The men who made Lulu shout - and that affair with David Bowie

She was only 15 when she had her first hit Shout in 1964 with her band the Luvvers.

Since then she’s had a lot to shout about in the romance stakes with a string of high profile lovers.

This week Lulu, 70, from Dennistoun in Glasgow, admitted she had been in love with David Bowie “maybe for a minute”.

David, who passed away aged 69 in 2016 from liver cancer, was one of Lulu’s high profile lovers but the Scots singer admitted she didn’t want any more boyfriends.

“Why would I? There are some I wish I’d had as a boyfriend, but not more.”

And now living in London, Lulu is happy “on my own”.

She insisted: I’m not looking to live with someone. I was needy of that when I was younger. I could feel lonely when I travelled. Not now.”

Lulu’s Luvvers – Peter Noone

Herman’s Hermits also had their first big hit in 1964, I’m into Something Good, when lead singer Peter Noone was a teenager – almost exactly a year older than Lulu. Fame and a common bond of Scotland (His mum’s family were from Glasgow) saw the teenagers fall in love - although Peter claims it was a chaste liaison.

He said: “I used to drive all the way up from Manchester to Glasgow just to have a look at her.

“We had a little bit of a thing and I was really enamoured with her.

“But the reality was driving all the way up and meeting her dad, who worked in an abattoir. And I remember I had to sit there in a room with her little sister and have a cup of tea while all the time I was trying to pull Lulu.”

Davy Jones

The Monkees were one of the biggest bands in the world thanks to their American TV series. They invited Lulu to support them at Wembley in 1967. Because of their fame Lulu didn’t want to like Davy at first but as soon as they met “hit it off straight away”. But he broke her heart when she found out he had a long-time girlfriend, Linda Haines, who she discovered was pregnant with his child.

She admitted: “I fell for him and thought he fell for me.

“I went to LA to work at the ­Coconut Grove, Davy came to my ­opening night and I fell for him big-time.

“I had to leave LA and go to a gig in Miami and, because I hadn’t heard from him, I ­wondered what was going on... the next thing I heard was he was getting married.

“He had been living with that girl so he was coming out to see me and taking me out and the girl was living with him and I had no idea. I was ­heartbroken.”

Maurice Gibb

She met her first husband Bee Gee Maurice Gibb backstage at Top of the Pops in 1968. She was 20, he was 19 and they fell for each other at once, marrying in February 1969. Two of the biggest stars in the world they enjoyed the showbiz lifestyle. They divorced in 1974 partly because of his drinking problems but Lulu admitted they shouldn’t have got married.

She said: “The drinking was a part of it but we shouldn’t have got ­married in the first place... we should have just had a romance.”

She admitted she felt a failure when her marriage to Maurice, who died in 2003 aged 53 due to complications of a twisted intestine, ended.

But she said: “I decided it had to end. He didn’t want it to end and it hurt him. I totally loved and adored him but... in love with him? I was ­probably in love with love.”

David Bowie

As the grandmaster of Glam, Bowie was the biggest star in Britain when Lulu recorded two of his songs, The Man Who Sold the World and Watch That Man. He was 26 and she was 24. The Scot admitted she was “mesmerised” by the Ziggy Stardust legend she met by chance in a Sheffield hotel in the 70s.

She’s talked about their affair regularly over the years, since she wrote about it in her 2002 autobiography, I Don’t Want to Fight. “Has there ever been an odder couple?” she asked in that book.

“When he focused on me I felt like the only person in the room, in the universe, I found him intoxicating. It was the sexual chemistry which drew us together,” she wrote.

“He was just mesmeric and he had the best thighs I had ever seen.”

But she ended it after struggling to cope with what she calls his “druggy” lifestyle. "His scene at the time was very druggy and weird and I never felt very comfortable with it.”

John Frieda

After the excess of her first marriage and rock ‘n’ roll fling with Bowie, Lulu found family life with second husband John Frieda who she calls “the love of her life”. Back then he was an unknown assistant at her Belgravia salon but he’s gone on to become one of the most famous celebrity hairdressers in the world. He was her friend for two years before he became her lover.

Lulu said: “John came as a surprise to me because I wasn’t looking for him or anyone else. I was shattered after Maurice. I was nervous to take the plunge again.”

They married in 1975 and two months later while she was rehearsing for panto Lulu discovered she was pregnant with their son and her only child, Jordan, who has since made her a granny.

After Jordan’s birth she cut down on work to be a mum but John was building his empire. Just before her 40th birthday she miscarried their second child and she carried on working to push away the grief including a role as Adrian Mole’s mum. John moved to America while she stayed in the UK.

They called time on their marriage in 1992. But Lulu was still in bits. She admitted: “When my second marriage ended, it shocked my whole system. I was lost. I had no idea what I was going to do.”

Jason Orange

After her second marriage Lulu has enjoyed high profile relationships with younger men. When she recorded 1993 No1 single Relight My Fire with Take That – then the biggest boy band in the world – she, then aged 44, and the 23-year-old Jason had a rumoured dalliance. They have never gone public about it but have said they had a “special relationship”. She claimed: “He’s very, very cute but no, nothing happened.”

But Jason’s bandmate Howard claimed on Jonathan Ross’s BBC1 chatshow, that it was more than that. When Ross quizzed the boys about Lulu, Howard pointed at Jason and coarsely claimed: “He’s the one who f****d her!”

Angus Macfadyen

Her next toyboy was Braveheart actor Angus Macfadyen in 1997. She claimed her relationship with the fellow Scot who was 15 years her junior was “the best sex I’d ever had. My God, he relit my fire!”

The pair recently teamed up when Lulu wrote the soundtrack for the actor’s film Robert the Bruce. At the launch she said: “Angus and I had a relationship a few years ago. And we’re still really good friends.”

Stuart Manning

When Lulu was photographed at Victoria and David’s World Cup party in 2002 with young actor Stuart, tongues began to wag because of the age difference. She was 53 he was 21, three years older than her son at the time. She has never revealed the depth of the relationship.

At the time Lulu said: “He is a lovely guy. But it’s just a bit of fun, nothing too serious. I like young guys and I also like men who are my own age - I don’t discriminate when it comes to age."

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