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24 September 2014
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I suppose it was quite a controversial thing at the time. Do you think it changed people's perceptions of you?
 Lulu: No, I don't think so.

So you come from a fairly liberal-minded background?
 Lulu: Yes. Absolutely. It wasn't a problem at all.

I'm assuming you didn't know that Legs and Co would immediately follow Ruby Flipper, did you?
 Lulu: It was such a long time ago. I think Flick Holby and Ruth Pearson who were the management, came along and said "Ruby Flipper's got to stop. We're going back to the all-girl group. If you want to stay, you can, and we'll get some other girls to join you."

So, there wasn't a period of thinking that's it?
 Lulu: No. We went from one straight into the other.

So, do you think Ruby Flipper's tenure was down to public perception or do you think it was more specifically the BBC bosses?
 Lulu: I think it was the BBC bosses. They had to err on the side of caution and I think there were some people around who were older and they had come up through much more simplistic light entertainment programmes. On variety shows they had girls and boys dancing in groups but I think we were more overtly sexual than they were.

Do you think there was a conscious decision to play on that?
 Lulu: I think that's putting it too strongly but I do think it was on people's minds. I don't think we were out to out-do Hot Gossip because they were much raunchier and on the Kenny Everett show, a much more risqué format. We were stuck with the good old BBC. They used to ban songs that had rude words in it, so they were very careful. We were just too much.

How did that make you feel?
 Lulu: It all happened quite quickly. We felt quite sad because the girls were carrying on and the boys weren't. I don't think the boys wished us anything else but good luck.

  Simply Red  
  "That's a bit supermarket, isn't it. I'm not making that many bottles. "  
  Robin Gibb  
  "There's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer."  
  Paul Roberts - The Stranglers  
  "We certainly weren't going to call ourselves The Bay City Rollers."  
  Lisa Stansfield  
  "I just thought, how many times do I have to sing this song?"  
  Soft Cell  
  "I think it's the only time that a banjo's been played in the Ministry of Sound."  
  Erasure  
  "Agnetha said she liked it. If I met them I would curtsey."  
  INXS  
  "We really surprised lots of people by simply hanging in there."  
  Kim Wilde  
  "I used to be really jealous of Claire Grogan...I thought she was gorgeous."  
  Dollar  
  "Failure was not an option, we were materialistic and greed was good."  
  Human League  
  "We did a US tour with Culture Club and Howard Jones...solely for the cash."  
  Altered Images  
  "Women were treated as a bit of a novelty in the music business in 1981."  
  Belle Stars  
  "The pop music lark just seems like a lifetime away now."  
  Steve Strange  
  "Look, you’re playing me like a bitchy queen and I’m not like that."  
  Five Star  
  "We all grew up wanting to be famous and we lived our dream..."  
  Phillip from Ruby Flipper  
  "At my age, I'd find it difficult to get my legs where they used to go..."  
  Glen Campbell  
  "I got to work with literally everyone in the business; Nat King Cole, Sinatra..."  
  David Gray  
  "Lots of tension in the camp. We're battling Gareth Gates for the No.1 spot"  
  Robert Palmer  
  "There's this homegenised force feeding of what is hip."  
  Marilyn  
  "I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity"  
  Tom Jones  
  "I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef"  
  Ruth From Pan's People  
  "I could show you dozens of times I forgot the moves..."  
  Badly Drawn Boy  
  "Everybody has to do what everybody else does in order to have a hit single"  
  John Otway  
  "I think the music business is probably not happy with what we've done..."  
  Jimmy Cliff  
  "I look at someone like Ms Dynamite, I come away with a positive feeling."  
  Human League  
  "We wouldn't trust anyone that didn't wear eyeliner."  
  Status Quo  
  "I probably went about four or five years with a pair of stage jeans"  
  Gary Numan  
  "There are so many things in my past that you could make fun of."  
  McAlmont and Butler  
  "We were big enough to get over any-thing that may have been exchanged."  
  Primal Scream  
  "The producer at the time told us we'd never work again."  
  Oasis  
  "I prefer miming, I prefer if we weren’t playing live."  


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