DAVID SOUL
‘L'nfortunately. I haven't been part of his growing up either as a father or in the theatre.’ says Soul. ‘By the time he was a year-and-a- half-old. I‘d gone. so that's a long time. We‘ve discovered ottr relationship later on.‘
He now understands how his own father felt when his son went off to do street theatre in New York. instead of following him into the ministry. and the angst of watching a child enter a fickle profession. ‘Music and theatre were ways of paying the rent.. he says. ‘They weren‘t career choices. That‘s always my first question: “Now what atn I gonna do?" You have to be hot and I‘m just insecure enough that if I don't get the job. something’s wrong with me. So there‘s a certain fragility in my relationship with the business.‘
In the late 70s. David Soul could hardly have been hotter. enjoying an iconic primetime television role and a healthy stab at pop stardom courtesy of the chart-topping ‘Don‘t Give Up On L’s Baby' and the immortal ‘Silver Lady' ('the Indiana wind and rain cut through me‘: sorry. I was miles away). Record company litigation halted his musical career before the difficult third album stage.
Soul is reluctant to trade anecdotes about .S'Iursky And Hurt/I. or ‘that series I did'. as he first refers to it but. when asked if he intended at the time to return to theatre work. he says. ‘in the first year. we were cocooned away and we worked as if we were in the theatre but then this thing went boom and swallowed us up. It was happening to us. more than we were creating it. In the back of your mind. you're saying "I‘ll get back to theatre one day". but meanwhile you‘re doing a juggling act with this commercial notoriety.‘
Notoriety of a different kind has dogged
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22 THE lIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 10 l 7 Aug 2000
'I've been married and divorced four times and I've
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Soul in recent times. His name has been tarred with negative connotations of past alcoholism, wife-beating and. since he and Hamilton relocated to London ‘to work in the birthplace of theatre‘. canvassing for Martin Bell at the last General Election.
He is disarmineg open about his shortcomings. saying ‘any mistakes that have been made in my own life. I think have been brought on by myself.‘ Last year. having forged a new musical partnership with Ayrshire guitarist Hugh Burns and assembled a backing band. he went back on tour. laying bare his failings in a cover version of Charles Aznavour‘s ‘I Drink'.
‘Charles Aznavour is my hero.‘ he says. ‘His music hit me like a brick when I was going through my first divorce. It wasn‘t about regret; it was about new beginnings. That particular song is deadly honest: . . and I do it anyway". I resonate with that song.”
Sounds like il ne regrette rien. Not even bruising his bum by jumping on to the roof of that car in the Stars/(y And Hutch opening credits.
Fool For Love (Fringe) Scottish International @ Dynamic Earth (Venue 18) 530 3557, 16-28 Aug, 4.30pm. £10 (£8).
i Soul with Pat'jl Michael Glaser ii) that series they did
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