For your ears only

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This article was published 22/09/2016 (3593 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra event is titled The Spy Who Loved Me and its featured performer in pop star Sheena Easton, the Scottish lass who remains the only singer to ever appear in the stylized opening credits of a Bond film. 

There was a reason for this, of course. In 1981, remember, the music video was peaking and the form dovetailed nicely with the traditional Bond credit sequence. More importantly Easton possessed the precisely correct kind of exotic beauty that made her a perfect fit to perform the Oscar-nominated theme For Your Eyes Only on camera.

But notwithstanding her honorary “Bond Girl” status, Easton conscientiously asserts that the evening is not devoted exclusively to the Bond theme during the course of a phone interview. 

https://youtu.be/fN1WBgS9u_E

“It’s a very diverse program,” she says of the evening in which she shares singing duties with vocalist Scott Coulter. “It’s called The Spy Who Loved Me because it’s an evening of different spy-themed and detective-themed music from TV, film, and from the stage.”

“There are some Bond pieces in there, but it really is not primarily a James Bond show,” she says. Indeed, the program includes music from Mission: Impossible, Get Smart, and evenAustin Powers.

Even so, as one of the select vocalists who contributed to the Bond realm, Easton is mindful of the legacy that holds, even if she was still young when she recorded For Your Eyes Only.

“I think it was my third single, (and) I was too young to be really aware of how that legacy would continue, but I was old enough to be aware of the fact that I was a part of something huge,” she says.

“The thing about the James Bond franchise is that it’s one of the first franchises to be associated with a theme song,” she says.

“Now we kind of take it for granted that if a movie’s coming out, there’s a good chance there’s a great song attached to it. But back in the day, it really was only when a new Bond movie was coming out where you were like: ‘I wonder what the new theme song is going to be?’ ‘Who’s going to be singing the next James Bond theme?’

“So that kind of went hand in hand and it is nice to be in that club. I do appreciate that.”

She says she also appreciates some of the talent that came before and after her, especially given that she takes on the duties of interpreting songs by powerhouse vocalists such as Shirley Bassey (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker) and Adele (Skyfall).

“Yeah, there’s definitely a little pressure when you walk out on stage and the opening bars start to Goldfinger and you go: Wow, this is a Shirley Bassey song. I don’t want to let her down. I just hope that if Dame Shirley ever heard it, she wouldn’t cringe.”

Easton is good-natured about the inevitable question of where her Bond alllegiances lie. She sang the theme for a Roger Moore Bond. But she shares Scottish roots with another. Somehow, her answer comes as no surprise.

“Sean Connery,” she says. “No offence to Roger. I’m sure he won’t be surprised. But come on, man. The greatest Bond ever. Who doesn’t like Sean Connery? He was my favourite Bond then and still is.

“I had the pleasure of meeting Sean several times,” she says. “We would bump into each other in Japan. He was over there promoting a film and we ended up being couchmates on so many talk shows, he ended up jokingly introducing me as his daughter, his wife, his sister.

“In real life, he’s as charming and charismatic as he is on the screen. A lovely man.”

The Spy Who Loved Me begins at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings and 2 p.m. on Sunday. All three concerts take place at the Centennial Concert Hall.

randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing