Dido’s chilled brand of ambient folktronica and soulful trip-hop was a staple in millions of homes on both sides of the Atlantic during the first decade of the third millennium, with over 30 million albums sold. Her captivating, atmospheric, deceptively understated tunes struck a chord in the angst-ridden, post- 9/11 world, encapsulating in song the contemplative introspection of the zeitgeist and marking her out as a global star, with diamond album sales in the US, and No 1s in every major record-buying territory.
Born to an artistically-inclined family and christened Florian Cloud De Bounevialle Armstrong, she made her noisy vocal debut on Christmas Day 1971 at London’s St Mary Abbot’s, Kensington. She later moaned about the moniker foisted on her by her parents that, “it’s one of the most irritating things that (they) did to me. I’m still irritated. Florian’s a German man’s name!” Clearly anticipating future ribbing by her peers, she clung to the nickname Dido – Queen of Carthage in Virgil’s semi-mythical Greek classic, The Aeneid – given to her by her poetess mother, Claire Collins, though Dido was also very much her father’s daughter, pater being William O’Malley Armstrong, MD of Sidgwick & Jackson publishers. A proud Irish Islington lass, Dido was imbued with Celticism in a household where TV was banned, and she and brother, Rollo, made their own entertainment.
Aged four, Dido precociously taught herself recorder, subsequently reflecting that, “Taking music lessons was a great escape. It helped open up my mind,” if not her social horizons, as she practiced six hours a day, playing recitals of Beethoven, Bach and Vivaldi. By 1981, she’d enrolled in London’s prestigious Guildhall School Of Music, where she majored in piano and violin. As she told Time, “I’d do two hours on each instrument and maybe an hour on harmony and composition” every day. Hence, she was proficient in her chosen instruments by her early teens and played with a classical music ensemble. However, bored of the routine, she knocked it on the head in 1986, expanding her aural vistas thanks to raids on Rollo’s eclectic record collection, taking in Ella Fitzgerald, The Clash, Gregory Isaacs, Chet Baker, Sting, Boy George and Spandau Ballet. She also invested in singles by the likes of Kate Bush, Sinead O’Connor, Duran Duran and The Chieftains, and despite Rollo’s pleas for her not to sing along to her vinyl stash, by 1988, she was fronting a covers band, Sheer, on the north London pub circuit. They pressed a vinyl single and sold it at gigs, while Dido’s days were spent working as a publisher’s assistant and taking Law classes at the University Of London’s Birkbeck College.
In 1995, Rollo formed the dance group Faithless, and Dido provided backing vocals for their debut 1996 set, Reverence. She co-wrote their Flowerstand Man and Hem Of His Garment and, as the band’s album sales notched up five million, her own star rose. In 1995, she’d already laid down a CD-R of 11 demos, Odds & Ends, circulated via Nettwerk Management, who’d signed her on the back of her Faithless contributions. Among the tracks on Odds & Ends were Take My Hand, which would become a bonus on her 1999 debut set, No Angel; Sweet Eyed Baby, later remixed and retitled Don’t Think Of Me; plus Worthless and Me, which subsequently became Japanese bonus tracks.
In 1996, Dido took a year’s sabbatical from her work as a literary agent and hit the road with Faithless, cutting demos each time she returned home to the capital. She sang on two tunes for Faithless’ sophomore effort, 1999’s Sunday 8pm, one incorporating her own My Lover’s Gone, which alerted Arista to her talent and led to a meeting with A&R chief, Clive Davis (who’d worked with Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston and Santana) at London’s Dorchester Hotel. He was so impressed with Dido that he offered her a contract on the spot, placing her on Rollo’s UK label, Cheeky, and US Arista, thereby meeting her self-imposed deadline of one year to make a go of it in the music business.
US Arista issued a five-track Dido promo, The Highbury Fields EP, and between tours with Faithless, Dido cut more demos, one of which, Thank You, was lifted for the London-based Gwyneth Paltrow movie, Sliding Doors (seen by Eminem, who made a mental note of Dido’s ethereal contribution). Her debut album, No Angel, was released in the US in June 1999, its soulful, incorporeal ditties co-produced by Rollo, Rick Nowels (Belinda Carlisle) and Youth (The Verve). Critically acclaimed, if initially lacking airplay and sales, Dido promoted it via Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair tour, drawing media comparisons to both the Canadian chanteuse, and Sinead O’Connor and Beth Orton. Dido achieved lift-off when her debut single, Here With Me, was used as the theme for cult US TV show, Roswell (and later in the Hugh Grant film, Love Actually). Eminem sampled Thank You for his Christmas 1999 global smash, Stan, and Dido featured in its video, playing his slim and shady girlfriend. She went on tour with the rapper and, as the single became a transatlantic No 1, No Angel breached the UK Top 5 and was released across Europe in October 2000 by Cheeky’s new owner, BMG.
No Angel spent over 100 weeks on the UK charts and became the biggest-selling album of 2001, fuelled by three Top 20 hits, including Hunter, while Take My Hand appeared on a Cheeky promo 12”. No Angel went on to shift more than 15 million units worldwide, making it the biggest-selling debut by a British female artist ever.
