When you go to Africa, and you see children, they’re usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they’d love to go to school.
Although I have lived in London, I have never really considered London my home because it was always going to be a stopping-off point for me, and it has been too.
Over the years, I was never really driven to become a solo artist, but I was curious to find out who I was as an individual creative person. It’s taken some time, but now I feel I’ve truly paid my dues. I guess I’m at a point now where I’m more comfortable in my own skin.
The music scene in the ’70s was like the United Kingdom in the ’70s – we had a lot of unemployment, we had inflation, we had a lot of strikes going on, on a national scale, and a lot of discontent. That was reflected in the music.
Feminism is a word that I identify with. The term has become synonymous with vitriolic man-hating but it needs to come back to a place where both men and women can embrace it. It is particularly important for women in developing countries.
It’s a very telling thing when you have children. You have to be there for them, you’ve got to set an example, when you’re not sure what your example is, and anyway the world is changing so fast you don’t know what is appropriate anymore.
I wouldn’t say that I’ve mellowed. I’m less mellow, perhaps.
I wanted to create something that was quite edgy and belonged to me. It wasn’t about my sexual orientation, because I’m heterosexual. It was saying that appearance is just temporary, and I want to be as strong as a man.
I was born in 1954. My parents were brought up in the war years, and life was hard.
As a creative person, you just put something out into the consciousness of the society you live in.
What’s really interesting is when you get a brand-new wave that has no connection to anything else. It always reflects society. The flappers would cut the dresses and make them looser, they smoked, their hair was short. It was a rebellion against the corset and the Edwardian era.
If someone says something unpleasant, I can’t say it doesn’t smart a bit. It always does. Someone can take a really nasty swipe if they want because it kind of feels powerful for a person to write in a paper and get that thing out there.
If I hadn’t been a singer, I might have been a photographer or an artist. But it’s singing I love. I sing all the time, and I feel really good that I’ve expressed myself.
I’ve never been a social person. When I grew up, the other girls would all be combing their hair and exchanging lipstick, and I just couldn’t do that group thing.
I would like to see the gay population get on board with feminism. It’s a beautiful organisation and they’ve done so much. It seems to me a no-brainer.
I was perceiving myself as good as a man or equal to a man and as powerful and I wanted to look ambiguous because I thought that was a very interesting statement to make through the media. And it certainly did cause quite a few ripples and interest and shock waves.
I was brought up in a tenement house in a working district. We didn’t even have a bathroom! We had a gaslight in the hallway and a black-and-white TV.
I don’t have any interest to go to Israel. I don’t think I’d ever have a cause to go.
You just decide what your values are in life and what you are going to do, and then you feel like you count, and that makes life worth living. It makes my life meaningful.
I’ve had my share of dark days of the soul. I try not to focus on it too much so it doesn’t get to me.
I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.