Cilla Black

She was a nasty cunt.

Really? Why?

I read one story about an incident. Something happened on a plane. What do you know, r1?

Hussy!

She turned up all the time on threads about nasty celebrities on forums for flight attendants.

She was treated like a national treasure in the UK, but her gameshows are probably more memorable than her music. 3rd rate next to Dusty and Petula.

The story was she got banned from Concorde because of how badly she treated crew.

That she turned into a Conservative snob.

Then there are stories from people who met her and said she was pretty nice.

Her accent was definitely put in though.

Great singer. Her recording of "Alfie" is spectacular.

I found the FA website on best and worst celebrities encountered when flying. Here's a sampling:

I have ...

Cilla Black - she should be shot - quite possibly one of the most unpleasant individuals I have ever come across.

R7 I think that's going a bit far. She was not a good singer. She was distinctive.

I did like when she sang Surprise Surprise at then end of her show though. I must have been 5 or 6 yo and taped over my Postman Pat cartoons for her on our VCR. I used to dance around the room to her screeching and hold out my arms like Jesus the way she did. God, I was gay!

I gave her a really good fingering at Penny’s in the dressing room. It was 1996 at Newport mall in NJ.

A grade-A cunt by all accounts

Priscilla Maria Veronica White OBE (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer, television presenter, actress, and author.

Championed by her friends in the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963, and her singles "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "You're My World" both reached number one in the UK in 1964. She had 11 Top Ten hits on the British charts between then and 1971, and an additional eight hits that made the top 40. In May 2010, new research published by BBC Radio 2 showed that her version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was the UK's biggest-selling single by a female artist in the 1960s.[1] "You're My World" was also a modest hit in the US, peaking at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cilla Black - Anyone Who Had A Heart

Cilla Black : You're My World

....

Cilla, The Frequent Flyer

Known – and feared – throughout the cabin crew community, Cilla Black’s in-flight attitude is the stuff of legend.

Not only would she insist upon travelling first class, she’d demand seat 1A. That was only the first of many demands too – all of which were made through her PA, as Cilla didn’t want to speak to any staff herself. The full nine yards too, not so much as a please or thank you.

One flight attendant eventually grew so tired of her behaviour, that he leaned over to speak directly to her and uttered the immortal line: “I knew you couldn’t sing, but I didn’t know you couldn’t fucking speak”.

Plus more tidbits from her eulogy at popbitch

Didn't she have an affair with John Lennon which is how she became famous?

Best of buddies with Paul O'Grady a.k.a. Lily Savage. When she returned to Holly Willoughby's updated Surprise Surprise she looked completely out of it. She sang a few notes of the theme song and sounded like she'd been on the champagne for a week! There were some gold standard cringe moments in that.

Ms Black

You don't talk to Ms Black.

Ms Black will talk to you.

Ms Black only sits in 1A

Ms Black will have some champagne now.

Ms Black talks through a personal assistant.

Vile bitch, rumour has it she was banned from BA for a while because of her attitiude to staff and excessive demands about seating.

Cilla's fatal fall

Cilla Black wasn't much known in the US, was she?

Honestly, I had never heard of Cilla Black until I read about her passing in 2015.

Canadian

R21, Nope. We know of Dusty and Petula and Lulu, but not Cilla nor Sandie.

Sandie who, r23?

R24, Sandie Shaw

R6 You say she was "a Conservative snob" with a capital C.

Was she a card-carrying member? Or are you talking with your arse?

R21, No, I only know her name because she was mentioned a couple of times on AbFab, I believe.

Anyway, I've been reading R8's link, and it's really fascinating reading! I don't want to derail the thread, but this was hilarious:

[quote]I'm not cabin crew (engineer) but I was asked if Glen Close could sit in the F/class during the turn round to aviod the Media. She was ugly enough to scare a police horse and was a troll.

I was an American child IN the 60s, not a child OF the 60s and even then I was aware of Cilla Black. She was part of the British Invasion. No one was as prominent as the Beatles, but Cilla definitely was known here.

"You're My World" was her only big hit in the US. Outside of that, she's pretty much unknown -- basically a one-hit wonder here.

[quote]She was part of the British Invasion

Yes. The landing gear on the plane.