As well as writing I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman for Britney Spears, Dido hit the road through 2001 and into spring 2002, and co-wrote and sang on Faithless’ Top 10 Outrospective hits, One Step Too Far and No Roots. She additionally took time out to write songs for her second album, and won 2002’s Ivor Novello Songwriter Of The Year Award. Her annus mirabilus was crowned with BRIT Awards for Best British Female Artist and Best British Album. The only potential cloud on the horizon was how she could possibly top No Angel? In September 2003, Dido proved the nay-sayers wrong when Life For Rent, co-produced by Rollo, Faithless’ Sister Bliss, and P*nut, debuted at UK No 1 and became the fastest-selling British album since Oasis’ Be Here Now, shifting 400,000-plus copies in a week.
Utilising a chartered jet, she emulated Phil Collins’ Live Aid stunt by performing in London and New York on the same day (and a 180gm LP was US-issued by Classic, which now sells for three figures). The video for her UK No 2, White Flag, featured David Boreanaz of TV’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer and won the Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female) Grammy. It was followed by the title track on 45 in December, fuelling UK album sales to over two million, while the album debuted at US No 4 and achieved the top spot in over 20 countries. In addition, she guested on Carlos Santana’s Feels Like Fire (from Shaman, issued as a promo CD in Poland), and dueted with Rufus Wainwright on I Eat Dinner (pressed as a UK promo CD), from the soundtrack to the London-based Renee Zellwegger comedy, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason.
After Dido’s singles Don’t Leave Home and Sand In My Shoes (plus a Stoned promo 12”) emerged, another world tour saw out 2004, Dido showcasing her guitar playing on stage and, that November, she partook in Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? BRITs for Best British Female Artist and Best British Single (White Flag) were highlights of her year and, after the Live At Brixton Academy CD/DVD was unveiled in June 2005, she made an appearance at Live 8 that July.
Next, she teamed to write and record her third album with Fiona Apple, Kanye West and Keane producer, Jon Brion, whom she’d met at London’s Abbey Road Studios. He suggested that she relocate to Los Angeles to use his studio, before which she found time to work with Rollo on a CD for his children’s book, Safe From Harm. Dido’s Christmas Day emerged as single in 2006, just before her father died, prompting her to refocus the direction of her third opus, while seizing the opportunity to broaden her musical palette, simply noting, “I wanted to take some time to become a better musician”. Enrolling for English & Mythology evening classes at UCLA, she also studied orchestration, sound engineering and film scoring, and pursued her new passion for drumming, playing in album sessions alongside the likes of Mick Fleetwood, The Roots’ ?uestlove, Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple), Jim Keltner (John Lennon) and James Gadson (Bill Withers), as well as drawing in writers such as Brian Eno and Citizen Cope. Recording at Brion’s behest in a broom cupboard, Dido subsequently ruminated that, “I intentionally didn’t use any electronics. It was a challenge (using) all manner of instruments” to fashion a fresh, acoustic-based sound. After collaborating on the Sing 45, issued for World Aids Day in December 2007, she put the finishing touches to Safe Trip Home, which finally emerged in November 2008 (including a 15-song iTunes DL edition, and a 2-CD Deluxe Edition with three bonuses and making-of). It followed the Don’t Believe In Love single and US ASCAP Songwriter Of The Year Award, and it was critically praised before rising to UK No 2.
Dido returned to the studio in October 2009, working alone on piano, then calling on long-term collaborators such as Rick Nowels, Brian Eno and Sister Bliss, plus Kanye West. She loaned two of her tracks to Faithless’ Feelin’ Good, released in May 2010 and, that August, a download remix album, Everything To Lose, was released, along with a DL title track single (plus a CD in Australia, after its use in the film Sex & The City 2). The new album was largely completed by summer 2011, following an Oscar nomination that February for her ad lib vocal, If I Rise, recorded with soundtrack composer AR Rahman for Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours movie. Much of her fourth outing was recorded while pregnant, with contributors including Kendrick Lamar and Armin Van Buuren and, after taking time out to concentrate on her new family, Girl Who Got Away was mastered in November 2012 for release in March 2013. It debuted at No 5 and by then, the single No Freedom had become an anthem for Syrian insurgents, who played it prior to battle.
A world away, RC attended a launch gig at London’s Mayfair Arts Club in February, where Dido played live for the first time in nearly five years, wowing the media gathering with four numbers, accompanied by a duo including guitarist Pete Rinaldi, formerly of Justin Hawkins’ Hot Leg.
RC wondered how Dido came to recruit the shredder? “Through Rollo, as they worked together in One Eskimo. I asked Rollo and he was free.”
When was Girl That Got Away written?
I carried No Freedom around for a while and wrote this version in 2010. Loveless Hearts I’ve had the chorus of since 2004. Blackbird was the first specifically done for this album, then Go Dreaming. They dictated the sound, along with Everything To Lose, which isn’t on it but came out on 127 Hours. By then, the songs were writing themselves into a big electronic record. That’s how the tone was set.
