Honouring the late, great Tina Turner

SussexWorld

Nearly two years after her death, the music of Tina Turner is in safe hands with Holly Bannis who is touring the country with What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this

00:06morning to speak. Well, this is the closest I'm ever going to get to Tina Turner, really.

00:10Lovely this morning to speak to Holly Bannis, who is on the road with What's Love Got To

00:14Do With Estates for the next months and months and months and months. You embodying your

00:19hero, Tina Turner. What makes Tina so special now, do you think?

00:27Good morning, Phil. Lovely to speak to you. What makes Tina Turner so special? She was

00:32an absolute icon, the queen of rock and roll. Her history, her music, it would just live

00:39on forever. So, really privileged to be able to, you know, play the role of Tina and take

00:44this show on the road and let the music live on.

00:46And it's not just the music, is it? It's her attitude, it's the way she lived her life,

00:51isn't it?

00:52It's all of it. The full package, as I say, you know, she had a hard life, as everybody

00:58knows. And the way that she would strut out onto that stage and give her all and the energy,

01:06it's just amazing.

01:07Do you find that energy to do her justice? Because goodness, there are not many bigger

01:12performers, are there? How do you put that across?

01:17It is a lot, yes. Lots of studying, lots of practice, lots of fitness and lots of water

01:23does the job.

01:25To be an authentic Tina Turner, what are the things that you really have to get right,

01:29do you think?

01:31I think the way that you perform as Tina, it comes down to a lot of things. You know,

01:37her voice, you've got to get that right, the way that she spoke, her mannerisms. She had

01:44that grit in her voice when she sat. I think, you know, people recognise instantly when

01:51Tina Turner comes on the radio or any track of Tina Turner. And again, just the energy,

01:57the moves, the legs, the shake, everything.

01:59The walk, the strut, isn't it?

02:02Exactly that.

02:03Anne, you were saying just now, you did a fantastic thing insofar as you were performing

02:08when the news broke through that she had sadly died nearly two years ago. You didn't know

02:14during the first half, you discovered during the interval and yet she had to carry on.

02:19How on earth did you do that?

02:21Yeah, that's definitely a night and a show I'll never forget. We were doing a show in

02:27London and where the spotlights are so bright on stage, I couldn't quite see out fully to

02:33the audience. And apparently everybody was waving their phones where the news had just

02:38come through, you know, flashed up on their phones, the articles of the news. I couldn't

02:44see any of it. People were crying. And then as soon as the curtain went down, my boss

02:48and everybody on stage came and said, you know, Tina Turner's passed away. And I just,

02:54it still sends a shiver down my spine now, like the moment, you know, I just was speechless.

03:01To be performing Tina at that exact moment that the news had gone out was really quite

03:07something.

03:08How on earth did you find the strength to go back out as you did?

03:13I think adrenaline got me through a lot. You know, for me, the show has to go on. I was

03:18grateful for the people that was there. That's what I thought, you know, there's people out

03:22there, we've got to go out and give them a good time. They're sticking around after finding

03:26this awful news, you know, of an artist of a show they're coming to see. So I just had

03:32to go out there and give a kind message to everybody and just gave it my all.

03:39And in the nearly two years since that, does it feel more important to be doing what you're

03:43doing now she's no longer with us?

03:46Absolutely. Because, you know, there's, her music will always live on, but to be able

03:51to go out and still give a performance to the best that we can as a show for Tina Turner

03:56means a lot to everybody, you know, that's coming to actually watch the show. It's even

04:01more so important because, you know, no one can go and see Tina Turner again. So, you

04:07know, this, this, you know, could be the best they could get to that, you know.

04:12Absolutely. Well, congratulations on the show. It's an astonishing list of dates that you've

04:16got ahead of you for the next however many months. Really lovely to speak to you and

04:22all good wishes for the tour. Thank you.

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