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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