Opening night of Broadway To Barbados and British pop legend Sir Cliff Richard steps on to the Frank Collymore Hall stage and launches into an energetic impromptu performance with American Broadway star Danny Zolli.
Sharing the stage with the legend is for Zolli a dream come true. For Sir Cliff, it is just another wonderful opportunity to perform “in paradise”.
He tells how he acquired immigrant status here on a whim. The idea to apply for it was triggered by a thought thrown out by his business manager.
“One day my business manager said to me, ‘If you stay away from England for one more month maybe I could save you some small tax’ and I said, ‘Maybe
I will spend two weeks more in Barbados, two weeks longer in Portugal,” Sir Cliff told the SUNDAY SUN last week.
His Barbados getaway sits on a bluff 200 feet above the Caribbean Sea. The house at the exclusive Sugar Hill estate commands a panoramic and breathtaking view of the west coast, and he has added his personal touch with furnishings and lush gardens that help to create the peace he enjoys on the island.
Sitting in a small gazebo with large wind chimes overhead occasionally stirred by the cool breezes and the morning sun beginning to beat down fiercely on the rippling water of the nearby swimming pool, the iconic singer smiles when asked: “What is it that draws you to Barbados?”
“I think the first thing that appeals is weather,” he quickly replies. Barbados’ beaches have also been a lure.
“When we first came, we were at Holders and then we would drive down by the beach by Sandy Lane hotel and what appealed to me was the beaches were all public; there were no private beaches so all the Bajan people could go to the beach and if you don’t live on the beach we also as tourists could go on the beach and feel free.”
Back then he did not consider owning a house in Barbados, until his friend David Lloyd, developer of Sugar Hill, broached the idea. “But I said I would not want to be on the beach, because I know a lot of European people come here and if I’m on the beach, then you would lose your privacy.”
He built the house at Sugar Hill, which offers the privacy he desires “and it is perfect . . . . I have enjoyed every second here since that time”, he says. One of the household staff brings him coffee and there is a hint of the warm relationship and informality he enjoys with his Barbadian staff as he reaches out, pats her lightly on the hand and with a smile says, “Thank you, Eula.”
Returning to the interview, he continues, “Barbados is a little paradise and the other thing I like about coming here now – I didn’t know this was going to happen – but within three years of living here I knew so many other people, from Britain from Canada, a really nice group of people, that we socialise a lot. We go to each other’s house for dinner.”
He also gives a thumb-up to Barbados’ restaurants, identifying Tides, Cin Cin, The Cliff, Champers and Scarlet as among his favourites. On the day of the interview he is taking his sister, who is visiting, to the Lone Star restaurant for her birthday.
This is a landmark year for the singer, who turns 75 on October 14 and is celebrating with a tour.
“I thought to myself it would be nice to celebrate it with my fans. We start in Scotland on September 25, and come down through Britain playing Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and end up at the Albert Hall for three nights there, including my birthday October 14. Then I take a day off, then [performances on] the 16th 17th 18.”
Sir Cliff remains fit and agile, though his career exceeds 50 years, during which he has sold close to three hundred million records. He has sold more singles in Britain than anyone else and though he never made any significant breakthrough in the United States, he managed to achieve the No. 3 position in the world in the sale of record singles, after Elvis Presley and the Beatles.
He dismisses the idea that he could ever record another No. 1 hit, saying “I know now that of course it would be very difficult, almost impossible . . . . But I’ve done that and now other people are doing what I did. So I feel very fortunate that as a 75-year-old man I can sit back and watch.”
“When the Shadows and me and Elvis and Elton and the Beatles and Gerry Lewis and Little Richard and the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson were No. 1 in the charts, we were selling 80 000 in a day. Things have changed a lot.”
By his account, his has been a career filled almost entirely with highs. He cannot readily recall the lows. “I am one of the lucky people. I started in 1958 and my first record went to No. 2. His fifth was his first No. 1 hit.
Receiving a knighthood from the Queen has been the highlight of his life, rating even higher than the thrill experienced each time he had a No. 1 hit, and realistically he does not see himself ever having another No. 1.
Though it is hard to find career lows – as he points out, “I don’t know about lows; my career has not really had lows” – there have been low points in his personal life.
An investigation currently in progress in Britain involving damaging allegations about his personal life Cliff is but one example of those occasions when the famous singer’s personal life has been projected in a negative light.
But in response, he acknowledges, “I have been under public scrutiny for 57 years but they get to know you in all the aspects. So I feel as though I married my career and I am very true to it and I would never do anything that would spoil it.”
Concerning the media keeping up the pressure, Sir Cliff says, “It is very painful sometimes to read things that are wrong about you, because journalists are famous for that. They don’t necessarily tell a lie but they will twist something you have said or else they leave out half the sentence which means the sentence makes no more sense.”
“You can’t always stay above it because it hurts . . . but I have got kind of used to that and journalism seems to have improved a little bit. I don’t think they are quite as vicious as they used to be although they still can be. But after a while, what I say to myself is, ‘Look, it has been 57 years’. Am I damaged? The answer is no.”
“They haven’t damaged me. It has been uncomfortable sometimes but in the end you have to look back and say, ‘I’m here. I’m still making records’.
“I am so happy I have had the life I have had with the career that I have had. I know it has to come to an end sometime. I didn’t think it would go on so long but I have enjoyed every second of it. All I have been trying to do is slow down a little.”
Retirement is not in his scope, however. “I don’t want to retire. What I might do [is] one day I could stop and no one would know that I have stopped, but maybe one year, two years later I might think, ‘Oh, I feel I might like to go and do a tour and so I could do a concert or tour, or maybe play a week at the Albert Hall and have fun with my band and I would feel artistically satisfied, and I could earn a little money as well but that would be the least of my reasons for doing it.”
gercinecarter@nationnews.com