Dana Gillespie

Gillespie was born in Woking, Surrey, the second daughter of Anne Francis Roden (née Buxton; 1920–2007) and Hans Henry Winterstein Gillespie (1910–1994), a London-based radiologist of Austrian nobility. Her older sister, Nicola Henrietta St. John Gillespie, was born in 1946. Dana Gillespie was the British Junior Water Skiing Champion in 1962.[4]

Gillespie recorded initially in the folk genre in the mid-1960s. Some of her recordings as a teenager fell into the teen pop category, such as her 1965 single "Thank You Boy", written by John Carter and Ken Lewis and produced by Jimmy Page.[5] Page also played, uncredited, on Gillespie's 1968 debut LP, Foolish Seasons.[6] Her acting career got under way shortly afterwards, and it overshadowed her musical career in the late 1960s and 1970s.

She performed backing vocals on the track "It Ain't Easy" from Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.[7] The song "Andy Warhol" was originally written for Gillespie by David Bowie, who recorded it himself in 1971; her version of was not released until 1973, on her album Weren't Born a Man, which was produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson. Her version also featured Ronson on guitar.[1] Subsequent recordings have been in the blues genre, appearing with the London Blues Band. She is also notable for being the original Mary Magdalene in the first London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar,[1] which opened at the Palace Theatre in 1972. She also appeared on the Original London Cast album of the show. During the 1980s, Gillespie was a member of the Austrian Mojo Blues Band.

Left to right: Dana Gillespie, Tony Defries and David Bowie at Andy Warhol's Pork at London's Roundhouse in 1971

She is a follower of the late Indian spiritual guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba.[8] She performed at his Indian ashram on various occasions and has also recorded thirteen bhajan-based albums in Sanskrit.[9]

Gillespie is the organiser of the annual blues festival at Basil's Bar on Mustique in the Caribbean, for 15 days at the end of January and it is now in its 18th year.[1] The house band is the London Blues Band, which consists of Dino Baptiste (piano), Jake Zaitz (guitar), Mike Paice (saxophone), Jeff Walker (bass), and Evan Jenkins (drums) but there are also many other acts. In 2005, Mick Jagger appeared as a guest and sang songs such as: "Honky Tonk Women", "Dust My Broom" and "Goin' Down"; but also many other blues artists have appeared there through the years, such as Big Joe Louis, Joe Louis Walker, Billy Branch, Ronnie Wood and Donald Fagen.

From March 2021 on, she had a successful interview and music podcast series, Globetrotting with Gillespie, from TAM TV (Temple of Art & Music) in London.

In 2024, Gillespie was one of four artists competing in a special selection for the final of Una voce per San Marino 2024, the Sammarinese national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, with the song "The Last Polar Bear".[10] She was ultimately selected for the final.[11]

Dana Gillespie and the London Blues Band, at the 2006 Trowbridge Village Pump Festival

• Fumo di Londra (1966)
• Secrets of a Windmill Girl (1966) - Singer
• The Vengeance of She (1968) - Girl at Party (uncredited)
• The Lost Continent (1968) - Sarah
• Mahler (1974) - Anna von Mildenburg
• The People That Time Forgot (1977) - Ajor
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) - Mary Frankland
• Bad Timing (1980) - Amy Miller
• Scrubbers (1982) - Budd
• Parker (1986) - Monika
• Sterben werd ich um zu leben - Gustav Mahler (1987) - Anna von Mildenburg
• Strapless (1989) - Julie Kovago
• Sunday Pursuit (1990)[1] - Maureen (final film role)
• Hotel India (2014) - Herself

• List of British actors

• Bowie, Angela, Backstage Passes, Jove Books, Berkeley Publishing Group (1993)
• Gillespie, Dana, Weren't Born a Man, Hawksmoor Publishing (2020)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dana Gillespie.

• Dana Gillespie, official site
• Dana Gillespie at IMDb
• Dana Gillespie at HorrorStars
• 2016 Interview with Souljourns