Linda Nolan
It was Linda Nolan’s funeral today. She was the one of The Nolan Sisters that always had an extra glint in her eyes and as some stories I discovered proved she was not exactly what you would expect from a Nolan Sister.
Last year I wrote an article on the Nolans, their story and their music. This was my opening to that article.
A video popped up on Twitter recently of the Nolans on stage with Stevie Wonder in Japan. It was posted by Linda Nolan. I responded and Linda answered explaining the story behind it. That was it, I was hooked. I needed to investigate further. What I found was some fantastic pop music and an incredible, occasionally unbelievable, story.
It’s all here The Nolans
So to mark the day her family, friends and fans said goodbye to her I wanted to share some Linda Nolan highlights. Let’s be clear she could sing. Bernie may have done the bulk of the lead vocal work but Linda when asked did an incredible job as here on Don’t Love Me Too hard
The glint in her eye is clear during this fantastic video for Gotta Pull Myself Together.
When someone like Pete Paphides is moved to write something nice about you then be rest assured that real music people understood what made The Nolans far better than public perception. Linda more than played her part in those incredible sibling harmonies or as Pete puts it..
…the clue to The Nolan Sisters’ sonic superpower was right their in their name. They were siblings. And when siblings harmonise, it’s a sound that almost impossible for even its creators to explain. You just open your mouth and your unconscious mind creates a waveform that your mouth automatically follows.
Click on the link to Pete’s piece for an isolated vocal track that is spine tingling.
Pete Paphides on the Nolan Sisters
Talking of spine tingling this is Linda on lead vocals on God Knows from 1982’s Portrait ( more on Portrait later)
Now a couple of examples of why Linda was a bit different…
Here singing Barry Manilow’s It’s A Miracle on a none more 90’s late night Men & Motors Show with Terry Christian failing to remain cool
He tweeted on news of her passing
R.I.P Linda Nolan. Met most of the Nolan sisters back in day - all fantastic women .
The Nolans meet Lemmy from Motorhead? Of course Linda is front and centre
When Lemmy met the Nolans he only had only one thing on his mind as he told Q magazine in 2010:
“No (there was no fling), but it wasn’t for the want of trying. They are awesome chicks. People forget those girls were onstage with Frank Sinatra at the age of 12. They’ve seen most things twice.
“We were on Top of the Pops at the same time as them and our manager was trying to chat up Linda: the one with the bouffant hair and the nice boobs. He dropped his lighter and bent down to pick it up. Linda said to him, ‘While you’re down there, why don’t you give me a…’ It blew him away. We didn’t expect that from a Nolan sister. None of us did.
“We were supposed to be the smelliest, loudest motherf**kers in the building but we more than met our match. We were in awe. You couldn’t mess with the Nolan sisters.”
The Nolans & The Young and Moody Band (lemmy on bass) - Don’t Do that
When The Nolans came to an end Linda took to the West End stage as you’d expect brilliantly. Here as the iconic Mrs Johnstone from Blood Brothers
The world is a slightly darker place as we’ve lost the self proclaimed naughty Nolan.
I only had a brief interaction with her on social media but she inspired me to look deeper into some music I would never have discovered. For Linda and her family I am on a one man mission to get Portrait the recognition it deserves. All girl bands that followed in The Nolans wake owe them for breaking a glass ceiling. There are influences on what came next for Madonna, The Spice Girls, Girls Aloud and many others in Portrait. If you do one thing today for Linda please give it a listen.
She would never say she was fighting cancer, she was living with it. Her regular column in the Daily Mirror exuded positivity and hope when it was clear all hope was failing. She raised a fortune for breast cancer research and remained as active as she could. A force of nature, a fantastic singer and quite a lady.
RIP Linda x