Post by Susanelizabeth28 on May 10, 2004 21:58:59 GMT -5
From: The Scotsman
A new start for the queen of reinvention
Alan Jackson
It’s hard to say just where you might see Cher these next couple of days, besides on the stage of Glasgow’s SECC. Bowling alleys, ice-cream parlours, cinemas, museums ... all are a possibility. "We’re like a travelling circus, or carnival gypsies," says the indestructible singer and actress of her on-the-road crew. "It’s not easy for people, being away from their families for months on end. Team spirit is vital. You have to make them feel valued. So if I want to see a movie or go to a gallery, I’ll make an outing of it and invite them all along. With Mother’s Day coming up, for example, I arranged a visit to one of those paint-your-own pottery shops. The owners could scarcely believe their eyes when this great bunch of us turned up.
"The dancers were into the idea straight away, of course, but the old teamsters - the truck drivers and the lighting guys - kept hanging back. ‘You’ll make your mom’s day if she gets a tea pot or some mugs you’ve decorated specially,’ I told them. They weren’t convinced. But then, when they saw the fun the rest of us were having, they gradually started to join in. ‘That’s the most beautiful present you’ve ever given me,’ one of their grandmas later wrote him. When he showed me the note, he was beaming from ear to ear." As must be Cher’s accountant, as he or she divvies up the profits from a Farewell Tour that was initially intended to comprise just 59 US dates but which, two years later, continues to make its juggernaut progress across the planet.
That title is for real, she insists, and not mere showbiz-speak. "I’ll continue to sing, of course. I couldn’t turn my back on that. And I may do the odd live performance here or there. But this is the last time I’ll take off around the world like this. It’s too hard. This schedule would break the back of a 25-year-old, yet here am I …" (the words "at 57" go unsaid). "Plus, I know I’m as good now as I’m ever going to be, which is why it’s time to quit. I’d hate to be doing it all again in three years’ time and know that fans were saying, ‘Yeah, she’s OK, but she was so much better the last time round.’"
Such pragmatism has served Cher well during a four-decade career that, more than once, has looked like grinding to an inauspicious halt, all offers of work having run dry. "Forty frigging years! Even I can’t believe it, and it’s my own life I’m talking about!" In the drawing room of her oceanside Malibu home (think Palace of Versailles, but cosier), she shrugs her thin shoulders and an expression of amused mystification washes over her normally impassive features. "I can’t tell you why I’ve survived, because the simple fact is I just don’t know. Lord knows, people more talented than me have fallen by the wayside. All I can say is that I’m flexible. There have been times when I was so cold, commercially, that no-one wanted to know me, but still I kept going. I had to. I’ve got two children. Hit a dead-end in one part of your career? Then try something else. It’s not rocket science, but it’s worked for me." Unlike her current stage show, the words are a model of understatement.
It’s Madonna who, most frequently, is cited as the mistress of self-reinvention. Not so. In a culture shaped by our own fickleness and attention-defecit, it’s Cher who is the true phenomenon. Fashions come and go, yet she endures. Hippie chic? In the 1960s she marketed the original concept to the world, alongside former partner and husband, the late Sonny Bono. Vegas excess? The costumes designer Bob Mackie created for her TV and stage shows now tour US exhibition halls in their own right. Cod-metal? In 1981 she dragged herself in from the cold by playing leather-clad foil to Meatloaf on his signature hit Dead Ringer For Love. She’s done powerballads on If I Could Turn Back Time and all the breast- beating others. Then she became the queen of handbag dance-pop (witness the success of Believe). She’s encompassed each of these styles and more, and that’s before we even mention stage and film acting, directing and political campaigning.
But in whatever area of work, and while dressed in whichever outré outfit and accompanying wig, Cher retains both the common touch and a keen sense of the absurd. For example, she is keenly aware that times are hard economically for much of her fan-base and so, while many other big-name acts in the US have been playing to half-full arenas of late, Cher has insisted tickets for her own valedictory spectacular be priced affordably low. Audience turn-out for 202 stadium performances topped the two million mark as a result. The performance she delivers is not just good value economically, though, its tone is cheerfully kitsch - set by her entrance, from 40 feet above the stage, astride a replica of her own bathroom chandelier. "I may be very rich now, but I grew up poor and the knowledge of what that’s like is forever engrained in me, mentally and emotionally," she says. "Touring as I have been doing, I’ve probably met and talked to more so-called ‘ordinary’ men and women than have most politicians on Capitol Hill. I feel in touch with what people are thinking."
A life-long Democrat who, in the run-up to the last presidential election, campaigned all across the country in tandem with Jesse Jackson, she is now eager to return to the fray. "Absolutely, I’m a [John] Kerry supporter. He’s an intelligent, thoughtful man who has all the qualities it takes to be a good leader. As soon as I return from my European dates, I’ll be out and about in support of him."
