We had gathered in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour to await the arrival of the special guest of honour. This was one of those special, glittering Swansea nights. A ball to raise money for charity where everyone would dress to impress and dance until Carriages arrived to take them all home at 1am.
Mal Pope and The Jacks were the entertainment and on this special night we were to be joined by Bonnie Tyler. At last news reached us that ‘she’ had arrived. We were ushered to the top of the stairs to greet her. The Lord Mayor led the way followed by Bonnie and me. Joan Collins had arrived in a white Rolls Royce accompanied by friend and confidante Royal Dress designer David Emmanuel. As she slowly glided up the stairs, all diamonds and white furs, Bonnie turned to me and in that wonderful, slightly gruff speaking voice said. ‘Well, I ain’t going to cowing curtsey!’.
Promoting Cappuccino Girls on BBC Radio 2
In many ways that sums up the lovely Gaynor Sullivan to me. She had sung for Presidents and Royalty and at some of the biggest venues in the world, but she knew her worth and she always had a sense of humour and a sense of the ridiculous.
On Thursday morning I woke to a strange eeriness here in Swansea. As I lay in bed I could hear the fog horn sounding from the Mumbles lighthouse. As I looked out of my window the street was covered in a mist that hid the sun. Then the phone started ringing. Would I be in a position to talk about the sad news that had come through overnight? It took a while to get my head straight.
We knew that Bonnie had not been well. Here in Mumbles the news from friends was that she was through the worst of it, there would be time needed to recover, but Bonnie would be back. As I tried to take in the news that she had passed away I started to cry. It didn’t seem possible. She really was a force of nature, larger than life with a voice that could knock down a wall at 10 paces. I didn’t really have much time to stop and grieve because the calls kept coming and I needed to try to remember which stories I could share to honour her memory.
Some people are destined to be stars and some songs are fated to be hit records. Bonnie Tyler was discovered almost by accident. Roger Bell was a man from Swansea working in the music business in London. He was back home to run the rule over a male singer for his bosses back in the ‘smoke’. As chance would have it Roger went into the wrong room and heard Gaynor from Skewen singing with the band. It wasn’t long before Gaynor was on a train to London to record some songs written by his bosses Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolf.
I think the first I heard about Bonnie was from reading the South Wales Evening Post. This 30th April marked the 50th anniversary of the release of her debut single ‘My! My! Honeycomb’. I first met her in the reception of Swansea Sound. At the time I had just released my second single and we were both doing the rounds of local radio stations. She was lovely, shy, but friendly with a lovely little laugh when she spoke.
This is where our careers diverged within weeks I was soon back in school studying for my A levels and Bonnie was on her way to Top of the Pops with her next record ‘Lost in France’.
It would be a few years until her next big hit, and something had changed. Bonnie always had soul in her voice but ‘It’s a Heartache’ sounded raw, as people were soon to say like a female Rod Stewart. After years of singing Bonnie was experiencing problems with her vocal cords and needed an operation. She was told not to talk or sing for 6 weeks. That was never going to happen. The result was a change in texture to a voice that already had soul.
The band that recorded ‘Lost in France’ featured so many great Swansea based musicians. Taff Williams and Peter King on Guitars, Kevin Dune on Bass and holding them all together Badfinger drummer Micky Gibbons.
The next step took Bonnie to New York and into the pop stratosphere. Bonnie told me that when she went to meet Jim Steinman, the creator of ‘Bat Out Of Hell’, she was told to follow the trail of M&Ms from the elevator to his apartment. She found that strange, odd and funny. But when he played her the songs he wanted her to sing she was overjoyed.
It was in the early 1990’s that Bonnie came back into my life. The first TV show she appeared on was my Christmas Special for HTV. Guests included Dave Edmunds, Terry Williams from Dire Straits and Howard Jones. Bonnie sang Total Eclipse and then joined us for the party ending. You could she the joy on her face as she shared vocals with Dave Edmunds on ‘Run, Run Rudolph’.
After that she was a regular guest joining me on radio, TV and stage. Occasionally I’d send her a song and ask if she might sing a duet or take the lead. Always a complete professional in the studio the one thing I knew was she was going to sing loud. Really loud.
One day I got a call form Bonnie telling me she had been asked to sing ’Abide with Me’ for the Rugby League cup final at Wembley. She had been given 2 keys to choose from. While we kept chatting I moved to the piano to play the song in the different keys. At this stage Bonnie said she had to put the phone down so that she could really sing it loud. To be honest we probably didn’t need the phones. She sang so loudly I could probably have heard her from her kitchen.
She choose her key and was brilliant on the day. The following week I bumped into her at a restaurant in Mumbles. I told her I thought she had been brilliant, and she said thanks again. Five minutes later I was presented with a bottle of Champagne as a thank you.
When the song ‘Cappuccino Girls’ became a musical headed for the stage I sent Bonnie the title track. Now the last thing I wanted to do was take advantage of a friendship, so every request always started with a ‘no worries if you don’t want to do this or don’t like the song’ etc.
Bonnie helping to launch Cappuccino Girls.
Within a few days we were in the studio recording her very special version and I’m sure so much of the success of the show was because she lent me her voice.
As I’ve tried to come to terms with the news this week so many memories have come to mind. All of them with her smiling face, big voice, her generosity and kindness. She touched so many people and left an indelible mark on all those she met. That’s why we have all shed tears this week and that’s why we loved her so much.