Characters

ANNA MAE BULLOCK

THE ARTIST WHO LATER BECOMES KNOWN AS TINA TURNER

RICHARD BULLOCK

ANNA MAE’S FATHER

ZELMA BULLOCK

ANNA MAE’S MOTHER

ALLINE BULLOCK

ANNA MAE’S SISTER

GRAN GEORGEANNA (GG)

ANNA MAE’S GRANDMOTHER

IKE TURNER

MUSCIAN, SONG WRITER. tINA tURNER’S HUSBAND BETWEEN 1962-1978

CRAIG TURNER

SON OF TURNER AND RAYMOND HILL

RONNIE TURNER

SON OF TINA TURNER AND IKE TURNER

THE IKETTES

BACKING SINGERS AND DANCERS FOR IKE AND TINA TURNER

RAYMOND

SAXOPHONE PLAY WITH IKE TURNER’S KINGS OF rHYTHM

NICHOLAS SKILLBECK

MUSIC SUPERVISOR

RHONDA GRAAM

Manager of Ike & Tiina Turner Revue, and later Tina Turner

PHIL SPECTOR

Record producer

ROGER DAVIES

Manager of Olivia Newton-John, and later Tina Turner

JOHN CARPENTER

Record executive at Capitol Records

MARTYN WARE

Member of the band Heaven 17, who worked on Tina’s early solo recordings

TERRY

Record producer

ERWYN BACH

Marketing executive at Capitol Records, later Tina Turner’s partner. They married in 2013.

Other characters, played by the ensemble

MOTEL MANAGER
POLICE OFFICERS
BODACIOUS WOMAN
STRUNG WOMAN – shoots herself in a jealous rage
SOUND ENGINEER
TONI – choreographer in London
SUITS – ‘THE CAPITOL RECORDS BRASS”
DRESSER
STAGE MANAGER

Other names and references

Olivia Newton–John (born 1948)

Australian-British singer and actress. Newton-John played Sandy in Grease in 1978 and was known for her ‘clean-cut’ image. Newton-John wanted to take more risks with her image and with Roger Davies achieved this partly through her album Physical in 1981. In Tina we see Roger arguing with Carpenter about the suitability of this song for her. Davies was right: the song was number 1 in the Billboard 100 for 10 weeks.

Mick Jagger (born 1943)

Lead singer of the Rolling Stones. Ike and Tina Turner were the opening act for the Rolling Stones in 1966, and Tina performed with them again in 1981. Tina sang a duet with Jagger for the Live Aid concert in 1985, singing It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It).

David Bowie (1947-2016)

British singer-songwriter and actor, also known in the 1970s as Ziggy Stardust. As well as being a solo artist famous for hits such as Let’s Dance and Heroes, Bowie also dueted with high profile artists: Under Pressure with Queen, and Dancing on the Street with Mick Jagger are two such examples. It is said that it was Bowie who persuaded studio executives to attend Tina’s performance at the Ritz (reportedly missing his own launch for Let’s Dance), the performance which secured her a deal with Capitol Records.

Heaven 17

1980s pop band comprising of  Martin Ware, Ian Marsh and Glenn Gregory, recording songs such as temptation, but also producing music under the name of British Electric Foundation.  Heaven 17 also can be heard in the backing vocals in Let’ Stay Together, and the band members are credited with helping resurrecting Tina’s career in the early 1980s.

Grace Jones (born 1948)

Jamaican born singer , actress and model, popular and prolific in the 1980s.

Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound

Phil Spector’s method of music production is known for its richness and depth of sound. Spector likened the approach to putting together the pieces of a jigsaw, and augmenting sounds by doubling or tripling instruments on each line of music. One example would be combining the sound of a traditional piano, a harpsichord and an electronic piano or keyboard rather than a simple piano-only line. These different sounds would be combined in the mixing process to the point where a listener would not be able to identify the three original, separate sounds but instead experience a richness of piano-like sound.

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PSHE Content (Key Stages 2 & 3)

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