Dana Gillespie

October 27, 2010 2:13 PM

Wow, what a life for Dana Gillespie. At 14 she was British junior national water-skiing champion. At 15 she was dating classmate David Bowie, who taught her guitar. Had bit parts in movies by 16. She dated Donovan for a little while, and Jimmy Page produced and played on her first album. She went on to a long string of starring roles in London's West End. She has devoted the latter part of her life to the blues, hosting an annual blues festival on the island of Mustique, recently featuring fellow Mustiquian Mick Jagger. And if all that weren't enough, she has also released several albums in Sanskrit under the moniker Third Man, devoted to the years she spent living in India. Allah Ho Akhbar::Chitta Chora::Om Shakti
posted by puny human (20 comments total)

But who among us has not dated David Bowie?
posted by GuyZero at 2:44 PM on October 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

She was a pioneer in converting your British junior national water-skiing champion status into a successful career in music. Now it's a cliche path to take, but back then it was virtually unheard of.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 2:51 PM on October 27, 2010 [7 favorites]

But who among us has not dated David Bowie?

Me, unfortunately.
posted by dersins at 3:05 PM on October 27, 2010

Bit parts? Those were some of the biggest parts I've seen.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:07 PM on October 27, 2010 [9 favorites]

But who among us has not dated David Bowie?

Using Carbon 14 techniques, I dated him to the Jurassic period, thus proving that he is indeed a dinosaur of rock.
posted by unSane at 3:10 PM on October 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

Christ, I was just sitting here feeling proud about myself for fixing the storm door today.
posted by lobstah at 3:14 PM on October 27, 2010 [8 favorites]

I can only imagine how landowners and guests on a private island in the West Indies really get into the blues.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 3:20 PM on October 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

By no longer dating David Bowie. Duh.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:26 PM on October 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

A blues festival on a privately owned Caribbean island makes me wonder what Mardis Gras would be like in Dubai.
posted by subpixel at 3:26 PM on October 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

I was hoping for cholera.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 3:27 PM on October 27, 2010

I would like to see that. I love those fragrant pink extruded sticks. I could eat them all day.
posted by unliteral at 3:51 PM on October 27, 2010

Listening to the Foolish Season track - that picking certainly sounds like Page. This was probably his last straw before forming his own band, which had slightly more success in the business than Dana Gillespie.
posted by Ber at 4:03 PM on October 27, 2010

@dersins Don't worry, I'm in the same boat. It's also a cliche path to take now though.
posted by WerewolvesRancheros at 4:45 PM on October 27, 2010

Listening to the Foolish Season track - that picking certainly sounds like Page. This was probably his last straw before forming his own band, which had slightly more success in the business than Dana Gillespie.

Actually, he played on more than one hundred tracks as a studio musician, even after his stuff with Gillespie, and hundreds before that, too.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 6:40 PM on October 27, 2010

Cripes. Flagged as fantastic. Thanks.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 8:05 PM on October 27, 2010

Stunning woman- and very lucky. She's led a life any of us can only envy, but how much of that is because of the doors opened, and opportunities presented, because she was a Joan Holloway-esque beauty from her teen years on, with her pick of handsome, brilliant, and/or connected male admirers and boyfriends.

I suspect had *I* her looks in my formative years, I'd have a joyful, exuberant life of celebration too.
posted by hincandenza at 9:38 PM on October 27, 2010

You'll always get much further on lot of nerve and a smidgen of talent than you will on a lot of talent and a smidgen of nerve.
posted by pracowity at 12:45 AM on October 28, 2010

A blues festival on a privately owned Caribbean island makes me wonder what Mardis Gras would be like in Dubai.

You give girls beads for showing their hair.
posted by atrazine at 2:26 AM on October 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Stunning woman- and very lucky. She's led a life any of us can only envy, but how much of that is because of the doors opened, and opportunities presented, because she was a Joan Holloway-esque beauty from her teen years on, with her pick of handsome, brilliant, and/or connected male admirers and boyfriends.

I suspect had *I* her looks in my formative years, I'd have a joyful, exuberant life of celebration too.

The pretty girl can't possibly make it on her own merits after all and no man, especially one who was going to be successful, would ever waste their time on a plain girl.
posted by substrate at 5:04 AM on October 28, 2010

but how much of that is because of the doors opened [...] because she was a Joan Holloway-esque beauty from her teen years on

All of it. Obviously.

Oh no, I'm all covered in dirt! Who will ever love me now?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:44 PM on October 28, 2010