Parting words Friends pay tribute to famous lives lost this year

2023 THOSE WE LOST

Tina Turner

Martyn Ware

The producer and Heaven 17 musician recalls the humble star who gave him tea and biscuits, and who could record a hit track in one take

A few weeks before I met Tina A Turner in 1982, I saw her playing in London. I was a big fan. Even though I was known for making electronic music, River Deep, Mountain High was my favourite song. But back then, she didn't have a recording contract. The only way she could earn money independently was by doing what they called the chicken-in-abasket circuit in America, touring her old hits.

How I got involved was like an alignment of the stars. I'd been putting together an album of old songs reframed in new contexts and James Brown had just backed out at the last minute or, rather, his lawyers had. So there I was in the Virgin Records office, wondering who on earth was going to sing the Temptations' Ball of Confusion, and the head of A&R, who knew Tina's new manager, Roger Davies, overheard me. The next minute, [Heaven 17's] Glenn Gregory and I were flying out to LA to meet her, literally in her front room.

Tina was as sweet as she could possibly be, making us tea and bringing out biscuits. She seemed quite easy with herself, which is amazing given what she'd been through in the very recent past [she divorced her abusive husband, Ike, in 1978]. She didn't volunteer lots, but she didn't avoid it either. She told me a couple of difficult things about Ike beating her, and the level of his cocaine addiction - how he'd pour a pile of it in the studio and say everyone couldn't leave until it was finished; how the only person who took it was him.

Being in the studio with her was incredible from the start. The first time she walked in, she just walked to where the band was and got on with the job. We recorded Ball of Confusion and later, [her 1983 comeback single] Let's Stay Together, which I produced, both in one take.