Marcella's Tale
The Story of Shakespear
or, The Tale of Two Sisters
By Marcella Detroit, January 1999
In September of 1987, I met the very pregnant
Siobhan Fahey. I was introduced to her by my
friend and then writing partner, Richard
Feldman. Richard and I wrote many songs
together; some were recorded by such artists
as Chaka Khan ("So Close", also written along
with Pam Tillis), Eric Clapton ("Promises",
"Walk Away", "Tangled in Love") and Belinda
Carlisle ("Little Black Book").
Richard lived across the street from what was
to be the new home of Siobhan and then
husband, Dave Stewart, of the Eurythmics.
When Richard found out they were going to
move in, of course, he was very interested in
getting to know them. So, when they were
settled in, he introduced himself and
gradually learned that Siobhan was preparing
to leave Bananarama. He began doing some
writing with her at his house in his 24 track
studio. It was kind of experimental at first
and Richard called and asked me to come over
to write with him and Siobhan. Siobhan was
very shy and I remember her one night......
kind of hiding under the console of the
mixer!
Siobhan explained to us what direction she
wanted the music to go in. Richard would get
a track going and would tailor it exactly to
what Siobhan might want. While Richard and I
would be working on the music and melodies
that would suit her voice, Siobhan would be
writing lyrics. At times she found it
difficult to express her feelings. I could
always tell when she didn't like something,
when the music was not going the way she
wanted it to. So, I would sometimes act as
her "interpreter", and encourage her to speak
up and say how she felt.
Her singing was kind of inconfident at first,
but Richard and I encouraged her to go for it
as we could see her potential. And when she
started coming out of her shell it was really
good. During that initial period, we wrote
"Break My Heart", "You Made Me Come To This",
"Remember My Name", and we also recorded the
Bob Marley track, "Could You Be Loved?"
London Records, her label at the time, were
constantly monitoring what Siobhan was doing,
as I'm sure they were worried about her
leaving a very successful situation. There
was a lot of discussion with London and it
was always difficult communicating with them.
It took ages to get any feedback, and of
course, it wasn't always positive. But we
were encouraged to go on recording and
writing with Siobhan by her management and
the record company.
Then it was time for a wee break. Siobhan
was going to give birth to her first son,
Sam, in November. Thankfully, all went
well.
After a few months break, Richard Feldman was
asked to go over to London to do some more
recording with Siobhan acting as producer for
the "Sacred Heart" album. This was in March
or April of 1988. After a few weeks working
with her, Richard called and asked me to come
over to work with them also. I was hesitant
at first because I thought it would interfere
with what I was doing at the time. I was
working on getting my own record deal, had a
band, and was gigging in L.A. However, I
decided to go for it./p>
We ended up writing loads of new songs in a
small room at the back of Dave's "Church
Studio" in Crouch End. It was a good little
room, with a 24 track recorder and all. We
wrote and recorded "Heroine", "Dirty Mind",
"Sacred Heart", "Pretty Boy", "Mr Wrong",
"Electric Moon", "Run Silent", "Twist The
Knife", and a few others. We ended up
working in a few different studios so we
could finish everything up and I believe I
came back to L.A. for a break after about 5
or six weeks.
The next segment of recording was back in
L.A. We ended up writing "Heaven Is In Your
Arms" and wrote a few other songs, but London
Records was not happy yet. After a few more
months of writing, Siobhan decided to do a
video of "Heroine" with Sophie Muller, her
longtime friend, directing. It was shot on
the streets of L.A. Siobhan felt very
strongly about that song and video, so much
so, that she paid for the video herself as
London Records would not put up the money for
it. She was pushing for "Heroine" to be the
first single, but the record company did not
agree.
A kind of "meet and greet" was held at Dave
and Siobhan's house in L.A. where we met some
important people at radio, ect, and did an
acoustic performance of a few of the songs
off the forthcoming "Sacred Heart" album.
London Records still felt they did not have
their first single. In November, I was asked
to come over to London to meet up with Dave
and Siobhan to do a show in Russia, backing a
Russian recording artist that Dave had been
producing. Siobhan and I would do our debut
Shakespear's Sister gig in Leningrad to
10,000 screaming Russians!!! We did "Heroine"
and "Dirty Mind". Sophie Muller came along on
the journey and we did some filming which
would appear on a promotional video done for
London Records.
In around February of 1988, I went back to
London to do some recording on the songs we
had been working on and to do some more
writing. Shortly after that, sometime in
April, we all went to New York to do some
more writing as London Records still did not
feel we had the "definitive" first Shakespear
single. We were at the Mayflower hotel,
along Central Park, writing every day for a
few weeks, and finally came up with "You're
History". It went on to be the first single
off the first Shakespear's Sister album,
"Sacred Heart", and went to number seven in
the U.K. charts. It was released in England
and parts of Europe in late August of 1989 to
some noteworthy success.
Up until that point, my part in Shakespear's
Sister was one of being a hired hand. I
played lots of guitar on the record, some
harmonica, sang background vocals, and
co-wrote at least 8 of the tracks. That was
the understanding I felt from Siobhan and
London Records. Although, Dave kept saying
to Siobhan and I, "You two should make this a
band!!".
I felt a little unfulfilled, as I wasn't
singing as much as I'd wanted to, nor was it
my concept and I felt like I wasn't being
completely myself...I wasn't ready to commit
to Shakespear's Sister and Siobhan was not
really interested in necessarily being in a
band with me, as she had just come out of
being in a band situation with Bananarama.
Shakespear's was Siobhan's baby, it was her
concept, which I respected, and she made that
perfectly clear, as did her management. She
was to have total creative control, which was
fine with me. But I was soon asked by
Siobhan and her management to take part in
interviews with the press, photos, ect., and
I had to learn fast what was... and what was
not appropriate... and to find out, on my
own, my identity within the band. Siobhan
also decided to include me in the inner
photograph of the record sleeve of "Sacred
Heart". With the writing of "You're History"
and the completion of "Sacred Heart", I felt
my role became much more integral to
Shakespear's Sister, as did Siobhan, her
management, and all at London Records, so it
made more sense to make a commitment.
As my role became that much more important to the band, I was asked to be a fifty per cent member by Siobhan, London Records and her management, beginning with the recording of the second album, "Hormonally Yours".
This was all done with the understanding that Siobhan would always maintain creative control. She an I have a discussion over the phone where we spoke about this. Before agreeing to be a fifty percent member, which I certainly appreciated, I asked her if I was allowed to give any input at all and she maintained that she was to have total creative control of the band. I then expressed to her that I couldn't be expected to be a puppet and stuck by that to the nth degree. The fact was that I did contribute quite a lot in the end, even helped write some lyrics, came up with video ideas, ect., which I will get into in the next part. Anyway, on to phase two....
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