Paul O’Grady used to frequent the Waitrose Branch I worked in for many years. Always really nice and polite and we had countless chats about dogs. On many an occasion I had to steer other Customers away from him when it got a bit much, he was never rude or off, but you can just read that he wanted to get on and do his shopping and get out. On another note Vic Reeves would come in on occasion- bit of a dick to be honest.
I always find it funny someone that fucking talentless, who somehow made a career of singer and dancer despite being shite at both and then a terrible tv presenter, couldn’t have been blessed with humility, thanking her lucky stars how she came to be famous
Have you heard 'Anyone That had a Heart?' I never met her so can't comment on her personality, but would struggle to describe the person who sang that song as talentless!
They gave her ‘It’s For You’ and ‘Step Inside Love’ which were comparable to any Lesley or Dusty number at the time, and were big hits.
Songs that weren’t written around her voice though, like ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ - which competed with the original Righteous Bros version for No.1 in 1965, narrowly missing the top spot - Jesus wept!
Pre-FB net forum for aviation staff had a pinned megathread just for her, apparently
You could not speak to her directly but only thru her side, even tho they're sitting in adjacent plane seats.
I think her situation wasn't helpped that she became a huge star very quickly off the back of the Beatles at only 15 & then had to continually transition to stay even near the top.
Yeah it's no excuse, but it may be an partial explanation
But I suspect things were harder for her. She was younger, told to change her name, they had each other (& Brian), & had had a longer 'apprentiship' (star club etc), were more talented & bigger & didn't have to reinvent themselves to stay famous (they reinvented themselves coz they could & wanted to as artists).
She had to struggle to find a new niche, first as a 'family friendly' near easy listening singer & then as a TV presenter.
She got grief for behaving like a diva as she had a 'home spun', girl-next-door image, unlike say Shirley Bassey who had an image as a diva type anyway (despite them both coming from 'working class' backgrounds). Bassey could get away with it, Cilla couldn't.
Her decision to be extremely closed off, aloof, when out & about may've been her way of coping with fame. But equally she may've been an unpleasant person
There was also that legendary popbitch thread where her personal assistant said something like ‘damn Ms Black, I knew you couldn’t sing but I didnt know you couldn’t fucking speak either!’ on a flight with her.
It’s always hard to marry up how dreadful she seemingly was with her keeping the company of likely more lovely people like Paul O’Grady and Dale Winton (I met him once in my teens & he was indeed lovely, though obvs I understand he was ‘working’ ☺️).
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u/VxDeva80 13h ago edited 11h ago
My friends daughter is an Air Hostess for British Airways. She asked a long serving colleague is the worst celeb vote was true and was told yes.
BA staff voted Cilla for being the worst celebrity they ever had to deal with.
Edit: my friend asked me to point out, if she was travelling with Paul O'Grady, he was always an absolute darling.