She was one of those quintessential British female singers of the sixties. I thought she could really sing.

Me, too R31. I have one of her greatest hits album. I play it all the time.

That crack on her head was too good for the homely thieving bitch. If I'd have cut a side of "Pig Meat Pussy Stomp" she would have released a cover in two weeks.

Glad I in-voked it on her. Diva Justice is slow but when it comes - BAM!

I love the Lennon/McCartney song, "It's for you". Here John and Paul joke her a little. What square UK Go Go dancers...

Sorry.

Recording with Bacharach at the Abbey Road studio. Could there be any more pressure?

And Dionne HATED her, for Anybody who had a heart, and also for HER producer working with Cilla.

Wow - I really don't like her screeching in parts of "Alfie."

The notorious basket case Sheridan Smith played Cilla in a TV biopic.

Never heard of her but know several of her songs. She's good. Enjoyable.

A few years ago, Miss Warwick announced a planned biopic on her life, with Lady Gaga playing her "nemesis," Cilla Black. However, Lady Gaga's people quickly shot that down, saying she was never attached to the project. Without Gaga, this will be a hard sell. Is there any interest in seeing Dionne's life story played out?

I find her voice abrasive.

The Lennon/McCartney song was interesting, though. Something different from them....

Feud: Dionne vs Our Cilla

Our Cilla? She was a cunt with a screechy voice.

Her Death Thread.

Thanks R45... that "she's dead to me" thread is a trove of gossip

I don't actually judge any sort of artist by how they behave on public transportation. That live performance of "Alfie" was wonderful, how she behaves out of a studio, I don't care.

She's no Cilla Battersby-Brown

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Nothing at the link, r49.

Here she is topless if anyone needs a quick wank x

I much preferred Lesley Duncan myself.

I wonder if anyone else hates this buck toothed ugly scouse cow as much as I do? Just saw an advert she's done cashing in for one of those companies that screw old ladies out of their funeral money and she's going on about how tragic it is to lose a loved one. This is the old wanker who within weeks of her husband snuffing it was out in some wanky gay club with Dale Winton in some skimpy leotard that barely covered her saggy tits with her minge hanging out round her ankles.

Is there anyone out there who actually likes her or is she one of these "popular celebrities" that the media force upon us like Jade Goody?

- Funny comment

R51, it's nice to see real breasts instead of fake melons. (Reminds me of that Benny Hill sketch, driving by a produce stand. The woman has 2 cantaloupes on the table in front of her (read breasts) and had a sign saying Home Grown. Benny wrecked the car...

I never understood the attraction. Her singing voice was nasal and she didn't seem to have much of a range. She didn't have the personality/stage presence of someone like Bette Midler. The Brits produced much better girl singers in the 1960s.

However, she did appear on The Ed Sullivan Show three times. Had it not been for close association with The Beatles, she'd probably be doing karaoke in Liverpool's Red Light district.

[quote] Is there any interest in seeing Dionne's life story played out?

Several years ago, the Brits did a tv movie about Shirley Bassey. Ruth Negga played Shirley. It was really bad. You can find it on YouTube.

So if Shirley gets a life story, then Dionne should definitely get one.

The Sheridan Smith miniseries about Cilla was so dull. It wasn't badly written or anything, it's just that Cilla's life wasn't interesting enough to justify the episodes' existence.

Cilla should have been grateful Sheridan took on the role, she was prettier and a much better voice than Our Cilla.

This fucking bullshit has got to stop.

Gaga is playing [bold]CLINT[/bold] Black in my biopic, not that rubble-toothed bitch Cilla.

You did hear how they had to take the door off the hinges to get her fat-ass corpse out of the building, didn't you?

Tsk. Britz.

Lulu doesn't give a flying fuck about Cilla.

I think she just happened to be around on the scene during the early Beatles days in Liverpool, at the Cavern etc. She was profoundly untalented and unattractive but apparently very pushy and good at self promotion. Her voice sounded like a cat with Parkinson's being tortured.

I've heard she was a grade A cunt and a Tory too, typical of a certain type of working class British celebrity.

Love that song R60. I used to pretend to be Lulu as a four year old using my mum's hair roller as a mic. -R61

I still do that today, R62. It's good for you.

