In the early 1970s, when I was married to Maurice [Gibb], we had a great time staying with Led Zeppelin’s drummer, John Bonham, and his wife, Pat, at their rented house in St-Paul-de-Vence, in Provence. Their son, Jason, was playing drums, Maurice got his guitar out, and we sat and drank until we couldn’t see straight. We would go shopping during the day and sit getting burnt in the sun. That was as rock’n’roll as it got. I loved the south of France. The light is so beautiful and there’s a marvellous restaurant, La Colombe d’Or, which has amazing paintings given by artists such as Picasso and Matisse, often as payment for their food.
The first time I went skiing was with Maurice, Ringo Starr and his wife, Maureen. We flew into St Moritz, stayed up all night and skied for two days. The instructor told me I was really good, probably buttering me up. So, when I went skiing later with John [Frieda], who liked to ski, I told him I was really good. But I kept falling all over the place. My ego was so deflated. He was the new person in my life, so it was awful. Eventually, I did learn and we got married. I don’t give in easily.
Wherever I go in the world, I know people, and that’s the best way to get to know a culture. A friend has a home in Phuket, Thailand, and that was fabulous. I went for long walks on the beach, swam, did lots of reading, eating and shopping, and had early nights. I’m not a great sightseer, but in Bangkok friends showed me the temples and took me to the best places to eat, which was a privilege. The East is so different to the West. They do things in a slower way, which is attractive to me, because I’m usually Speedy Gonzales.
My most recent holiday was in an ayurvedic health resort in Kerala, India. It was like sending your car in for a service. I’ve studied with a great master of yoga and meditation since 1984, but I’d never been to a 24-hour-a-day resort. It’s called Somatheeram and it’s on the wild Arabian Sea. That in itself helped meditation, because the sound of the waves is soothing. The food, mostly vegetables and pulses, was like nectar from the gods.
It’s a contrast with the holidays I had as a child, growing up in Glasgow. We used to go to Rothesay Bay, on the Isle of Bute, where my mother would rent a tiny apartment, and I’d always win the singing competition, because it wasn’t exactly The X Factor. It was rarely warm enough to sit on the beach, but we would go down with our spades and pails, and stay as long as my mother could bear it.
Advertisement
Now I’m wary of talking about all the fabulous holidays I’ve been on. People will be thinking, “Give me a break!”
The singer, 68, had her first hit, Shout, in 1964, when she was 15, and won the Eurovision Song Contest with Boom Bang-a-Bang in 1969. Her UK tour begins on October 1