Like many fellow American celebrities, she has been frustrated by the success of the current administration’s "those who are not with us are against us" stance on public debate over Iraq and other issues. "It’s been increasingly difficult to air your views without being painted as being unpatriotic. Look what happened to the Dixie Chicks [the country act was blacklisted by country and western radio stations in the US after one of its members made an anti-Bush comment on-stage in Ireland]. Total vilification. How can anyone say that’s democracy in action?"
Whether Cher’s political views will influence the US electorate remains to be seen. Enduring as a subject of public fascination, however, is her quite remarkable circumvention (by means surgical, cosmetic or whatever) of the aging process: she is, undoubtedly, the youngest-looking, least careworn or wrinkled 57-year-old you are ever likely to meet. Famously, she once said that being 50 "sucked - so much extra effort, just to retain the status quo". And now? " Do I enjoy getting older? No! I’m thrilled and delighted for those people who love the experience. I just don’t happen to be one of them."
That said, rigorous daily exercise keeps the famous body in its consistently super-toned shape, and a no drugs, no cigarettes, no alcohol, healthy eating regime - "My problem with junk food isn’t ethical. My problem is it tastes like s***" - further aids the process. Then there’s the question of genetics. "You should see my mom at 76. Or my grandmother, who just turned 90."
Of course, neither fame, fortune nor even a fabulous years-defying physique and physiognomy can guarantee companionship or love. Cher says she is without a partner currently, her touring schedule having put paid to any recent chances of romance. "There are a lot of fabulous men out there, and I’ve actually bumped into a couple of them. But this schedule isn’t very relationship friendly and, when it came down to it, they didn’t want to be left back home waiting while I was gone. Why would they? I wouldn’t want it myself. So we’ll see. Would I like to meet someone when I get back off the road? Of course. But am I lonely or prepared to settle for second-best? No. My life is way too full of good friends and interesting people and things for that."
Both daughter Chastity (a highprofile lesbian activist) and son Elijah Blue (from a brief second marriage to musician Gregg Allman, and the leader of his own band, Deadsy) have flown the nest now, however, and she has no-one to answer to but herself. "Things like concert tours apart, I really don’t organise my schedule very far in advance," she says. "I’ve never planned further ahead than the next thing I was doing. As far as is possible, I prefer to just let things happen. And let’s be realistic, I’m not going to be in work forever." She pauses to reflect on this possibility, and then chuckles throatily. "Mind you, I’ve been saying that very same thing since I was 18 years old."
• Cher plays the SECC, Glasgow, tonight. (May 11th)
A new start for the queen of reinvention
Alan Jackson
It’s hard to say just where you might see Cher these next couple of days, besides on the stage of Glasgow’s SECC. Bowling alleys, ice-cream parlours, cinemas, museums ... all are a possibility. "We’re like a travelling circus, or carnival gypsies," says the indestructible singer and actress of her on-the-road crew. "It’s not easy for people, being away from their families for months on end. Team spirit is vital. You have to make them feel valued. So if I want to see a movie or go to a gallery, I’ll make an outing of it and invite them all along. With Mother’s Day coming up, for example, I arranged a visit to one of those paint-your-own pottery shops. The owners could scarcely believe their eyes when this great bunch of us turned up.
"The dancers were into the idea straight away, of course, but the old teamsters - the truck drivers and the lighting guys - kept hanging back. ‘You’ll make your mom’s day if she gets a tea pot or some mugs you’ve decorated specially,’ I told them. They weren’t convinced. But then, when they saw the fun the rest of us were having, they gradually started to join in. ‘That’s the most beautiful present you’ve ever given me,’ one of their grandmas later wrote him. When he showed me the note, he was beaming from ear to ear." As must be Cher’s accountant, as he or she divvies up the profits from a Farewell Tour that was initially intended to comprise just 59 US dates but which, two years later, continues to make its juggernaut progress across the planet.
That title is for real, she insists, and not mere showbiz-speak. "I’ll continue to sing, of course. I couldn’t turn my back on that. And I may do the odd live performance here or there. But this is the last time I’ll take off around the world like this. It’s too hard. This schedule would break the back of a 25-year-old, yet here am I …" (the words "at 57" go unsaid). "Plus, I know I’m as good now as I’m ever going to be, which is why it’s time to quit. I’d hate to be doing it all again in three years’ time and know that fans were saying, ‘Yeah, she’s OK, but she was so much better the last time round.’"
Such pragmatism has served Cher well during a four-decade career that, more than once, has looked like grinding to an inauspicious halt, all offers of work having run dry. "Forty frigging years! Even I can’t believe it, and it’s my own life I’m talking about!" In the drawing room of her oceanside Malibu home (think Palace of Versailles, but cosier), she shrugs her thin shoulders and an expression of amused mystification washes over her normally impassive features. "I can’t tell you why I’ve survived, because the simple fact is I just don’t know. Lord knows, people more talented than me have fallen by the wayside. All I can say is that I’m flexible. There have been times when I was so cold, commercially, that no-one wanted to know me, but still I kept going. I had to. I’ve got two children. Hit a dead-end in one part of your career? Then try something else. It’s not rocket science, but it’s worked for me." Unlike her current stage show, the words are a model of understatement.
It’s Madonna who, most frequently, is cited as the mistress of self-reinvention. Not so. In a culture shaped by our own fickleness and attention-defecit, it’s Cher who is the true phenomenon. Fashions come and go, yet she endures. Hippie chic? In the 1960s she marketed the original concept to the world, alongside former partner and husband, the late Sonny Bono. Vegas excess? The costumes designer Bob Mackie created for her TV and stage shows now tour US exhibition halls in their own right. Cod-metal? In 1981 she dragged herself in from the cold by playing leather-clad foil to Meatloaf on his signature hit Dead Ringer For Love. She’s done powerballads on If I Could Turn Back Time and all the breast- beating others. Then she became the queen of handbag dance-pop (witness the success of Believe). She’s encompassed each of these styles and more, and that’s before we even mention stage and film acting, directing and political campaigning.
But in whatever area of work, and while dressed in whichever outré outfit and accompanying wig, Cher retains both the common touch and a keen sense of the absurd. For example, she is keenly aware that times are hard economically for much of her fan-base and so, while many other big-name acts in the US have been playing to half-full arenas of late, Cher has insisted tickets for her own valedictory spectacular be priced affordably low. Audience turn-out for 202 stadium performances topped the two million mark as a result. The performance she delivers is not just good value economically, though, its tone is cheerfully kitsch - set by her entrance, from 40 feet above the stage, astride a replica of her own bathroom chandelier. "I may be very rich now, but I grew up poor and the knowledge of what that’s like is forever engrained in me, mentally and emotionally," she says. "Touring as I have been doing, I’ve probably met and talked to more so-called ‘ordinary’ men and women than have most politicians on Capitol Hill. I feel in touch with what people are thinking."
A life-long Democrat who, in the run-up to the last presidential election, campaigned all across the country in tandem with Jesse Jackson, she is now eager to return to the fray. "Absolutely, I’m a [John] Kerry supporter. He’s an intelligent, thoughtful man who has all the qualities it takes to be a good leader. As soon as I return from my European dates, I’ll be out and about in support of him."
Like many fellow American celebrities, she has been frustrated by the success of the current administration’s "those who are not with us are against us" stance on public debate over Iraq and other issues. "It’s been increasingly difficult to air your views without being painted as being unpatriotic. Look what happened to the Dixie Chicks [the country act was blacklisted by country and western radio stations in the US after one of its members made an anti-Bush comment on-stage in Ireland]. Total vilification. How can anyone say that’s democracy in action?"
Whether Cher’s political views will influence the US electorate remains to be seen. Enduring as a subject of public fascination, however, is her quite remarkable circumvention (by means surgical, cosmetic or whatever) of the aging process: she is, undoubtedly, the youngest-looking, least careworn or wrinkled 57-year-old you are ever likely to meet. Famously, she once said that being 50 "sucked - so much extra effort, just to retain the status quo". And now? " Do I enjoy getting older? No! I’m thrilled and delighted for those people who love the experience. I just don’t happen to be one of them."
That said, rigorous daily exercise keeps the famous body in its consistently super-toned shape, and a no drugs, no cigarettes, no alcohol, healthy eating regime - "My problem with junk food isn’t ethical. My problem is it tastes like s***" - further aids the process. Then there’s the question of genetics. "You should see my mom at 76. Or my grandmother, who just turned 90."
Of course, neither fame, fortune nor even a fabulous years-defying physique and physiognomy can guarantee companionship or love. Cher says she is without a partner currently, her touring schedule having put paid to any recent chances of romance. "There are a lot of fabulous men out there, and I’ve actually bumped into a couple of them. But this schedule isn’t very relationship friendly and, when it came down to it, they didn’t want to be left back home waiting while I was gone. Why would they? I wouldn’t want it myself. So we’ll see. Would I like to meet someone when I get back off the road? Of course. But am I lonely or prepared to settle for second-best? No. My life is way too full of good friends and interesting people and things for that."
Both daughter Chastity (a highprofile lesbian activist) and son Elijah Blue (from a brief second marriage to musician Gregg Allman, and the leader of his own band, Deadsy) have flown the nest now, however, and she has no-one to answer to but herself. "Things like concert tours apart, I really don’t organise my schedule very far in advance," she says. "I’ve never planned further ahead than the next thing I was doing. As far as is possible, I prefer to just let things happen. And let’s be realistic, I’m not going to be in work forever." She pauses to reflect on this possibility, and then chuckles throatily. "Mind you, I’ve been saying that very same thing since I was 18 years old."
• Cher plays the SECC, Glasgow, tonight. (May 11th)
