UK pop star Betty Boo is back doing the do on her first solo single for 30 years and she has spoken about how a chance meeting with rap superstars Public Enemy first set her on the road to stardom back in 1987.
Betty aka Alison Clarkson will forever be remembered by a certain generation of music fans as the singer behind the 1990 smash hit Doing the Do, and debut album, Boomania, which became one of the biggest albums of the year.
Now she's back with her comeback single, Get Me to the Weekend, which features a sample of The Human League’s Love Action.
However, it was a fateful encounter after she and her first band The She Rappers attended a Def Jam Records show in Hammersmith that led to success for Betty and her fun brand of pop rap.
Speaking to host Sean Rocks on RTÉ Radio 1 show Arena, Betty recalled that night. "Me and some friends of mine from school went to the big Def Jam concert, which was held in Hammersmith Odeon in west London where I grew up and it wasn’t just Public Enemy.
"It was Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and Beastie Boys too. Hip-hop was at its height at the time and Shepherd’s Bush was on our way home and we looked into McDonalds and there was Professor Griff from Public Enemy so we went up to him and said, `Oi! We went to your show, and we loved it’ and I think they could tell me were rappers because we were dressed in a certain way."
She added, "It so happened that they had a camera because it was the first time they’d been in the UK, and they were making a documentary, so they started filming and asked my friend and I to do some rapping, so I just took over and started rapping."
The She Rappers’ impromptu fast-food rap in front of Griff led to them being offered a support slot on dates on Public Enemy’s US tour.
"We went to the states and did some stuff with Public Enemy and toured with them. I’d left my A-Levels and sixth form, and my mum was so worried about me, so I had to come home and do something a little more sensible."
Betty emerged as a solo act and asked what the inspiration for her very memorable image - all sixties kitsch and big hair - she said, "I always had the MC name Betty Boo and I evolved after I learnt how to use the technology, I had a studio in my bedroom, and I began really enjoying mixing pop with rap and playing around with samples.
"That’s when Betty Boo the solo artist emerged really. I did a record with The Beat Masters called Hey DJ as a guest vocalist in 1989 and that was the big stepping stone for me to get into the pop arena.
"The next thing I knew I was on Top Of The Pops and doing Smash Hits and going all around the country and Europe. It happened really quickly really. I just stated writing songs in my bedroom and Doing The Do came from that."
Madonna was an early fan of her work and invited Betty to join her label, Maverick, in the US but Betty had to refuse because her mother was ill at the time.
"Sadly, it was right in the middle of my mum getting ill," Betty said. "She was diagnosed with cancer, and I just stepped back from everything because I just wanted to look after he and be with her and you can’t be a pop star and look after someone, so I took a step back from music."
In 1992, Betty retired from music but re-emerged as an Ivor Novello-winning songwriter a decade later when she wrote Pure and Simple for the group, Hear’say, winners of ITV talent show Pop Stars, whose line-up included Myleene Klass.
Speaking about Get Me to the Weekend, she said, "I was away for a long time but I always felt like I had an album in me, maybe a couple of albums, but I was approaching a big birthday - the big 5-0 - and I thought if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it. I started working on it before lockdown.
"Me and my writing partner Andy Wright have completed one album and we're finishing a new one. I think I’m making up for lost time. I’m making the record I should have made when I was 25 because it’s got all the flavours that I’ve always loved. If anyone liked what I did before, they’ll like this."
Arena is on RTÉ Radio 1, Monday to Friday at 7.00pm