Actually, Cilla had the biggest vocal range of the Brit Girls of the Sixties (and that included holdovers from the previous decades, Pet Clark and Shirley Bassey). It's her tone that's an acquired taste.

For instance, Dusty passed on recording "This Empty Place" because it was too rangey. Cilla could handle the range if not the finesse one might like.

I tooke quite a while to get used to Cilla's voice, but her catalogue really is worth investigating for 60s pop fans. She deserves props for not getting overwhelmed by the orchestra going batshit in the background of this hit, "Love's Just a Broken Heart."

*I took

"Conversations" is gorgeous.

She does surprisingly well with this standard, "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to."

[quote]She does surprisingly well with this standard, "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to."

Oh, that British humor. *That* face singing *that* song. The irony is delicious.

Surely the "you" was her Bobby?

Golden Bobby.

She was the hat check girl at the Cavern Club in Liverpool at the same time the Beatles (among other Liverpudlian groups) played there. That's how she became friends with the Beatles. Brian Epstein, the Beatles' gay manager, took a liking to her and he's the one who changed her original name Priscilla White to the more show bizzy Cilla Black. He also became her manager as well.

Lily Savage as Mazzepa, Barbara Windsor as Tessie Tura, and Cilla Black as Electra, Royal Variety Performance, 2001

"Got a shilling for your meter?"

R29 Anyone Who Had a Heart was a huge hit in "my circle" - So Cal. It was a great song - she, Sandy Shaw, Petula - represented the women of the British Invasion - before Dusty.

[quote]Anyone Who Had a Heart was a huge hit in "my circle"

What circle was that, fool? The seventh circle of Hell?

R75 I apologize.... it was Warwick's overbite version that was the hit. True.

....

R61 to R64 love you! R68 she really was great when she dropped that awful scouse singing voice

There's so many reports of her being an absolute cunt that I am inclined to believe it, I wonder if she was always such a cunt or whether she became one after her husband died?

She's one of those British celebrities, like James Corden now, who is inexplicably popular despite having a reputation as a total cunt and you can't find anyone who actually says they like them. James Corden is probably worse though because he keeps being cast in movies too. I can only assume Illuminati involvement.

[Quote] you can't find anyone who actually says they like them

Plenty of people didn't admit to liking Duran Duran in the 80s, but if they were hugely successful...

Paul O'Grady is not loathed behind the scenes and he liked Cilla. Jonathan Groff has a good reputation... and he likes Lea Michele...

🎵H-a-a-a-t-t-t-e-d🎶 her!

I heard her referred to as a "Cavern Screamer. I liked her booming voice. If you watch the last Ed Sullivan appearance of the Beatles, Ed grabbed her so hard she squeaked.

Cilla maintained that she was a "rocker," which seems an odd claim. But if you compare Cilla, Sandie, Lulu, and even early Dusty to the female singers of just a few years earlier, the claim doesn't seem that far fetched. They all sang with a rougher, untrained style when they arrived on the scene. Dusty soon abandoned trying to compete with Etta James or Tina Turner. Lulu also smoothed out her style. Sandie seem to have little idea about what approach was right for her (see her "Reviewing the Situation" album). Cilla had better guidance than them all, arguably - which isn't to say she ever made a classic album (like "Dusty In Memphis").

[quote]holdovers from the previous decades, Pet Clark and Shirley Bassey

Clark and Bassey may have started their careers in the 40s (Pet) and 50s (Shirl), but the era of greatest fame and success for both was the 1960s. Both became global superstars during that decade. Pet Clark was known as "the First Lady of the British Invasion."

Actually, post-Goldfinger, Shirley Bassey struggled in the charts - at the exact time Cilla Black and others were triumphing. Petula was also massive as a multi-language singing star pre-Downtown. Neither just came into their own as part of the British Invasion.

Bacharach tortured her in the recording studio keeping her there until the early hours and recording take after take.

I thought that was Vicki Lawrence in OP's photo.

Pet Clarke started as a child actress. She was in "The Gay Intruders" in 1944.

I long for gay intruders.

Rodgers and Hart, R89, have just the song...

[italic]"Even old maids find a burglar, why can't I?

Why can't I?[/italic]

I love Cilla’s music but I prefer Petula.