Rock on, Lulu

IT may have taken 40 years, but Lulu has found her voice, and it rocks.

The results can be heard on her new album, Back On Track, and at her sold-out show at York Barbican Centre on Tuesday on her first tour in 15 years.

"I am a rock'n'roller at heart," says the 55-year-old Glaswegian, whose raucous cover of The Isley Brothers' Shout had made Lulu - one Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie - a household name at 15.

"For Back On Track, I've co-written half of the tracks and whether it's a big ballad or not, the vocals are big rather than 'rinky-dink'. For 40 years, I've always been struggling to find my own voice," she says. "I started off where I think was right for me with Shout and I've intermittently gone back to that place. With my new CD, I'm definitely where I believe I belong vocally and stylistically. This is definitely the album I've always wanted to make."

Lulu has a theory to explain why it has taken so long to reach this point. "I've thought about this a lot and, maybe because I'm small, considered to be C-U-T-E and have an outgoing personality, a lot of record producers or people who were in charge thought that the lightweight stuff went with my look. Maybe I'm a 'tricky' case - I look one way but sound another," she says.

"If you look at Christina Aguilera, she had fantastic success with songs such as Genie In A Bottle from her first album. They were great songs, but they didn't really showcase her voice and were so poppy, not really representative of who she was as an artist. Then you look at Dirrty and it's a complete U-turn. Like myself, she is a tiny little girl singing the blues. It took me a lot longer than it took her to make the album that is really 'me'.

"I'm writing about things that I want to say, and it's exciting. That's why I called it Back On Track. It's great; I'm not just sitting on my laurels, I'm moving forward. I like to have my finger on the pulse."

To prove it, her listening spans Rufus Wainwright, Christina Aguilera and The White Stripes.

Lulu has experimented with many styles yet the fans stay faithful, and Lulu puts her finger on the reason why.

"Well my voice doesn't really change although I can change the sound of my voice, if you see what I mean," she says. "If you have your own distinctive-sounding voice, like the tear in the throat, the rasp, which is what people sometimes say about my voice, it gives your vocals a definite personality that has its own appeal."

The need to sing always has been the guiding principle for Lulu, who first performed on stage at four and once said she never set out to sell millions of records. "It was not a plan in my head. I didn't have a big plan. It's as if the music was the thing that drove me. It just drove me. I wanted to sing and I always did sing," she says.

"There was no question about me not singing. I didn't want to become a singer, I was born a singer. I was singing in concert parties and clubs from a tiny age. The Sixties became halcyon days in which all of a sudden people were making records and becoming famous. That was the difficult thing to understand. Who the hell knew what that was all about? I still don't know."

Has the nature of celebrity changed? "I think celebrity has gotten in the way. It gets in the way of me. That's why I don't even have a picture of me on the front cover of my album. I said, 'Get it off. People know what I look like'. I don't want to talk any more about my hair or 'how young I look'. That's not what the album is about.

"Listen to me, I'm spouting off here. The great thing is that I am as enthusiastic and obsessive about music as when I was a wee girl. I love the music and for a long time I felt I had to keep my mouth shut and do all kinds of... Don't get me wrong, and I'm not apologising for my past, but the title of my new album Back On Track says it all."

Music lifts her soul, Lula says. "Music is healing and it's a spiritual experience. The reason for the album title is that I feel as though I am finally back on track. No matter what goes on in my life or what has gone on in 40 years, music has sustained me and been constant. I suppose that is why I was so attracted to gospel music, American black church music. That's where all the music I love comes from. Rock'n'roll or the blues, it's about being spiritual, human, uplifting. Uplifting the soul and the heart and the spirit. That's what music is about, touching the soul."

What kind of show can the Barbican audience expect next week?

"I'm going grungy, playing the image down, because it's about the music," Lulu says. "It's about playing some golden oldies and a few new ones as well. The thing is, I don't like to go to a concert and not be able to sing along to the songs I know. So the majority of songs will be hits."

Looking to the future, Lulu has drawn inspiration from working with film director Mike Figgis on a documentary on blues music. "A blues album is something I'd definitely consider doing," she says.

In the meantime, she is happy to be back on track and back on the road: "I've been blessed. I've been able to sing, I love singing, I'm on tour again. I think that's why we all do it - the Stones, me, Bowie - 'cos it's still a thrill and still a challenge."

Lulu, The Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican Centre, Tuesday, 7.30pm. SOLD OUT.

Lulu will hold an in-store signing session at HMW in Coney Street, York, on Tuesday at 5pm.

Updated: 08:52 Friday, March 19, 2004