I used to be paid £9 as a singer on Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album, says DANA GILLESPIE

Dana Gillespie is a singer-songwriter and actress who enjoyed a decade-long personal and professional relationship with David Bowie, who died ten years ago, writes York Membery.

The 76-year-old appeared in the recent Channel 4 documentary Bowie: The Final Act, starred in the first West End production of Jesus Christ Superstar and is a descendant of the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, who appeared on the £5 note before Sir Winston Churchill. She lives in London.

What did your parents teach you about money?

I grew up in a lovely South Kensington property – it was a bit of a shock when I first visited Bowie at his parents’ little terraced house in Bromley, which is to be turned into a museum. I’m probably one of the few people left who actually went to his family home in the Sixties. I remember the decor very well.

My father, Hans, a successful radiologist, and my mother, Anne, never discussed money. But when I was 11, I did a paper round for 12 shillings and sixpence a week.

Having my own money meant my parents couldn’t tell me I wasn’t allowed a drum kit, because I could afford to buy one.

The options for kids wanting to earn money nowadays seem more limited.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

I’ve always paid the bills and, despite turning 76 last March, blues singers like me can go on until they die.

Nonetheless, I watch the pennies and for instance buy second-hand clothes in markets.

Neither Bowie, who I met at the Marquee club in 1964, or I had much money in the Sixties when we were struggling musicians. But back then you could go out and have a great time with very little in your pocket.

Everyone seemed kinder then, even the pimps and hookers leaning out of the windows of Soho’s red-light district.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

Blues singers aren’t usually paid monstrous amounts of money but, if I ever was, I wouldn’t call it ‘silly money’. I would call it ‘wonderful money’.

Some of my best gigs have been quite lucrative, but not in purely financial terms – I got paid in other ways.

For instance, for 20 years I ran the Mustique Blues Festival, so every January I got to escape England and enjoy fantastic music and turquoise waters for 15 days in the Caribbean.

What was the best year of your financial life?

Late in the Sixties, I sang on a number of cover song albums – the LP covers always featured a bird falling out of a bikini – with Elton John.

We got paid £25 a day for doing the back vocals, which was fabulous money then. I was also the original Mary Magdalene in the first London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, which opened in 1972.

It was great to have regular money, but it was tough to watch the crucifixion eight times a week. The other day I chanced upon a payment slip showing that I was paid £9 [roughly £172 in 2026 terms] to be a backing singer on Bowie’s breakthrough 1972 Ziggy Stardust album, but I was very happy with that at the time.

Funnily enough, Bowie and I both auditioned for the musical Hair a year earlier… but both got turned down!

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

I once snapped up a black Steiff teddy bear for £120 after seeing it in a second-hand shop in Norwich – I’m mad about them and have around 20 lined up either side of my bed.

I’d love to get my hands on a Steiff mourning bear, made for people who’d lost loved ones on the Titanic, but they can go for thousands of pounds at auction.

The most expensive thing someone has ever got me? Bowie’s first wife, Angie, used to buy all David’s clothes, and she once very sweetly bought me 20 pairs of Janet Reger French knickers in different colours.

What is your biggest money mistake?

Perhaps financing some of the albums I’ve made, not all of which have sold well.

But I’d rather go into the studio and pay the musicians I work with well than splash out on something I don’t need.

Best money decision you have made?

Firstly, becoming a blues singer – I enjoyed the glam world of the Bowie era but knew I couldn’t go walking around in stiletto heels with plunging necklines forever, so I went back to the music I loved.

Secondly, making my latest album, First Love, with Marc Almond.

It features some great songs, not all written by me. I’m really proud of it.

Will you pass your money down or spend it all?

Ideally, I will spend everything so that when I breathe my last, there’s practically nothing left.

I never wanted children, though I would obviously like to find a good home for my beloved teddy bears and set some money aside for family, friends and animal charities close to my heart.

Do you have a pension?

I currently receive a miserable state pension, because there was a gap when I lived in America and wasn’t able to pay my stamp – but I’m grateful for anything and it pays for the occasional cappuccino.

Do you own any property?

Yes, a one-bedroom period house in South Kensington – the area where I have lived all my life.

I’m happy living somewhere small because I want to be able to get from room to room without having a heart attack.

I’ll never move unless I’m carried out in a wooden overcoat.

If you were Chancellor, what would you do?

I’d scrap the ‘farmers’ tax’ which I think is appalling, because the more British-grown produce we can eat, the better.

I’d also give tax relief to grassroots music venues – without them, there’s no real launch pad for the musicians of the future.

Lastly, I’d force retail stores to accept cash. I’ve stopped going to a local coffee shop because they now only take card payments.

What is your number one financial priority?

Being able to pay my medical and heating bills as I grow older.

• Dana Gillespie: Weren’t Born A Man (Hawksmoor Publishing), by Dana Gillespie, is out now in paperback.

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