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Singer Eva Cassidy — who died in 1996, and would have turned 60 next month — is to be the subject of a new documentary featuring two never-before-heard songs.
The makers tell me the film, which will also include unseen video footage of Cassidy, pictured, performing, plus an unheard audio interview, will allow the ‘complete’ story of her short life to be told for the first time when it is released later this year.
Born in 1963, Cassidy died from melanoma aged just 33. She was largely unknown, despite some success on the Washington DC blues and jazz scene.
Five years later, though, her version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow was played on Radio 2 by Terry Wogan. It started a journey up the charts and launched Cassidy’s vastly successful posthumous career. To date, 12 million of her records have been sold globally, with three albums going to No.1.
ALISON BOSHOFF: Singer Eva Cassidy — who died in 1996, and would have turned 60 next month — is to be the subject of a new documentary featuring two never-before-heard songs
The story of Cassidy’s life and career will be told in The Essence Of Eva, by English documentary maker Malcolm Willis and Irish film maker Alex Fegan.
Willis tells me: ‘We have two songs which have never been released and which have studio quality sound; and a lot of footage of her performing at family gatherings, weddings and so on.’ The unheard numbers are a track by American singer-songwriter Chris Isaak; and a cover of a country standard.
Willis adds: ‘This is a considered and intimate portrait of her life. Her family have spoken to us at length and made it all possible.’
Other interviewees include Sting, whose song Fields Of Gold Cassidy covered; and Fleetwood Mac star Mick Fleetwood, who was a friend and mentor. (The film will include footage of her performing with Fleetwood at his club in Washington.)
Meanwhile, a new Eva Cassidy album is out on February 3. Called I Can Only Be Me, it pairs her voice with the London Symphony Orchestra
Willis said: ‘We first went to meet the Cassidys in January 2020 and did a few interviews, but then the pandemic hit.
‘Covid has almost helped in some ways, because the process was so delayed that the research could be even more exhaustive and thorough. Now we are hoping we will have a first draft in the next couple of weeks.’
He and Fegan are hoping to ink a deal with a broadcaster soon, with a release later this year.
Willis had the idea after hearing one of Eva’s songs and wondering whether a documentary had been made about the artist.
One had — Timeless Voice in 2015 — but her family weren’t pleased with it, as it told the story of her professional breakthrough rather than her life.
Born in 1963, Cassidy died from melanoma aged just 33. She was largely unknown, despite some success on the Washington DC blues and jazz scene. Pictured is the record cover for Eva By Heart
He said: ‘They are a lovely family and it has been an honour to work with them and with her record label, Blix Street.’
Meanwhile, a new Eva Cassidy album is out on February 3. Called I Can Only Be Me, it pairs her voice with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Cassidy had a day job in a plant nursery and played in local clubs around her native Washington DC by night. She cashed in a pension to pay for the recording of her first album, Live At Blues Alley, in 1996.
During a promotional event for the album, in July of that year, she noticed an ache in her hips, which X-rays revealed was due to a fracture caused by cancer.
Melanoma from a mole removed in 1993 had spread to her bones and lungs. She made her final public appearance in September, singing What A Wonderful World, and died in November.
With a rebel yell, two-year-old Poppy upstages her eighties icon grandad
He has been famous for almost 50 years but Billy Idol was nearly upstaged by his granddaughter when he received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star last week.
Luckily Idol, 67, dotes on two-year-old Poppy Rebel, who sported a black dress and heart-shaped shades, and displayed a rock’n’roll attitude (she did the ‘Wednesday dance’ from the Tim Burton series) her grandad would be proud of.
Rebel Yell star Idol, who grew up in Bromley, was famous for being a punk with a history of wild behaviour and drug issues. But he is a softie where family are concerned.
During lockdown he was filmed playing Baby Shark for Poppy — on the xylophone. Poppy’s mum is Bonnie Blue, his daughter by Linda Mathis.
He has been famous for almost 50 years but Billy Idol was nearly upstaged by his granddaughter when he received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star last week
Actor Mark Gatiss plays the late Generation Game host Larry Grayson in Nolly, ITV’s upcoming show about actress Noele Gordon, starring Helena Bonham Carter.
Grayson and Gordon were best friends in real life and Gatiss, who played Mycroft to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, said it was a ‘thrill and an honour’ to bring the ‘gay icon’ to life on screen. Gatiss recalled how Grayson could ‘just look down his nose at someone and bring the house down.
‘Some of his bits were just brilliant and absolutely filthy, but Saturday night audiences lapped it up.’
He added: ‘I had a set of false teeth. And then I got a wig. And then the rest is the speech. Oh, and the glasses on the chain are imperative.’
Nolly will be screened on ITVX next month.
Actor Mark Gatiss plays the late Generation Game host Larry Grayson in Nolly, ITV’s upcoming show about actress Noele Gordon, starring Helena Bonham Carter
Michelle’s triumph is everywhere all at once
There was terror along with triumph for Michelle Yeoh at the Golden Globes this week. The actress suffers from ‘terrible’ stage fright and says that being faced with any audience turns her to jelly.
