Bryony Sutherland - Annie Lennox: The Biography

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ISBN: 978-0-85712-114-1

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In loving memory of
Dorothy Marshall & Dorothy McPherson

The very first person we contacted with regard to this biography was Annie Lennox herself. As a very private lady with a natural wariness of examination into her personal and professional life, she declined to speak to us. We are therefore grateful to have maintained an open and friendly relationship with her representatives, 19 Management.

Nevertheless, an up-to-date biography of Annie Lennox is long overdue, and well-deserved. In unravelling the myths surrounding this most enigmatic figure, we were fortunate to be able to speak to the following people, from all facets of her life: Peter Ashworth, Joe Bangay, Marilyn Beattie, Ron Bryans, Irene Burnett, Chris Charlesworth, Barry Dransfield, Anne Dudley, George Duncan, Mickey Gallagher, Dean Garcia, Wendy Godfrey, Rob Gold, Colleen Gray-Taylor, Geoff Hannington, Derek Honner, Margaret Hubicki, Judd Lander, Sandra MacKAY, Barry Maguire, Hugh Megarrell, Neil Meldrum, John Murray, Jean Oates, Keith Peacock, John Pooley, Claire Powell, Michael Radford, Pat Reid, Ray Russell, June Smith, Patricia Smith, Jack Steven, John Turnbull, Lawrence Wess, Dave Whitson, Norma Whitson, Elaine Williams and Olav Wyper.

Certain interviewees requested anonymity, and we have respected their wishes.

Unfortunately, Annies reluctance to become involved was conveyed to a few friends and colleagues who declined interview requests. Most of these worked with Annie during her solo career in the Nineties. Intriguingly, those involved before this time were willing to help in any way they could.

Additional research for this book was undertaken by Keith Badman, Andree Buchler, Ruth Byrchmore (Royal Academy of Music), Clare Ellis, Edward Ellis, Donna Evleth, Janet Snowman (Royal Academy of Music) and Catherine Taylor (Aberdeen Central Library).

Lucy OBriens excellent Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This and Sweet Dreams The Definitive Biography Of Eurythmics by Johnny Waller and Steve Rapport provided a sound starting block and are to be highly recommended to all discerning Eurythmics fans. Likewise, certain articles have proved invaluable, including interviews in The Face by Max Bell and Elissa Von Poznak, in Rolling Stone by Brant Mewborn and various others by Alan Jackson. A comprehensive list of all books and articles used is to be found in the bibliography.

At Omnibus Press we would like to thank Chris Charlesworth, Lucy Hawes, Nikki Lloyd, Hilary Power and Melissa Whitelaw.

Thanks also to Richard Balls, Ruth Brown, Diane Cheung (Henrys House), Helen Donlon, Gary Gilbert, Camilla Howarth (19 Management), Tim James, Laura Lutostanska (19 Management), Peter Misson, Simon Robinson, Leila Stacey (Isobel Griffiths) and Chris Stein. A special mention should go to the Onelist/e-groups community, whose views are frequently perceptive and thought-provoking. Nice One Says Cherie.

Special thanks must go to Peter Ashworth and Rob Gold for their extreme patience and generosity with both their time and address books. As always we send our love and gratitude to Frankie Sutherland, Elton Thrussell and our families for their ceaseless support.

Bryony Sutherland & Lucy Ellis

September 2000

I feel I cannot be put into a box of just one concept. I think that everyone is a whole mixture of personalities, and I feel thats particularly true of myself.

Annie Lennox

Wild eyes askew behind the mask, a trace of a sneer on her immaculately drawn lips, her tanned limbs flexing and forming a threatening fist, Annie Lennox glares at the photographer with a mutinous air of challenge. She is an android, or an androgyny; her razor blade smile simultaneously beckoning and discarding criticism. But she sings like an angel.

Few have missed that most memorable visual image of the early Eighties. Nearly two decades later, the photographers subject still patiently shrugs off the androgynous tag which has clung to her since she reigned supreme as a gender-bending queen.

She has exacted an art form of keeping her private life just that; frequently denouncing glossy magazines as an invasion and sighing, Personally, I dont see that talking about myself is interesting to people. Yet, presenting the perfect dichotomy, the poor Scots lass made good freely concedes, Everything I write is about myself.

Few lives could be catalogued as intriguingly as in the searing words and musical mastery of hits such as Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), Whos That Girl?, Here Comes The Rain Again, Beethoven (I Love To Listen To), You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart or Why. Each of these tracks, and countless others, crystallises not just a genre of music but also an era, bringing back into focus periods of dramatic social and political change. Not necessarily consciously, fans of this esoteric mother-of-two have witnessed an ongoing autobiography of depression and joy, heartbreak and desire, and an unrivalled perfectionists viewpoint on life.

The ability to balance a formal education at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music with an assertive need to rebel, a highly individual voice, multi-layered songwriting skills and a strong sense of visual presentation has become her trademark. Rarely has her music appeared anodyne or mundane. Always she has experimented to the extreme, along the way unpredictably blurring the lines between male and female, love and obsession, security and danger.

Her creative development was immeasurably amplified on meeting Dave Stewart; four years her lover and now recently reunited collaborator. Theirs has been a relationship of dependency, cruelty and devotion, producing almost as a by-product musical masterpieces that amply charted a decade.

All too frequently Stewart is deemed a mad professor of the recording studio, yet alongside co-writing songs with over 70 other major artists, he has successfully branched out into photography and film directing. Like his female counterpart, his work for charity is faultless, and tireless.

The two presented a united front through Annies rise from Joni Mitchell-styled singer/songwriter, to three minutes of plastic-clad fame in power pop group The Tourists, before securing a place in history as the enigmatic frontwoman of Eurythmics. For the first half of Eurythmics career it was assumed Annie was merely a voice for Dave Stewarts compositions. Even when she achieved recognition as a gifted lyricist in her own right, critics, often more preoccupied with beating her strong views to a pulp, maintained it was only Daves manic wizardry that kept the hit machine afloat. How wrong they were proven when Annie embarked on a hugely successful solo career, outselling umpteen Eurythmics records with her debut offering, Diva.