Dana Gillespie -

Dana Gillespie is an English singer and actress who made the 1968 album Foolish Seasons on London Records, followed by the 1969 Decca release Box of Surprises. After four years in theater, she partnered with David Bowie and Mick Ronson, who co-produced her 1973 album Weren’t Born a Man for RCA. During the 1980s, she issued a more prolific string of albums on Ace and Bellaphon.

Background

Dana Gillespie was born Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie on March 30, 1949, in Woking, Surrey, England. Her parents were radiologist Hans Henry Winterstein Gillespie and Anne Francis Roden Buxton. Gillespie attended a local Rudolf Steiner school and Halstead preparatory school in Woking. Her family moved to central London in her childhood, and she completed her formal education with a brief term at Arts Educational School.

Gillespie wrote her first song at eleven and attended the 1962 American Folk Blues Festival. She took drum lessons and learned guitar as a teenager. At fifteen, she played paid folk-club dates around London with a twelve-string guitar. Gillespie met Davie Jones at the Marquee Club on Nov. 6, 1964, after a set by the Manish Boys.

Gillespie appeared on Ready Steady Goes Live! in April 1965, when Jones advised her on microphones and stage monitors. Pye signed her that year and issued “Donna Donna” in June 1965 (b/w “It’s No Use Saying If”), followed by “Thank You Boy” in October 1965 (b/w “You’re a Heartbreak Man”). Gillespie wrote both B-sides.

Gillespie appeared as a singer-guitarist in the 1966 Italian comedy Fumo di Londra. Pye issued “Pay You Back with Interest” in March 1967 (b/w “Adam Can You Beat That”), with another Gillespie composition on the B-side. Decca signed her to an album contract in 1968, which led to Foolish Seasons.

Discography: