I remember meeting Marcia Hines at an SBS filming of a show Mum’s the Word that we did probably well over a decade ago.
It’s always a bit uncomfortable when you meet an Aussie icon, sort of hard to know what to say. I mean how do you really start a normal conversation with someone who was once crowned the Queen of Pop? For a start Marcia’s beauty is radiant, ageless and easy. When she’s not looking all you want to do is grab another sneaky look at her.
What was probably the most delightful thing about Marcia was that on sitting next to her and enjoying her easy laugh and her matter-of-fact approach, it became evident that one of the secrets to her seemingly ageless appearance is that she is a truly beautiful woman. Right to the core. That kind of beauty just seems to get more blinding as the years go by. It’s no surprise then that Marcia Hines should release what has been called her career-defining album Amazing as she turns 60, and after 40 years in the business.
Marcia is ‘amazing’ and I guess to anyone that’s spent time with her this new project is just testament to exactly how amazing she is. Not to mention what a great pair of pins she’s got.
The concept for Amazing happened when Hines was in the US. ‘I was spending time with friends,’ she says, ‘and one of them was a good friend of Joni Mitchell and she was there, and we started talking and I said that I wanted to do an album of original songs and she said that well, what is stopping you?’
As it turned out nothing could stop Hines, who partnered with Tom Diesel and Ron E Jones to create the original music for the album.
‘We’d sit down each day and gee – yesterday was good so what are we going to write about today! We’d talk about love and I’d listen to people’s conversations in cafes! Working with the guys, and their being younger, it was a real insight to hear their version of how girls thought – I’d get their version, and they’d get mine.’
Vulnerability is a theme explored in the songs on Amazing. ‘Whether we want to own it or not,’ says Marcia, ‘we all like feeling vulnerable. It’s so good. I love singing the boohoo song about love done wrong and about love being fantastic. To me that is what is Amazing.’
For one of her tracks, Remedy, Hines enlisted the help of her superstar friend Russell Crowe to sing, star and direct in the clip.
‘I worked with Russell some time ago on some of his stuff and we got on so well in the studio that I asked him to do a duet for me.
‘I rang him and he was in the middle of filming The Water Diviner and promoting Noah but he was so generous and wanted to do it and the song sounded great; I said that if I did a clip I wanted him to be in it and direct it for me.’
It is impossible not to focus just a little on the fact that this extraordinary woman is still kicking goals at 60. Hines is philosophical and points out that while people find it Amazing its not considered so Amazing when you are a bloke.
‘People such as Tom Jones and Tony Bennett – they’ve been at it for years. Why shouldn’t you get better? Age is a mindset. Life is about change and 60 is no longer like 60 when we were growing up.’
And Marcia’s secret to getting better?
‘If the audience give me 100 per cent I give back 200 per cent. My passion is always there, and I stay true to myself.’
Catch Marcia Hines in concert with her collaborators Ron E Jones, Tom Diesel and a brand-new kicking band, singing the hits that you want to hear and the new Amazing songs that you won’t want to stop hearing – at the Bowlo in Bangalow on Thursday at 8pm. Presale tix: $35.00 (+bf);
Door tix: $39.95. Book online at www.bangalowbowlo.com.au. For those who can’t make this one you can also catch Marcia at Twin Towns Tweed Heads Friday at 8.30pm
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