The panda eyes and blonde beehive, the baby doll dresses, that clear, gleaming voice, perfect phrasing and eloquent hands— no one lit up the 1960s quite like Dusty Springfield.
It’s hardly surprising that her presence and voice had the power to silence crying babies, as Moray legend has it.
In 1961, Dusty was in Elgin with The Springfields, the trio she had put together with her brother Tom and at that time, Tim Feild.
They’d been hired by Elgin promoter Albert Bonici, the man who first brought The Beatles to the north, in another of his far-sighted coups bringing popular culture to the region.
Bonici lived in the flat above the Two Shoes Ballroom but was on holiday that night, leaving his sister Rosanna and her 10-month-old son to deal with the artistes.
“The baby was crying when Dusty reached the landing and she came in to comfort him by holding his hand and singing a lullaby,” reports Elgin Bonici archivist David Dills in his Scotbeat blog.
“He stopped crying and looked curiously at Dusty, though didn’t fall asleep.
“The young tike was likely enamoured by the talented vocalist.”
Rosanna remembers Dusty as very professional, and very demanding.
David said: “She was the boss, and the two boys did as she said, when she said jump, they jumped.
“John Rennie of the Apaches compared Dusty’s personality with that of Sandy Shaw and Emile Ford. They were take-charge individuals who ‘knew exactly what was to be done’.”
Dusty Springfield had relatives in Elgin
But Dusty’s links with Elgin didn’t stop with the two tours Albert Bonici arranged for The Springfields in ’61 and ’62, and her north-east tour of 1964 as a solo artist.
She had relatives in Elgin on her father’s side, although whether she knew much about them or even visited them is doubtful, according to Dusty’s new biographer, Donella Campbell.
Her meticulously researched book, The Girl Who Invented Dusty Springfield contains much more information about Dusty’s early life as Mary O’Brien, and the genealogy of her family, than hitherto known.
As a teenager, when she lived in Brora, Donella admits to being pretty much obsessed with her subject matter.
She said: “I used to see Dusty on the black and white TV and was fascinated by this blonde goddess.”
‘I started obsessively searching for interviews with Dusty’
Time and life intervened, and Dusty dropped out of Donella’s thoughts for many years while she was a busy mum, attending university as a mature student and working in a variety of roles.
Dusty also dropped out of the public consciousness during the 1970s, until her big comeback in the late 1980s thanks to her collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys on ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’, taking her back to the top of the charts.
Dusty was also a regular on British TV in the 1960s, presenting and performing in many episodes of Ready Steady Go! and hosting her own series on the BBC and ITV.
She died tragically young of breast cancer in 1999, a few weeks before her 60th birthday.
Donella’s Dusty epiphany came more than a decade later.
She said: “In 2012 I started to hear her songs on the radio, and something clicked.
“I started obsessively searching for interviews with Dusty and making connections with fans through fan forums.
“”I started going to the annual Dusty Day run by her fans and got to meet Pat Rhodes, her PA of forty years, Simon Bell her friend and backing singer and Madeleine Bell a close friend and backing singer.”
Donella had read all the existing biographies of Dusty and said they left her dissatisfied.
“Who was she really? Her early life hadn’t been covered before.”
With retirement came Donella’s chance to progress her thoughts, now crystallised in her book after 10 years of deep research.
She discovered that Dusty had Scottish blood on her father’s side.
Her great-grandfather was Scottish, a McLeod from Edinburgh, making Dusty’s grandmother half-Scottish.
Elgin connection
The Elgin connection is an intriguing one, and involves a lot of Isabellas.
Donella found that Dusty’s aunt Isabella Margaret Mary O’Brien was born in Elgin on August 11 1899.
Dusty’s grandmother Isabella Frances O’Brien (nee McLeod), whose home was in India, was visiting her own aunt Isabella Greenstreet in Elgin at the time.
Isabella Greenstreet’s husband Thomas was born in Sheppey, Kent.
They were married in Edinburgh in 1874 and they moved to Elgin at some point.
Their daughter Isabella Ethel Vandepeer Greenstreet was born in 1885 in Elgin.
Donella hasn’t yet been able to find out what brought the Greenstreets to Elgin, but is continuing to build up the family tree.
She said: “There do seem to be rather a lot of Isabellas, and Dusty herself was Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien.”
Bernadette was her confirmation name from St Bernadette of Lourdes.
The early part of Dusty’s career was stellar.
She had 12 Top Twenty Hits and one No 1, establishing herself as an international artist.
Donella’s deep delve into Dusty’s background reveals a fascinating family full of spirit and adventure on both sides.
Her grandfather on her mother’s side, Maurice P Ryle, was a journalist from Tralee in County Kerry, and a passionate campaigner for Home Rule.
Donella reckons Dusty personified ‘Maurice’s spirit of perfectionism and his high-octane approach to life.’
The Girl Who Invented Dusty Springfield by Donella Campbell is available on Amazon both as an ebook and in print.
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Elgin showbiz agent Albert Bonici brought The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who and Eric Clapton to the north
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