The following phone interview conversation took place on June 24, 2018. It has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Carly Jordan: Thank you so much for talking to us for the show. I was really psyched that you wanted to talk about Dionne Warwick.
Viv Albertine: Oh, Dionne Warwick, yes! You don’t think that was a weird one?
CJ: No, I didn’t think that was weird at all.
Carrie Courogen: No.
CJ: We didn’t think that was weird.
CC: We thought it was really interesting.
CJ: Because in your first book, I remember reading about all of the different artists that influenced you when you were coming up in the ‘70s, and none of them were what I thought they were gonna be, and they were so varied and so interesting. So, I was not at all surprised that you chose Dionne Warwick.
VA: Oh, good! [laughs]
CJ: So, when did Dionne Warwick first come to your attention and what about her voice stuck out to you in particular?
VA: Well, I think I first probably heard Dionne Warwick in the ‘60s when I was just listening to chart music, because she had a couple of hits, but the reason I chose the album was because it was one of about four albums we had within the Slits, when we all sort of lived together and shared everything and had to go everywhere together because just the way we dressed enacted — we were being attacked all the time, so we spent so much time together and we just sort of pulled the few things we had. And, back in those days, you know you had a few albums ‘cause they cost so much. We got Dionne Warwick, I think, Golden Hits, Part One, which is her singing the Burt Bacharach – Hal David songs, from the record exchange shop, so, it was a used copy. And we absolutely sort of studied it, you know?
'77 Music Club 