I didn't even think of myself as a 'girl musician...

ROCK STAR SUZI QUATRO TELLS CASEY COOPER-FISKE ABOUT BEING 'ANTI-GLAM', HER SOFT SPOT FOR THE UK AND BLAZING A TRAIL FOR FEMALE ARTISTS

- 

BURSTING on to the scene in 1973 with a run of thunderous rock and roll singles, Suzi Quatro was one of the first women to become a rock superstar.

The singer and bass player grew up in Detroit, USA, alongside fellow rock pioneers Alice Cooper, The Stooges and the MC5, and began her career fronting all-girl garage band The Pleasure Seekers alongside her sister Patti on guitar and backing vocals, later being joined by another of her sisters, Arlene, on keys.

Their song What a Way to Die is seen as a forerunner to punk with its chorus of, “I may not live past 21, but woo what a way to die” - but the band never found mainstream success in the US.

Suzi, 75, was spotted by producer Mickie Most, who brought her to England in 1971 to join his RAK label. She was welcomed by Britain's record-buying public, with her music fitting in with the UK’s glam explosion in the 1970s.

Four top 10 singles between 1973 and 1974, including two number ones in Can the Can and Devil Gate Drive, followed but Suzi dislikes being labelled “glam”.

She recalls: “I was the only girl, so I was the odd one out, but then again I'm used to that.

“Mickie always said to me, even before I made it, ‘you are unique’.

“OK Mickie, I get it? But I didn’t feel strange being the only girl, because I was brought up in a family of musicians. So I didn’t even think about it, I didn’t even think of myself as a girl musician.