Suzi Q London premiere

Suzi Quatro attended the London premiere of the documentary film about her life ‘Suzi Q’ at the Regent Street cinema near Oxford Circus. It’s a star studded film including contributions from Suzi herself, Alice Cooper, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Andy Scott. Wendy James and Henry Winkler as well as others she has worked with, members of her family and her ex husband. It is riveting mainly because it is a very honest look at her life and, as well as celebrating her successes, it is also a frank look at gender bias, family jealousies and the difficulties of trying to do it all in a world that was not receptive to female rock star talent at the time she started. Not all of it is stuff people would generally want to air about their private life and it is testimony to Suzi’s self confidence and lack of insecurity that she has allowed such an intimate portrait of her to be released. I sat on the front row right by her and was able to see that she is unsurprisingly emotional about the hard parts of her life and yet she has the courage to lay it bear for all to see. The same courage she displayed when she cracked wide open the opportunities for other female musicians to follow her trailblazing career. The documentary is available on DVD and Suzi took the time to meet fans and sign copies of the DVD and posters of the film after the show.

Before the signing Suzi answered questions from the floor. Once again she took a ruthlessly honest approach to answering questions. In fact she admitted she had chosen the main person behind the documentary Liam Firmager on the basis that he was intrigued by her, but was not a fan as she did not want an ‘ass kissing’ production. She admitted to Don Powell the drummer of Slade in the audience that she suffers stage fright, but only before she actually gets on stage. She talked of the culture shock she experienced when she first came to Britain in the 70s and had to get used to food and accommodation way below the standard that she had left behind in a comfortable American family environment and had upset her family leaving them behind and missed her home life and her family desperately,  but made these sacrifices willingly because of her drive to pursue her destiny. She also spoke of not understanding British humour at first, but how she has come to understand it and appreciate it immensely now. She told of how she operated the switchboard at Rak Records when she started out, mucking in, although admitting she was not a good telephone operator and often put people through to the wrong people. She told stories of talking to Elvis and expressed appreciation for people like Mickie Most who contributed to her career of over 55 years and sales of over 55 million records. Always willing to laugh at herself when someone referred to her boundless energy she told us that a doctor when she was young had told her mother ‘whatever you do, DO NOT give her vitamins’. Ultimately, she admitted she could give everything up except the ability to get on stage and communicate with her audience and it was these ethics of an old school entertainer that had her engage with every person who wanted to talk and interact with her tonight.

There are other evenings where the film will be shown and Suzi will be appearing, not to be missed!!

Dawn Osborne