that’s ENTERTAINMENT Still in the spotlight


THERE’S no doubt that rock and roll stalwart Suzi Quatro loves performing. For more than 35 years, she has been wowing audiences worldwide with her unpretentious brand of good-time rock and roll and energetic stage performances. Now in her 60s, Quatro shows no signs


of slowing down, as Newcastle audiences are sure to witness when she performs later this month. Quatro, who averages 60 shows across the


globe a year said getting onstage was one of her favourite things to do in the world. “The main thing is the performing – I just


love it,” Quatro told The Post. “There truly is nothing better in the world than getting on stage and capturing people’s imagination for a while. You just can’t beat it with a stick.” Ever since she saw Elvis Presley’s iconic


appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show as a child, she knew that she wanted to live the life of a performer. “I was fi ve going on six living in Detroit,


Michigan,” she explained. “I remember I was in another room and my


sister was screaming. I went in to see what she was screaming about and Elvis Presley was on the screen. “First I was looking at the screen, then I was inside the television. I decided then and there that’s what I wanted to do with my life.” Quatro fi rst burst onto the international


scene back in 1973 with the runaway hit Can the Can. The song reached number one in both Australia and the UK and a reciprocal love aff air between her and Australia has continued ever since. “I’m always looking forward to getting


back to Australia,” she said. “In fact, I’m counting down the days til I


can see my adopted home and family again. It’s always a really good time down


in Australia.” Aside from all of the hits that have made


Quatro a household name such as Devil Gate Drive, 48 Crash and Stumblin’ In, audiences are also sure to be treated to cuts from Quatro’s fi rst studio album in fi ve years, In the Spotlight. Quatro said she was extremely proud of


the record which, she said was something of a return to the drawing board after releasing the highly personal Back to the Drive album in 2006 and the confessional autobiography Unzipped. In order to help her get “back to basics” Quatro enlisted the help of long-time friend, collaborator and ex-pat Aussie Mike Chapman (the Sweet, Smokey, Mud, Racey) to produce. “It was just fantastic working with Mike


again,’ she said. “We’ve been friends for a long time and


we have done the odd track together over the years, but this is the fi rst time in a while that we’ve worked so closely together. It was all about going back to where it all began after getting all of the Back to the Drive and Unzipped stuff out of my system and it was just so easy and familiar working with Mike again.” Quatro has always stood out as one of only a handful of female rock and rollers to make a name for themselves. While she made her bones in the oft-male dominated dominion of ‘70’s rock and roll she said, she was unaware of any discrimination or boys club mentality within the industry. “While I’m sure it was there, none of that


stuff really touched me because I grew up in a family of four sisters and my dad brought us all up to be ballsy and not to get pushed around,” she said. “Although, in the beginning I do remember


thinking to myself ‘I hope this is successful because this isn’t really what a girl should be doing’.”


Suzi Quatro plays at the Civic Theatre on Wednesday, September 28.


By STEPHEN BISSET


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