Marti Caine
Encyclopedia
Marti Caine, born Lynne Denise Shepherd (26 January 1944 - 4 November 1995) was an English
actress, dancer, presenter, singer, writer, and comedienne who gained fame from the television talent show New Faces
and became a major variety star.
from her paternal grandfather. Aged 17, she married the local butcher
's boy and became "just another starry-eyed wannabe... married with two babies, an ex-beauty queen
, stuck on a council estate, with little hope of fulfilling any dreams for a better life." Aged 19 and unable to pay the £19 cost of her mother's funeral expenses, she auditioned as Lynne Stringer (her married name) at the Chapeltown
Working Men's Club
outside Sheffield. This resulted in a three week stint singing under the name Sunny Smith, followed by a spell as Zoe Bond. Her husband Malcolm Stringer chose her eventual stage name from a gardening book, though Marta Cane (tomato
cane) was misspelled at an early gig and 'Marti Caine' remained with her.
as a stand-up comic and cabaret singer, she rose to national prominence when she appeared on the show New Faces
in 1975. She won that year's competition, beating Lenny Henry
and Victoria Wood
(for whom she had immense professional respect, referring to her rival as 'uniquely talented...'). Marti went on to make more television appearances including the self titled Marti Caine on BBC2; showcasing her dance, comedic and musical talents. Among millions of fans who watched her TV performances could be counted Liberace
(who compared her with Barbra Streisand
) and her American counterpart Joan Rivers
(who again cited Marti with admiration in the 2006 BBC series The Story of Light Entertainment http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0836927/. Her seventeen-year marriage broke down in 1978, making front-page headlines in the national press. They had two sons, Lee, 16 and Max, 15. At the time, Marti was reputed to be earning over £100k pa. Marti married again eight years later, to the TV producer Kenneth Ives. During the 1980s, Marti returned to New Faces as its compëre - reviving the show into a ratings winner and leading to her catchphrase 'press your buttons now!'. A seasoned, versatile performer, as well as a talented actress, she also enjoyed playing to sell-out audiences in cabaret, pantomime
, summer seasons, pier shows, as well as repertory
, appearing frequently in Blackpool
, Cambridge
, Bath, Bournemouth
and London
. She successfully led a UK tour of the musical production Funny Girl, a role that could have been written for her. In 1986, she performed a one-woman show at London's Donmar Warehouse, co-writing fourteen songs about her life experiences or in her own words 'at least the bits I want to talk about...' (Woman magazine). In the same year, as well as hosting New Faces, she also starred in a BBC comedy series Hilary, written especially for her. A kind, sincere and honest woman, she was also highly insecure. She seldom refused an interview and never ducked an interviewer's question. She told one journalist that 'Marti Caine' was loud, brassy and egotistical, whereas Lynne had no ego, enjoyed doing the housework and still saw herself as an ugly girl with long legs and a nose job. Professionally, her aim as 'Marti Caine' was always to look drop-dead glamorous whatever discomfort she might have to suffer in the process.
in South Africa
during the years of apartheid was seen as a serious error of judgment by many (and as a result she was put on a United Nations blacklist). However, if naively, Marti felt she was supporting and working with the black community, of whom she writes with respect and admiration in her autobiography. A lover of black music, she recorded many Stevie Wonder songs, and dedicated a medley as a Tribute to Gladys Knight on her first studio LP.
, Buckinghamshire
. She had spent the last years of her life campaigning tirelessly on behalf of cancer charities (the proceeds from her last album going directly to the Marti Caine Children with Leukaemia Trust). Marti once joked that 'chemo's a piece of cake after BBC coffee...' Her 1990 autobiography
A Coward's Chronicles was a best seller: an intelligently written and brutally honest account of her extraordinary life story. She titled it A Coward's Chronicles to counteract the tabloid image of her as a paragon of courage and defiance. "You fight for dear life", she said, "because you are too cowardly to embrace death..." She was a fan of modern art, and Mick Farrell's sculpture Sheen is dedicated to her. The sculpture was to have been unveiled by Marti, but she died two weeks before. The sculpture, frequently referred to as Marti, is situated outside Sheffield Hallam University. In the same year, the university awarded her an honorary doctorate in recognition of her life achievements and her contribution to the world of entertainment. Dr Marti Caine also has a sweetpea variety named after her.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress, dancer, presenter, singer, writer, and comedienne who gained fame from the television talent show New Faces
New Faces
New Faces was a British television talent show popular in the 1970s and 1980s, presented originally by Derek Hobson. It was produced by ATV Network Limited for the ITV Network. The first run of the show was from 29 September 1973 to 2 April 1978 and was recorded at the ATV Centre, Birmingham...
and became a major variety star.
