Betty Boo dreams of retiring to Scotland and revealed “I do feel Scottish”. The star, 53, while from London and known for her American-style rapping on 90s hits like Doin’ The Do, was born Alison Moira Clarkson and is proud of her Scots roots.
She even used her granny’s name Betty as her pop moniker.
She said: “Everytime I do go to Scotland, I do feel Scottish. I just feel very at home there.”
Now living in Wiltshire with her film producer husband Paul Toogood, she will be back here next month for the Let’s Rock Scotland festival at Dalkeith Country Park, Midlothian, on a bill which also includes The Human League and Wet Wet Wet.
She said: “All my mum’s side are Scottish and from Edinburgh. She and my nanny moved down to London in the 60s but we used to go to Scotland a lot for our summer holidays.
“I haven’t been back for many years but we used to go to Silver Sands outside Edinburgh. For someone who was born in London, it felt like a different world.
“I have hazy memories going to stay in Perth with other relatives.
“My brother and I would stay there for the whole of the summer holidays and I remember playing out until midnight because it didn’t get dark. It was fantastic.
“I always think I’ll move to Scotland when I retire, find a little place by a loch. That would be lovely.”
Playing Let’s Rock will give her an excuse to have a nosy around her mum’s home city of Edinburgh.
She said: “I’m staying in the city so I’m going to get up there really early, get my sneakers on and have a walk about.”
She mentioned going to Jenners where her mum, Lysbeth, had a Saturday job before moving to London. I break the news it’s being turned into a hotel.
“That’s a shame. I always loved, as soon as I was in Princes Street, going to Jenners. When my mum passed away, I used to think of her working there as a young girl,” she said.
Betty was riding high in the early 90s when she walked away from fame to look after her mum, who had liver cancer and passed away in 1994.
While some may have carried on with the pop circus, Betty, whose father died when she was 17, “didn’t even think about it”.
She added: “I thought, ‘I have to be there for her and make her feel safe’. I used to sleep in the hospital.
“I just didn’t think of being a pop star even though I was at the top of my game.
“All I remember feeling was I wish I was the person who was ill.”
Within three months of her mother’s death, her aunt died of pneumonia and she was left to look after her beloved nanny, who was reeling at the death of her two daughters.
Betty kept nanny close and visited her every day until she died in 2000, aged 85. But then she feels she owes nanny Betty a lot. Not just using her “best name ever” for her pop name. She said: “I definitely learned a lot from my nanny about being independent.
“I was earning money when I was seven helping put leaflets into envelopes in school holidays at the Fabian Society.”
Betty was a left-wing activist who set up a drop-in centre for older people and was so well respected she had her retirement party at the House of Lords.
Betty snr may have lived in London but it was a Scottish home. Even Betty jnr’s dad John, a Malaysian, “ended up having a bit of a Scottish accent”.
She will feel emotional coming back to Scotland next month nearly 30 years since her mum died.
“It still brings tears to my eyes,” she admitted. I sometimes can’t believe how much time has passed. Life really has to be lived.”
She took up tennis after her mum died and plays every day. As well as currently working a new album she is training to be a tennis coach.
Betty acknowledges her nanny’s Scottish grit and determination drove her to succeed at an early age. She formed her first band, The She Rockers, aged 16.
After watching a 1988 DEF Jam gig in London, which featured Public Enemy, she met them at a McDonald’s and starting rapping with them.
The hip-hop legends asked her to support them on tour in America.
British success followed when she fronted The Beatmasters’ top 10 hit Hey DJ I Can’t Dance (To That Music You’re Playing). Her first solo single Doin’ The Do reached the UK top 10 and went to No1 in the US dance chart.
Boomania – also the name of her debut album – followed with a top three hit Where Are You Baby?
She was about to crack America, with Madonna wanting to sign her to her own label Maverick.
Betty said: “We got to the point of contracts. Then my mum fell ill, so I put everything on hold to look after her. Madonna was very understanding because she’d lost her own mother. She sent me flowers.”
Betty may have turned her back on fame but she inspired the Spice Girls’ first manager, Chris Herbert, to put out an advert looking for “five Betty Boos”.
After he was ousted, he started a band Girl Thing. Betty wrote them Pure and Simple, which was then used by Hear’Say and became No1.
While she stepped back from singing she’s continued to write for others including Girls Aloud and Paloma Faith.
But when she hit 50 she felt it was time to write another album.
Boomerang was released last year and included instant fan favourites Get Me to the Weekend and Right By Your Side, which featured David Gray. She also teamed up with old pal Chuck D of Public Enemy on a track Miracle.
Betty is now working on another album. She laughed and said: “It’s like having your old job back.”
●Let’s Rock Scotland at Dalkeith Country Park, Midlothian, on June 24. Tickets at www.letsrockscotland.com