Do you wait for song inspiration?
If I didn’t sit to write, I’d be so unproductive. You have moments that inspire you, but it’s not until I sit at the piano or with the guitar that it comes out. Sometimes it can pour out, but not often. Now that I’ve got my baby, Stanley, I have to close the door, because I don’t have big, lonely thought-times like I used to. I’m a better pianist but usually work on guitar, as I don’t write as well on piano. I’ll play something on guitar, then run to the piano to work it out. The guitar seems to be the most natural way for me. It puts me in the right head-space. Then it’s remarkably easy to transpose into electronica, because it’s the music that I love. I take the bare bones and have a laugh, and when I run aground, I take it to Rollo and he makes it sound like a record, not a mess (laughs). He doesn’t play anything, remarkably, but not getting bogged down in that makes him a brilliant producer.
Is there much still unreleased in the archives?
Tons. For this, we had stuff flowing out all year and we’ve not been able to use it because we didn’t have time. So there’ll be bonus tracks coming out of our ears. Or maybe I’ll just make the next record quicker!
There are some bonuses on the Special Edition?
Yeah. Ones I totally wanted on the record but I had to choose 11 that worked as an album and journey. Sequencing is so difficult, because everyone has an opinion. I made the mistake of saying, “Here’s the tracks, pick an order, have fun.” Rollo was like, “You can’t do that!” He gave me his list. I was like, “I don’t want that there.” I gave it to my husband, and he said, “I think it should be like this,” and oh God (laughs). You’re into this awful thing of keeping people happy and you have to do what you want to. Everyone was so passionate. A bit too passionate. It’s my record!
Was Rizzle Kicks involved?
Yeah, on one of the tracks that hasn’t come out but will. We did it a couple of years ago, then someone wanted to change something, and we didn’t have time to complete it.
Were you ever a collector?
80s singles! I used to spend all my money on records and it was such an event, going to HMV, which is so sad. I went to Borders and HMV Islington, and indies, if you can find them. I don’t have any copies of my last album and I was thinking, “Where do I buy my record?!” I used to love Reckless on Upper Street, [Islington]. That was my record store.
Do you have tapes of you from those days?
Yeah. I had a four-track, and there are tapes buried under all the crap in my studio. I was writing as a teenager with a Casio keyboard. At school, when Rollo was travelling in Australia, he’d post me lyrics. I’ve still got all that handwritten stuff. I’d sit in my school-breaks with my Casio, writing songs, putting them on cassette, posting them to Australia. Mad! Then I joined a band, Sheer, and we put out a record and sold about two copies. I was going out with the bassist and (laughs), I remember his sitting-room, where we stored copies, piled high. The first gig I ever did was with them at The Albany on [London’s] Great Portland Street, and I’ve got four-track tapes from then, and demos I used to take round all the record companies. They were like, “lose the band, you’ve got a deal”. But I was like, ‘no, I’m not losing my band”. It was a fun time. I used to spend all my time looking in NME and answering ads for people looking for a singer. I’d go to people’s flats in God knows where and sing. I can still remember some of those songs.
Like in The Commitments.
It was so bad! I didn’t know where I was, or what I was doing. Terrible lyrics, and it’s so funny that they (taped it but) wouldn’t have known who I was. Thankfully, none of it’s come out. I’ve done terrible stuff (laughs).
Have you done karaoke?
Yeah! In Japan. I’d never done it, but we were at the end of a tour, having flown from New Zealand after the earthquake. I was absolutely exhausted, but my assistant called and said they were in this karaoke bar under the hotel and, “You’ve got to come. Come in your pyjamas!” So I went, and it was the best, singing Beyonce and things I can’t sing for shit, doing the dance moves. I loved it! Then, because I thought it was the best thing ever – tragic – I hired a karaoke machine for a birthday in my mid-30s. Next morning, totally hung over in the wasteland of my house, I turned to my mate and said, “Shall we see what it sounds like?” Brilliant moment. Erm. Quite good! We don’t need a band! If anyone’d heard me blasting out my own songs … But it was brilliant!
Who would you like to cover one of your songs?
One of my 80s heroes like Howard Jones… Or Paul Young? He has the best voice ever.
I feel a duets album coming on.
I know! I’ve thought about it, honestly. It’d be great to sing with Spandau Ballet, Duran, George Michael? (laughs) I’d love it.
Have you ever kept a diary?
I go through phases. But I get paranoid that someone’ll read it… So you’re never as honest as you want to be. I don’t think I’ll do a book. It takes me long enough to write a song…
Was anyone in your family a musician?
My granddad was a great piano player, and my dad was completely tone deaf but sang Irish songs to us every night. You could hear him four streets away, and that gave me a good grounding.
Do you have any unfulfilled music ambitions?
Death metal. No. I’d love to do an Irish folk album, as they’re the songs I often sing at home. It’d take two days, and I’ll do that at some point.
What fact about you would surprise fans?
I’m 23 (laughs).