Early life
Her mother had a history of alcoholism and drug abuse after Lynne's father died from cancer and, during her childhood, Lynne suffered sexual abuseSexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
from her paternal grandfather. Aged 17, she married the local butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
's boy and became "just another starry-eyed wannabe... married with two babies, an ex-beauty queen
Beauty Queen
"Beauty Queen" is the second song from Roxy Music's second album, For Your Pleasure. The lyrics refer to Ferry's girlfriend, Valerie Leon, one-time UK beauty queen, B-movie actress and model working in the Newcastle area, circa 1973.-Musicians:...
, stuck on a council estate, with little hope of fulfilling any dreams for a better life." Aged 19 and unable to pay the £19 cost of her mother's funeral expenses, she auditioned as Lynne Stringer (her married name) at the Chapeltown
Chapeltown, South Yorkshire
Chapeltown is in northern Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Ecclesfield civil parish. There is a wide variety of shops, pubs and restaurants as well as a supermarket...
Working Men's Club
Working men's club
Working men's clubs are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the United Kingdom, particularly the North of England, the Midlands and many parts of the South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.-...
outside Sheffield. This resulted in a three week stint singing under the name Sunny Smith, followed by a spell as Zoe Bond. Her husband Malcolm Stringer chose her eventual stage name from a gardening book, though Marta Cane (tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
cane) was misspelled at an early gig and 'Marti Caine' remained with her.
Professional success
After working many years on the club circuit in YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
as a stand-up comic and cabaret singer, she rose to national prominence when she appeared on the show New Faces
New Faces
New Faces was a British television talent show popular in the 1970s and 1980s, presented originally by Derek Hobson. It was produced by ATV Network Limited for the ITV Network. The first run of the show was from 29 September 1973 to 2 April 1978 and was recorded at the ATV Centre, Birmingham...
in 1975. She won that year's competition, beating Lenny Henry
Lenny Henry
Lenworth George "Lenny" Henry, is a British actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter.- Early life :...
and Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
(for whom she had immense professional respect, referring to her rival as 'uniquely talented...'). Marti went on to make more television appearances including the self titled Marti Caine on BBC2; showcasing her dance, comedic and musical talents. Among millions of fans who watched her TV performances could be counted Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
(who compared her with Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
) and her American counterpart Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
(who again cited Marti with admiration in the 2006 BBC series The Story of Light Entertainment http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0836927/. Her seventeen-year marriage broke down in 1978, making front-page headlines in the national press. They had two sons, Lee, 16 and Max, 15. At the time, Marti was reputed to be earning over £100k pa. Marti married again eight years later, to the TV producer Kenneth Ives. During the 1980s, Marti returned to New Faces as its compëre - reviving the show into a ratings winner and leading to her catchphrase 'press your buttons now!'. A seasoned, versatile performer, as well as a talented actress, she also enjoyed playing to sell-out audiences in cabaret, pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
, summer seasons, pier shows, as well as repertory
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
, appearing frequently in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Bath, Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She successfully led a UK tour of the musical production Funny Girl, a role that could have been written for her. In 1986, she performed a one-woman show at London's Donmar Warehouse, co-writing fourteen songs about her life experiences or in her own words 'at least the bits I want to talk about...' (Woman magazine). In the same year, as well as hosting New Faces, she also starred in a BBC comedy series Hilary, written especially for her. A kind, sincere and honest woman, she was also highly insecure. She seldom refused an interview and never ducked an interviewer's question. She told one journalist that 'Marti Caine' was loud, brassy and egotistical, whereas Lynne had no ego, enjoyed doing the housework and still saw herself as an ugly girl with long legs and a nose job. Professionally, her aim as 'Marti Caine' was always to look drop-dead glamorous whatever discomfort she might have to suffer in the process.
