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■I love waking up in a hotel on a Sunday morning after a gig the night before and going down for a fry-up.I like a vegetarian breakfast – baked beans, grilled tomatoes, poached egg, vegetarian sausage and fried bread.I’m not vegetarian, but I feel slightly healthier if I’m not having black pudding and sausages!Everything is still fried, but it’s not meat, so it’s not too bad.Definitely a lazy lie-in. ''I suppose I discovered we’re all different and what works for one doesn’t work for another.
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''Elton was really chuffed, and he sent a card, saying, “As you know I don’t need anything materially, so this was a great gift, thank you so much.”’In the 1980s Kiki branched out into musical theatre, spending four years as the lead in the musical Blood Brothers, but aged 40 she was diagnosed with uterine cancer after a routine smear test.‘Touch wood I’ve made a full recovery, but it was life-changing,’ she recalls.
!’ she laughs.‘I used to go back home from the Swinging 60s in London and people would say, “What kind o’ name is that, love?”'It was the release of her first single that prompted the name change.‘It was the 60s and all very kooky, so they came up with Kinky Dee,’ she recalls.‘I remember saying to my dad, “I might still be singing in 10 years, I don’t think they should call me Kinky.”She was first spotted as a teenager singing with a local dance band and whisked to London.She started off singing backing vocals for Dusty Springfield before releasing her first single, Early Night, in 1963.In 1970 she went to America – the first British singer to be signed by Tamla Motown – and on her return she signed to Elton John’s Rocket Records label, recording hits including Amoureuse and I’ve Got The Music In Me.He produced her first two albums, and in 1976 their duet Don’t Go Breaking My Heart topped the charts for six weeks, giving Elton his first-ever No 1 record.He guest-starred on her 1981 album Perfect Timing and in 1985 she famously sang with him at Live Aid.And their friendship is still going strong, as he makes four appearances on her new album, Gold, which she recently released, and features music from the 60s and her Tamla Motown days, plus all the hits and some covers.These days their lifestyles could not be more different; Elton is worth £320m and lives in a Berkshire mansion with his husband David Furnish and their two young sons, while Kiki, describing herself as ‘secure’, lives in a modest two-bedroom cottage.Yet the two have remained friends, which explains the pile of pots in Kiki’s back garden…‘I get an orchid in a pot every year from Elton for my birthday,’ she explains.‘But I’m an orchid killer, they only last about four to six months!
Scrobbling is when Last.fm tracks the music you listen to and automatically adds it to your music profile.We don’t have any upcoming events for this artist right now. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown’s Tamla Records. ''So the empty pots are all sitting there in my garden. ''I was also unlucky; I was attracted to the wrong people quite often, so it just didn’t work out.’She’s currently touring with songwriter, producer and guitarist Carmelo Luggeri, a British-born Italian who she met back in the 90s when he produced some tracks for her album.The duo mainly play stripped-back acoustic sets, and are touring Australia this summer, then will be doing a string of dates in the UK.Her mate Elton is playing to packed-out arenas on his Farewell world tour…‘When I was younger I used to be a little bit envious (of Elton’s success), because I’d hoped I would have that kind of career.