Yeoh was the wildly popular winner of the Best Actress gong at the Globes for her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Yeoh has already been named Time magazine’s Icon Of The Year and is enjoying a remarkable renaissance.
On stage she said: ‘I turned 60 this year. All of you women will understand this — as the days and the years and the numbers get bigger . . . the opportunities get smaller.’
There was terror along with triumph for Michelle Yeoh at the Golden Globes this week
As a girl, Yeoh hoped to be a ballet dancer but a back injury put paid to that. After winning the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant she started appearing in Hong Kong action movies, doing her own stunts.
Her first Hollywood role was in Tomorrow Never Dies. She then starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. Yeoh is tipped to win best actress at the Oscars — although she will have to defeat Tar star Cate Blanchett.
The actress, who lives in Switzerland with her motor racing millionaire partner, Jean Todt, brought the house down when a pianist tried to play her off the stage. She said: ‘Shut up please. I can beat you up, OK, and that’s serious.’
What a beauty! Trinny’s firm rakes in cash
Trinny Woodall has filed blockbuster accounts for her beauty brand Trinny London, with turnover soaring to more than £50million.
Unlike Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney, who both filed reports detailing losses in recent weeks, the former TV presenter’s six-year-old business appears to be in rude health.
According to documents filed at Companies House, the cosmetics company clocked up £27.3million of sales in the UK, £6.3million in Europe and £16.9million in the rest of the world.
Trinny Woodall has filed blockbuster accounts for her beauty brand Trinny London, with turnover soaring to more than £50million
But despite the enviable headline news, just £45,520 of net profit is recorded for the financial year, as the company records ‘administrative expenses’ of £30million.
That means the business owes just £810,000 in tax for the year up to March 2022.
The company was set up by Trinny in 2017 with £7million of investment: some from her wealthy art collector boyfriend Charles Saatchi, plus £60,000 she raised herself by selling off her old clothes.
I’ll take on the Russian mob again
Actor James Norton is now contemplating another comeback
His return as the smug psychopath Tommy Lee Royce (‘How do!’) in the final series of Happy Valley has been the televisual highlight of January Sunday nights; and actor James Norton is now contemplating another comeback.
Norton, 37, says he would love one more go at McMafia, in which he played the English-educated son, pictured, of a Russian mob boss. It was shown on BBC1 in 2018.
‘There’s an awful lot of love for that show, not least from me,’ he said. ‘And if the right story came along, then we would definitely do it.
‘People still ask me about the show and its return definitely remains a possibility.’
Sam fears for the future of cinema
Sometimes, when film people are banging the publicity drum and giving one interview after another, they reach a point where they just let it all out. British movie-maker Sam Mendes — director of 1917, Skyfall and now Empire Of Light, starring Olivia Colman — has got to that place.
Mendes dropped quite a bombshell when he said of his latest film — plus Oscar front-runners The Fabelmans, Babylon, Armageddon Time and Bardo — ‘No one has gone to see them! Cinema is clearly in trouble.’
The director explained his remarks, saying: ‘Even though people talk about attendance going up to almost pre-Covid levels across the year, the attendance is for 20 or 25 movies, not for 200 movies. It’s for a very small number of big movies.
‘And the smaller movies? People are feeling, well, we can stay at home and see that on our streaming service in three or four weeks’ time, or even straight away, in the case of a Netflix movie, or a movie for Apple.’
British movie-maker Sam Mendes — director of 1917, Skyfall and now Empire Of Light, starring Olivia Colman — has got to that place
And then there’s the matter of price . . . ‘something which is really obvious, which people don’t talk about very much’.
He warmed to his theme: ‘If you go to a restaurant, there is a difference in the kind of ingredients you get when you pay more money.
‘If you want a cheap meal, the food adjusts itself — but it’s cheap. In other words, there’s a price differential. If you go to the theatre to see a big show, it costs you $200.
‘If you go to the fringe, it costs you $20, right?
‘But every movie costs the same amount of money to see.
‘If Avatar costs £10 and Empire Of Light costs £10, and you’re a teenager, you’re going to go and see Avatar. It’s obvious. And until there’s some acknowledgement of the differential between the big and the small movies, you’re gonna get steamrolled by the big films.’
Mendes knows of what he speaks. ‘I’ve made a Bond movie; I made 1917 — which is an event movie but non-franchise; and I make a small movie like this.
‘And this movie is ten times harder to publicise. And it’s criticised ten times more than a Bond movie, because people are hoping it’s going to make a case for the cinema, not just itself, but it has to be a masterpiece to get people out to see it.
‘In a world where Spielberg’s movie, and Damien Chazelle’s movie, and Alejandro Inarritu’s movie, James Gray’s movie, this movie . . . no one has gone to see them . . . all I can say is: it’s clearly in trouble!
‘Many of those movies were brilliantly reviewed. You know, The Fabelmans is one of the best reviewed movies of the year. It’s taken $15 million at the U.S. box office. It’s nearly finished its theatrical run. What hope is there for anyone?’
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