Music career
Marti recorded five albums, also working with Karl Jenkins who wrote a signature tune Quiet Please, The Lady's Gonna Sing using the theme from Sibelius's 5th Symphony. This was her third album, and her second with Jenkins, following the aptly titled Behind the Smile. The sweeping, theatrical, delivery of this title track contrasts with the easy, fluid style with which she approaches Ebony Eyes on the same album - the latter ending with a typically comedic flourish. However, her persona as cabaret host and comedienne seemed to prevent any serious inroads into commercial musical success - though her recordings were marketed globally, in areas as far-flung as Scandinavia, South America and Australasia - with huge numbers bought by television audiences. Her first album was so popular that it was re-released three times, with different covers, under two separate record labels. Marti's posthumous CD, released in 1996, was compiled from her BBC Radio shows, her musical director noting that "I was working with, arguably, 'the best female singer around' but who was, unfortunately, always thought of, first and foremost, as a comedienne..." This was a sentiment echoed in the sleeve notes of the 2000 retrospective You are awful... (Showbiz Comedy Titbits of the '60s and '70s) in which Mick Dillingham describes her as "Shirley Bassey with a hint of Eartha Kitt...". It raises the question: why was this track selected for a comedy album - instead of the genuinely comedic songs such as George or Sour Love Song? Marti's mid-career decision to play Sun CitySun City, North West
Sun City is a luxury casino and resort, situated in the North West Province of South Africa. It is located about two hours' drive from Johannesburg, near the city of Rustenburg. The complex borders the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.- History :...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
during the years of apartheid was seen as a serious error of judgment by many (and as a result she was put on a United Nations blacklist). However, if naively, Marti felt she was supporting and working with the black community, of whom she writes with respect and admiration in her autobiography. A lover of black music, she recorded many Stevie Wonder songs, and dedicated a medley as a Tribute to Gladys Knight on her first studio LP.
Death
Marti eventually succumbed to lymphatic cancer after a long battle, in 1995 in High WycombeHigh Wycombe
High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. She had spent the last years of her life campaigning tirelessly on behalf of cancer charities (the proceeds from her last album going directly to the Marti Caine Children with Leukaemia Trust). Marti once joked that 'chemo's a piece of cake after BBC coffee...' Her 1990 autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
A Coward's Chronicles was a best seller: an intelligently written and brutally honest account of her extraordinary life story. She titled it A Coward's Chronicles to counteract the tabloid image of her as a paragon of courage and defiance. "You fight for dear life", she said, "because you are too cowardly to embrace death..." She was a fan of modern art, and Mick Farrell's sculpture Sheen is dedicated to her. The sculpture was to have been unveiled by Marti, but she died two weeks before. The sculpture, frequently referred to as Marti, is situated outside Sheffield Hallam University. In the same year, the university awarded her an honorary doctorate in recognition of her life achievements and her contribution to the world of entertainment. Dr Marti Caine also has a sweetpea variety named after her.
Videos
- Wild World: Marti's duet with Tony Christie
- Honky Tonk Woman: Typically flamboyant dance sequence from TV show
- The Biggest Aspidistra in the World: Marti singing a music hall comedy number in tribute to Gracie Fields
- I've Never Been to Me: Montage sequence accompanying Marti's 1978 single
- Regina Fong Gala 2008: Drag queen Mrs Moore impersonating Marti's New Faces persona
VHS
- Joe Longthorne: The Ultimate Collection (1997) [Duet with Marti on "I'll Never Love This Way Again"]
- The Very Best of Joe Longthorne: Volume II (1992) [Duet with Marti on "I'll Never Love This Way Again"]
Awards and achievements
- Heritage Foundation Plaque, BBC TV Centre, London (2001)
- The Marti Caine Fund, set up to support the Children with Leukaemia Trust (1996)
- Honorary Doctorate, Sheffield Hallam University (1995)
- Sheen, sculpture by Mick Farrell dedicated to Marti (1995)
- Woman of the week, Woman magazine (1986)
- Star Award, Funniest Lady, Swap Shop (1979)
- Winner, New Faces (1975)
Albums
- Marti (CD, 1996) [Concert recordings with the Ronnie Hazlehurst orchestra]
- Point of View (LP, 1981)
- The Lady's Gonna Sing (LP, 1979) [Co-produced by Karl Jenkins]
- Behind the Smile (LP, 1978) [Produced by Karl Jenkins]
- Nobody Does It Like Marti (LP, 1976)
Singles
- "Can I Speak to the World, Please?" / "Tin Heart and the Rebel" (1981)
- "I'll Never See You Again" / "Bitch is Love" (1981)
- "One More Night" / "What's the Weather Like Outside?" (1979)
- "I've Never Been to Me" / "You" (1978)
- "Woman In Your Arms" / "Let Go" (1977)
- "Momma's Song" / "Nobody Does It Like Me" (1975)
Compilations & re-releases
- You Are Awful... But We Like You! (Compilation CD, 2000) (Features 1978 single "I've Never Been To Me")
- Sweet Inspiration (Audio book, cassette, 1994) [Interview with Alan Titchmarsh]
- Disconet Vol 4:7 (Compilation LP, 1981) (Features 1981 single "Can I Speak to the World, Please?")
- Nobody Does It Like Me (LP & cassette, 1979) [Third re-release of 1976 debut album]
- Nobody Does It Like Marti Caine (LP, 1977) [Second re-release of 1976 debut album]