EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.. Dame Shirley Bassey still going strong after notorious Scots debut.

Byline: BILLY SLOAN

The minute Shirley Bassey walked in the joint, she could see this would be a show of distinction - but for all the wrong reasons.

The year was 1955. The legend from Tiger Bay in Wales was an aspiring 18-year-old singer. She stood trembling on stage at the Glasgow Empire as the venue's notorious audience hurled abuse.

It was her first ever appearance at the famous Scottish variety theatre dubbed "the comedian's graveyard" whose tough crowds could make or break a performer.

I met the Welsh diva at the Ritz Hotel in London to talk about The Performance, her first studio album for 20 years.

And the memory of her Scottish debut still brings her out in a cold sweat.

"One day my manager told me 'You're going to Scotland'. The way he said it sounded like a death sentence," recalled Dame Shirley, 72.

"If you wanted play the No1 venues, you had to get on to the Moss Empire circuit where you got a contract for a year.

"They sent me to Glasgow and as I sat backstage at the Empire I could hear this terrible noise coming from the hall. I put on my dressing gown and stood in the wings.

"There was a juggler on stage and the abuse from the audience was incredible. He was so scared he was dropping balls all over the place. I'd never heard anything like it.

"I stayed there thinking 'well, maybe it's just that act'. A comedian went on next and the abuse got even louder. They were constantly shouting out and putting him off. It was dreadful.

I thought 'surely that can't happen to me'."

The Empire - which staged shows by US stars Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Danny Kaye and Jack Benny - still sends a shiver up the spine of veteran entertainers.

Some UK comics who got a pasting from the audience include Tommy Cooper, Bob Monkhouse and Morecambe And Wise.

The theatre's most famous "victim" was Des O'Connor, who pretended to faint just to get off.

And Empire legend claims that when funnyman Bernie Winters was dying a death midway through his act, brother Mike walked on to try to rescue him only for a punter in the stalls to shout: "Oh f***, there's two of them".

The teenage Dame Shirley was determined not to become another name on the Empire's roll of dishonour. She said: "I opened with a fast song, thinking I wouldn't be such an easy target but my next number was I've Got You Under My Skin, which was much quieter.

"Then they started. 'Get off' they shouted. I got such abuse I thought I was going to die.

"I said to myself 'What am I doing here?' I don't know how I managed to keep singing."

As the crescendo of abuse threatened to wreck her act, Dame Shirley recalled: "I walked to the edge of the stage and said 'Now listen here' - in a broad Welsh accent they probably couldn't understand - 'I've come tonight to entertain you lot and if you don't want to listen, then I may as well bloody go home'.

"There was silence. The abuse stopped and they sat quietly through the rest of my act. It's said if you can make it in Glasgow Empire, you can make it anywhere.

"I never had any problems performing in Scotland again after that."

It's a collection of songs by contemporary artists such as Gary Barlow of Take That, KT Tunstall, The Pet Shop Boys and Kaiser Chiefs.

It was recorded by David Arnold, the Grammy-winning producer best known for scoring five James Bond movies.

Dame Shirley revealed: "I'm over the moon so many well-known writers have given me songs. I didn't realise they all wanted to work for me.

"When I heard the likes of Gary Barlow and The Pet Shop Boys were on the list my reaction was one of total fear. I thought 'How am I going to do this?' It felt very intimidating, even for me who's been in the business longer than any of them. Once I got over that, it was exciting and a challenge."

Dame Shirley had gone to see Take That at Wembley. But when Gary Barlow unveiled his song, This Time, she was hit by a panic attack.

She said: "All of the other artists just sent me their songs but Gary insisted on coming over to actually play his to me. He sat there and sang it and I wasn't ready for that.

"I'd never heard him on his own and was very nervous. But so was he, so then we had an argument about who was most nervous."

Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers wrote The Girl From Tiger Bay for Shirley. It brought back memories of her working-class childhood in that area of Cardiff with Nigerian father Henry and Yorkshire-born mother Eliza Jane.

Shirley said: "I was born in Tiger Bay. which no longer exists. During the war, it was a port Hitler tried to bomb.

"God bless the band for helping keep it alive. It brought an element of rock to the album, which I had never had before."

Scots star KT Tunstall wrote Nice Men specially for the album.

It's one of Dame Shirley's favourite tracks but it hasn't been a good omen for the twicemarried superstar who lives as a single girl in Monte Carlo.

She said: "I loved her cheeky lyrics. Are there any nice men out there? No, there are no men in my life.

"Where have they all gone?" .Dame Shirley Bassey's new studio album, The Performance, is released Geffen Records on November 9.

Singing for JFK was highlight of a glittering 55-year career

Dame Shirley Bassey's 55-year career is the stuff that dreams are made of.

The singer has sold more than 135million records since the release of her debut album, Born To Sing The Blues, in 1957.

Her string of classic singles include Kiss Me Honey Honey (1958), As Long As He Needs Me (1960), I (Who Have Nothing) (1963) and Big Spender (1967).

The Welsh superstar has performed in front of royalty and sung at The Pyramids in Egypt, Las Vegas and at the opening of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Who can forget her hilarious appearance on the 1971 Morecambe And Wise Christmas Show in which she stumbles down a staircase and has her shoe replaced by a work boot? But Shirley - who was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1999 - has no hesitation choosing her alltime favourite concert engagement. It was when John F Kennedy invited her to sing at his Presidental Inauguration Ball in 1961.

She said: "When he shook hands with me, it was like being hit by a bolt of lightning.

"It was sheer magic and the first time I realised political power was sexy. Oh yes, he could have left his shoes under my bed any time."

At the ball, Dame Shirley performed Everything's Coming Up Roses and it provoked laughter.

She said: "I couldn't figure out why - I thought maybe my boob had fallen out of my dress.

"I never got to the bottom of it until much later. We were invited to a party at the home of Vice President Lyndon Johnson.

"When President Kennedy and his wife Jackie walked in, they told me I had been singing Johnson's official campaign song. I had no idea."

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Yours truly meets the Welsh legend and, right, Dame Shirley belts out a song Shirley had a memorable time with Morecambe and Wise