Scene 1

Exterior Night: Glasgow

W/S of cranes and ships along the river and docks, tinged orange by winter’s twilight. City lights sparkle, the small theaters of tenement windows, the sound of distant traffic, blue trains rattling to the suburbs.

: Glasgow, 1963

Interior Night: The Lindella Nightclub. Wisps of smoke, tables along one side of room, a bar with a scrum of customers, eager to get drunk, enjoying themselves. Backstage - a band, The Gleneagles, are ready to go on. They can hear the audience getting restless. The bass player asks if everything is okay? Over the sound system, the voice of the compere introducing the band. This is it. A ripple of applause, a rush, then the band is on stage. At the rear, a young girl, who looks hardly in her teens, her hair bright red, sprayed with lacquer, and set in rollers. She has a cold, but smiles, and looks confident. A pause. She checks with the band. The audience are uneasy, mutter quick comments (“Away back to school, hen”). Laughter. Then 14-year-old Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, opens her mouth and sings:

: Wwwwwwwweeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!

The voice is incredible. Little Richard, Jerry Lewis and The Isley brothers all rolled into this tiny figure at the front of the stage.

At the back of the room, a woman stands slightly away from the crowd, which is now mesmerized by the young girl’s singing. The woman is Marion Massey, and she will become Lulu’s manager.

: (V/O) When I was fourteen, I was very lucky. I was discovered - to use a terrible term - by a person who was absolutely sincere. Since I was five, people had been coming up to me saying: ‘Stick with me, baby, and I’ll make you a star’. In fact, nobody ever did anything for me. Then Marion came along.

CU of Marion watching Lulu perform.

: (V/O) She looked so peculiar that first time I saw her. Her hair was in curlers underneath a fur beret. She had a terrible cold, was very pale and wore three jumpers. But I was very intrigued by her. It wasn’t her singing. There was something tremendously magnetic about this girl. I knew she had the makings of a great star.

Cut To:

Scene 2

: London, 1964

Interior Day: Lulu performs on Ready Steady Go
 

Cut To:

Scene 3

Interior Day: A Press conference, London 1965

Lulu, together with a vigilant Marion Massey, is surrounded by newspaper reporters, asking questions, taking photographs. A series of jump-cut questions and answers.

: I get £10 a week pocket money. I get through about £5 a week on taxis alone. They’re terribly expensive in London, but I don’t know my way about well enough to take buses and the only time I went on the tube by myself I got lost… shoes are my weakness, I’ve got eight pairs going at the moment plus two that have just about had it.

:Where are you staying?”

: Aunt Janey’s.

: My Mother’s.

: Auntie Janey’s a wonderful cook. She does gefilte fish, boiled or fried.

: Do you like it?

: Yes. I like it fried. (Pause) With ketchup.

: What’s going to be your next hit?

Cut To:

Scene 4
 

 
Interior Night: A Night Club.

Lulu comes off-stage, having finished singing “The Boat That I Row”. She is approached by writer and film director, James Clavell.

: You’ve got the part.

: What are you on about? What part?

: I’m doing this feature film. You’ve got the part.

Cut To:

Scenes from To Sir With Love.

: (V/O) I didn’t read for it or anything and I was afraid. All the other kids had been to acting school, and then working with Sidney Poitier!  When I first saw the movie, I thought, ‘You cheeky thing, Lulu’. I crawled under a chair. All I could do was watch myself. The second time I saw it, I enjoyed the whole movie
 

: ‘To Sir With Love’ sold 4 million copies, and went to number 1 in the US for 5 weeks.

Montage of Lulu singing at various nightclubs in America, including the Coconut Grove.

Various newspaper headlines, including: ‘LULU WINS MOST PROMISING FEMALE VOCALIST’
 

 
Cut To:

Scene 5

Interior Day: A TV Studio, London

Lulu is being interviewed.

: As a teenage popstar, don’t you think you’re missing out on a lot of things ordinary teenagers do?

: No, not at all, because, hm, well, first of all, I travel, I travel about so much, and I see so much. I’ve been to whole loads of places, girls my age have probably never been, you know. I’ve been to Paris, and Germany, and I’m off to Pland with The Hollies next month.

: What do you hope to do in your twenties when you’re no longer a teenager?

: Ah, well. Somewhere around my twenties I’d like to be married, and have kids, you know. But I’d still like to be a singer.

: Is it true your engaged?

: Actually. No. Nobody’s asked me.
 

Cut To:

B&W BBC News archive

Hundreds of people have clamoured to see the marriage of popstars Lulu and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a Buckinghamshire church.

Lulu, 20, had hoped to keep her wedding plans secret but around 1,000 people - mostly women and girls - filled the grounds of St James’ Church in Gerrards Cross. Several children were hurt as the crowd - that had waited for an hour - surged forward when Lulu arrived in her green Rolls Royce, 20 minutes late.

Wearing a long, white, mink-trimmed coat with fur hood and a white, silk mini-dress, Lulu - born Marie McDonald McLaughlin - begged onlookers to let her through, saying, “Please let me in, please let me in.”

As police formed a cordon to allow the bride to reach the church, Maurice Gibb - also wearing white - waited inside with his best man, twin brother Robin, who was married only three months ago. The third Gibb brother, Barry, arrived 10 minutes later, after earlier objecting to the wedding saying the couple was too young. The Bee Gees and the bride were the only celebrities at the small, family wedding.
After a half-hour service - presided over by Reverend Gordon Harrison - the newlyweds were trapped in the church for another 10 minutes until a path had been cleared to their waiting car. They spent a few minutes at the 19-year-old groom’s parents’ house in Gerrards Cross before travelling to London for their reception.

After a one-day honeymoon Lulu plans to return to work on her BBC television series. She says she wants to cut down on her work-load to concentrate on her family and wants lots of children.

The daughter of a Glaswegian butcher, Lulu has already enjoyed a successful singing career for five years - beginning with number one single, Shout. She will represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in March.

Cut To:

CAPTION

: Eurovision Song Contest 1969 - Britain’s entry ‘Boom-Bang-A-Bang’ sung by Lulu comes joint first.
 

Cut To:

Montage of TV studios, Recording Suites, Photo Shoots.

Lulu

: I got patted on the head a lot by the boys in my band. That irritated the shit out of me, because I thought I was a liberated woman and I had a hit record. Trying to get my input accepted by male produces was very difficult, too. They saw me as a little cute thing.

Cut To:

Scene 6

Interior Day: Recording Studio 1974

David Bowie and Lulu are in a recording studio. A decade on from ‘Shout’ Bowie sits with a saxophone. Lulu is next to a microphone, headphones on. They are both dressed similarly in trouser suits. Other musicians are around them.

David Bowie

: Okay, I’ll go like that. Each one. I won’t argue. Play it with a little more guts, Trev. We started a bit too relaxed, you know.

Lulu

: Left.

David Bowie

: Let’s hit it as a single, not as an album track, all right? One, two.

Cut To:
 

Lulu

: (V/O) My life was a whirlwind. Most of the time I was living in ‘Lulu land’ and it was so exciting because I was making music.