Dana Gillespie Biography

Dana Gillespie (born Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie, 30 March 1949) is an English actress, singer and songwriter. Originally performing and recording in her teens, over the years Gillespie has been involved in the recording of over 45 albums, and appeared in stage productions (Jesus Christ Superstar) and several films. Her musical output has progressed from teen pop and folk in the early part of her career, to rock in the 1970s and, more latterly, the blues.

Career

Gillespie was born in Woking, Surrey. She was the British Junior Water Skiing Champion for four years, in 1962.

She recorded initially in the folk genre in the mid-1960s. Some of her recordings as a teenager fell into the teen pop category, such as her 1965 single "Thank You Boy", written by John Carter and Ken Lewis and produced by Jimmy Page. Her acting career got under way shortly afterwards, and it overshadowed her musical career in the late 1960s and 1970s. After performing backing vocals on the track "It Ain't Easy" from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, she recorded an album produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson in 1973, Weren't Born a Man. Subsequent recordings have been in the blues genre, appearing with the London Blues Band. She is also notable for being the original Mary Magdalene in the first London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, which opened at the Palace Theatre in 1972. She also appeared on the Original London Cast album. During the 1980s Gillespie was a member of the Austrian Mojo Blues Band.

She is a follower of the Indian spiritual guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba. She performed at his Indian ashram on various occasions, and has also recorded thirteen bhajan-based albums in Sanskrit.

Gillespie is the organiser of the annual Blues festival at Basil's Bar on Mustique in the Caribbean, for fifteen days at the end of January and it is now in its eighteenth year. The house band is the London Blues Band, which consists of Dino Baptiste (piano), Jake Zaitz (guitar), Mike Paice (saxophone), Jeff Walker (bass), and Evan Jenkins (drums) but there are also many other acts. In 2005, Mick Jagger appeared as a guest and sang songs such as: "Honky Tonk Women", "Dust My Broom" and "Goin' Down" but also many other Blues artists have appeared there through the years, such as Big Joe Louis, Joe Louis Walker, Billy Branch, Shemekia Copeland, Ronnie Wood, Donald Fagen, Rolf Harris, Ian Siegal, Larry Garner, Eugene Bridges, Big Jay McNeeley, Earl Green, and Zach Prather.

Selected discography

• Foolish Seasons (Decca, 1967)
• Box of Surprises (Decca, 1969)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (Original London Cast Recording) (MCA, 1973)
• Weren't Born a Man (RCA, 1973)
• Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle (RCA, 1974)
• Mojo Blues Band and the Rockin' Boogie Flu (Bellaphon, 1981)
• Blue Job (Ace, 1982)
• Solid Romance (Bellaphon, 1984)
• Below the Belt (Ace, 1984)
• It Belongs to Me (Bellaphon, 1985)
• I'm a Woman (The Blues Line) (Bellaphon, 1986)
• Move Your Body Close to Me (Bellaphon, 1986)
• Hot News (Gig, 1987)
• Sweet Meat (Blue Horizon, 1989)
• Amor (Gig, 1989)
• Blues It Up (Ace, 1990)
• Left Hand Roller with Pewny Michael, (Bellaphon Records and Susy Records, 1990)
• Where Blue Begins (Ariola, 1991)
• Boogie Woogie Nights (with Joachim Palden) (Wolf, 1991)

• Big Boy (with Joachim Palden) (Wolf, 1992)
• Methods of Release (Bellaphon, 1993)
• Andy Warhol (Trident, 1994)
• Blue One (Wolf, 1994)
• Hot Stuff (Ace, 1995)
• Have I Got Blues For You (Wolf, 1996)
• Mustique Blues Festival (yearly since 1996)
• Cherry Pie (with Big Jay McNeely) (Big Jay Records, 1997)
• One to One, Inner View, Dream On (under the pseudonym of Third Man) (1998)
• Back to the Blues (Wolf, 1998)
• Experienced (Ace, 2000)
• Staying Power (Ace, 2003)
• Sing Out (with Shanthi Sisters) (2004)
• Sacred Space (2005)
• Live (with the London Blues Band) (Ace, 2007)
• Eternally Yours (2009)
• Mata Mata (2011)
• I Rest My Case
• Cats Meow (2014)

Filmography

• Fumo di Londra (1966)
• Secrets of a Windmill Girl (1966) - Singer
• The Vengeance of She (1968) - Girl at Party (uncredited)
• The Lost Continent (1968) - Sarah
• Mahler (1974) - Anna von Mildenburg
• The People That Time Forgot (1977) - Ajor
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) - Mary Frankland
• Bad Timing (1980) - Amy Miller
• Scrubbers (1982) - Budd
• Parker (1985) - Monika
• Sterben werd ich um zu leben - Gustav Mahler (1987) - Anna von Mildenburg
• Strapless (1989) - Julie Kovago
• Sunday Pursuit (1990) - Maureen (final film role)

See also

• List of British actors and actresses

Bibliography

• Bowie, Angela, Backstage Passes, Jove Books, Berkeley Publishing Group (1993)