like to explore my own feelings and bring those out. When I started singing I don't remember thinking, 'This going to be forever'. It's wonderful when your career spans your entire life.''
■ Stormy Weather: The Lena Horne Project, Melbourne Cabaret Festival Opening Gala, Wednesday, June 26, Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda. The festival runs June 26-July 7. melbournecabaret.com.
■ The show is also at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Friday, June 28, 7.30pm. melbournerecital.com.au
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/a-motown-royal-reigns-supreme-20130614-2o8mp.html#ixzz2WFLa4G1u
Mary Wilson hits the high notes. Photo: Tony Lewis
It's not a bad job, being Mary Wilson. It may not seem quite as glamorous as being Diana Ross but still, you get to dress up in sequins, travel the world, and there's no apparent retirement age.
At 69, Wilson, one-third of the Supremes, is still making a living from what she started doing at age 13 in a housing project in Detroit. In the annals of music, she will go down as Motown royalty and as such retains an imperious air. After several cancellations, she offers no apology for the flaming hoops I have had to jump through and the piping hot coals I have had to cross for the privilege of spending 20 minutes in her company, albeit by phone, to talk about her upcoming visit to Melbourne.
Still, she comes across as less of a diva than her former colleague, Diana Ross, whose belligerence is legendary. In Wilson's biography, Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, she reveals that standing behind Ross emitting melodious ''oohs'' and ''ahhs'' was not all it was cracked up to be. Doe-eyed Ross, it seems, was a tiger in false eyelashes; away from the glare of the spotlight there were plenty of tantrums. When asked about her relationship with Ross now, her warm, slightly guarded voice suddenly develops a steel ring.
Wilson [[centre) with the Supremes, Diana Ross [[left) and Cindy Birdsong [[right) in London in 1968.
''It is really good, we are friends. We are sisters,'' Wilson says. ''People ask this question but I really don't get it; you have fights and disagreements with your family members but you don't hate them. People think that but I don't understand it. Perhaps it is because we have not come back together as a career, but in terms of our personal relationship, we are fine.''
Advertisement
The Supremes did in fact attempt a reunion tour in 2000 but a row over money scuppered the project. Both Ross and Wilson have carried on carving out successful individual careers long after going their separate ways in 1970. [[The third original member, Florence Ballard, died of a heart attack six years later when she was 32.)
Wilson is currently starring in Stormy Weather: The Lena Horne Project, a tribute to the African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist based on the book of her life by author James Gavin, which headlines at this year's Melbourne Cabaret Festival. [[It is also featured in the Melbourne Recital Centre's American Songbook series.) Video clips, narration and film footage of Horne are interspersed with Wilson's renditions of her songs such as the melancholic Stormy Weather, and Bein' Green - a poignant duet she recorded with Kermit the Frog about skin colour and acceptance.
''Miss Horne was an iconic figure when I was growing up,'' Wilson says from her home in Las Vegas. ''She was very prominent in the black community; all the females in my family adored her because she was so beautiful. In those days you didn't often see black actresses; for a black to become famous was very hard.''
Horne was a trailblazer for the young Wilson at a time when she was trying to navigate her own heady career with the Supremes. In the days when a black woman's future was either as a mammy or maid, she was a beacon of hope for something different. The Supremes went on to become one of the most successful acts of all time; second only to the Beatles for No. 1 hits. Songs such as Baby Love and Where Did Our Love Go have become firmly entrenched in the Western psyche [[surely everyone knows the hand movements to Stop! In the Name of Love).
All this at a time when black leaders such as Martin Luther King were taking a stand against discrimination. The Supremes did their bit by providing a placebo to the civic unrest, using style to challenge racial perceptions. While others went to war with guns and rhetoric they rustled their sequins, buffed their nails and became one of the first groups to cross the cultural divide.
Their look was sugary yet wholesome: oodles of chiffon and sequins, wigs and false eyelashes that bedazzled rather than bewitched. Wilson pays tribute to the likes of Horne, Josephine Baker and Eartha Kitt - black women who knew how to dress. She and her fellow Supremes had started out making their own clothes from patterns bought at the local five-and-dime store, but at the height of their fame they had designers conjuring up beaded creations that weighed up to 16 kilograms.
Wilson, the only member to remain in the group from beginning to end, now owns and curates a travelling costume collection that contains 50 of their most glitzy gowns. It is, she points out, much more than a show about frocks; there's also plenty of memorabilia putting the Supreme story in its historical context. A few years ago it visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London but will it be coming to Australia? ''It always can,'' she says.
Wilson's now a grandma who performs regularly. After 54 years, does she ever get fed up with singing Baby Love? ''You can get a little tired of it,'' she admits with a small laugh. ''There are some songs I like more than others, and some that I don't like at all!'' What are they? ''Oh, they change. One night I care for Reflections more than You Can't Hurry Love, but they were so well written and produced and I am just so pleased to have been there.''
She has just released her latest album, Life's Been Great to Me, in which she draws on her own experiences rather than just sings what is put in front of her. ''Now that I'm older I would like to explore my own feelings and bring those out. When I started singing I don't remember thinking, 'This going to be forever'. It's wonderful when your career spans your entire life.''
■ Stormy Weather: The Lena Horne Project, Melbourne Cabaret Festival Opening Gala, Wednesday, June 26, Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda. The festival runs June 26-July 7. melbournecabaret.com.
■ The show is also at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Friday, June 28, 7.30pm. melbournerecital.com.au
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/a-motown-royal-reigns-supreme-20130614-2o8mp.html#ixzz2WFLa4G1u