Episode 27. Marcia Hines
Australian music legend Marcia Hines stops by Ramble City to discuss starting out her career in Boston USA, moving to Australia, Gospel music, Woodstock, performing in Hair music at 16(!), what she would do starting out in the business today and lots more!
RAMBLE CITY is hosted by award wining Singer/songwriter Bradley McCaw, musing on art & life with artists & sportspeople from around the people. Welcome to RAMBLE CITY.
This interview was originally recorded in late 2021.
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Brought to by True Arts Podcast Network
Created, produced, hosted & engineered by Bradley McCaw.
Original sound design by Matt Erskine at Crosspoint Solutions
Original Video designed by Adam Shaw at Axis Productions
Theme composed by James Ryan
About Marica Hines:
Australia’s beloved musical treasure Marcia Hines, with a career spanning five decades, has released 22 albums, selling 2.6 million copies, and has garnered countless chart-topping singles and multiplatinum records globally.
Marcia is an inspiration to women and Australians everywhere, constantly reinventing herself and setting industry benchmarks. She moved from Boston Massachusetts to Sydney in 1970, at just 16, to star in the Australian production of Hair and then became the first black woman to star in Jesus Christ Superstar. She is an inspiration to women and Australians everywhere, constantly reinventing herself and setting industry benchmarks.
Marcia was Australian Idol’s favourite judge for the original show’s seven consecutive years and returns to the judging panel for the Seven Network’s reboot in 2024. She was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007 and in 2023 she received the Support Act Music in the House Award for Excellence in the Community. This award and the Order of Australia (AM) received in 2009 acknowledged her services to the Australian entertainment industry as a performer, judge, mentor and the extraordinary contribution she has made to the community through a range of charitable organisations.
Since 2015 Marcia has starred in the circus/burlesque/discotheque spectacular Velvet, directed by Craig Ilott and now a global success story with shows running in Europe and North America. Velvet morphed into Velvet Rewired in 2023 and Marcia reprised her role in a sell-out Australian tour that included eight weeks at the Sydney Opera House. There have been other productions including Pigalle for the Sydney Festival, Saturday Night Fever at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre, and in 2020 she became ‘The Dragon’ in the Australian season of Shrek The Musical. In January 2024 Marcia will return to the theatre stage in the role of Teen Angel in the new John Frost/Crossroads Live production of Grease.
It has now been over 50 years since Marcia first arrived for Hair and to celebrate this extraordinary career, ABC Records has released ‘Still Shining’, a 22-song celebration of her amazing journey. From ‘Fire and Rain’ to ‘What I Did For Love’ to ‘From The Inside’ to elegant, up tempo discotheque standards like ‘You’ and ‘Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees’, ‘Still Shining’ is a fitting tribute to a great Australian. There are also two new songs produced by the LA-based Australian producer/composer, Michael Fatkin.
A new album ‘The Gospel According to Marcia’, celebrating Marcia’s musical roots and memories from her childhood in Boston and her early experiences with gospel music is released on Friday 3 November through ABC Records.
It is a story of strength, commitment and relationship to an audience that has loved and admired her from the day she first arrived and became part of Australian culture. Marcia Hines is a wonder to behold and remains at the very forefront of modern musical endeavour.