From the vault: an interview with Dannii Minogue | 20th anniversary of ‘Neon Nights’ out this month

By creammagazine, June 5, 2023

On Friday 16 June, Dannii Minogue is reissuing her classic dance-pop LP Neon Nights which boasted four top 10 smashes: Put The Needle On It, I Begin To Wonder, Don’t Wanna Lose This Feeling and Who Do You Love Now?

Hum any one of those songs today and you’ll be transported to the heady days of early Noughties nightclubbing, where it seemed the sounds of Dannii Minogue were just about everywhere.

Around that time, Cream chatted with Dannii about rough treatment by the tabloid press, liaising with fans, growing older gracefully, and receiving freebies from fashion designers…

Interview by Antonino Tati

Hi Dannii. Right off the bat, what’s been your worst fashion moment?

I’d say the entire 1980s. It was one huge fashion mistake, but fuck
it was fun!

 

You’ve been through the rumour mill a lot. Have any tabloid fabrications truly upset you, especially during your stint in the UK where journalism can be rather sensationalised?

I don’t know which is worse, the British or the Australian media. You know, the world’s a big place and it’s a bit like Chinese whispers. Things get very, very distorted along the way, and depending on how somebody wants to distort what you’ve said… It’s always ‘according to a close friend, Dannii is anorexic’. I mean, fuck off! As if I’d have close friends like that! Still, you don’t get to read every single article that has been published about you, and I don’t focus on things that are nasty or distorted. You take it in; you move on.

 

You’ve been in the limelight for a while now… I would say decades but we don’t really want to go there, do we?

No, I’m totally cool about that [the age thing]. As I’m getting older, I’m loving it.

 

Since first appearing on ‘Young Talent Time’, did you know your career would always be in entertainment?

I was never certain it would be something that I’d be able to make a living from but it’s certainly what I love doing. As a child I was happy to do it as a hobby. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time where someone said ‘Do you want to go on this television show?’ and I was, like, ‘Yeah, it looks like fun’. At seven-years-old I wasn’t really planning the rest of my life and my career. I did Young Talent Time and from there things kept springing up. I have to say I have totally enjoyed performing and I guess you look back and wonder ‘Wow, how did all this happen?’.

 

What are some of your more disastrous memories?

It’s funny, because some of the worst videos were actually the biggest hits. You know, the ones where my hair is teased back after a can of hairspray’s been used on it… When I first released music, Madonna was big and had crazy hair, all teased up, and everybody was kind of into that… But of course I didn’t pull it off quite as well. Still, it was a lot of fun. I watch the videos now, half kind of giggling and half kind of covering my face, peering through my fingers at the shock of it.

 

You see it with ironic perspective?

Of course. I think if you’re hesitant about it, there’s no point in doing this [being a performer].

 

It must be quite surreal when you’re out at a club and one of your records comes on?

It is. In fact, it’s quite weird. I get fan mail on my forum from people in places that I just wouldn’t expect my music to be played, but I guess the biggest thrill is the first time you hear one of your new records on the radio, and then the first time you hear it played in a club. Obviously there’s such a buzz in a club because the music is thumping all around you and there’s that moment when I think, ‘Oh, this sounds great’. But then there are moments when I feel really daggy, like, I can’t be in a club going off to my own song… Sometimes it’s better being a fly on the wall.

 

Darren Hayes says he usually hears his songs played while he’s in the frozen food section at the supermarket. That would be even more surreal than hearing it in a club, I think.

And he wouldn’t know where to hide. Supermarket lighting is terrible!

 

Have you ever heard your music being played in a Coles or Marks & Spencer?

No, mine is probably a bit too disco-ey for something like Marks & Spencer.

 

“Things get very distorted [in the media] and depending on how somebody wants to distort what you’ve said… It’s always ‘according to a close friend, Dannii is anorexic’. I mean, fuck off! As if I’d have close friends like that!”

 

 

Are you cool with running errands during the day, like doing your own shopping, without worrying too much about the public?

Yeah, when I have time to do it. When I’m in the middle of doing promotional work, there’s just no minutes in the day to do anything normal. I go into Crazy Land, but it’s nice when all that finishes.

 

What about something simple like going for a walk in the park? Does it bother you being stopped for autographs or commented on by strangers?

It’s nice when people come up to you. The worst thing is when people recognise you and don’t know what to say or do. They end up stuck there, just staring at you, and you think there’s something wrong and aren’t too sure why this person is staring…

 

Do you feel obliged to sort of break the ice or do you think to yourself, well hang on, I didn’t actually ask them to come up to me…?

I think it’s different at every moment. Obviously if you’re with friends and it becomes more engaging, you become the mediator of wanting to spend time with your friends but also wanting to say hello to someone.

 

A mediator between the real life and the surreal life, you mean?

Yeah. But I’ve been there myself. For example, I’m a fan of comedienne Catherine Tate, and I was working at the BBC where she was shooting a new series. So I ran up to her in the hallway and she was like, ‘I’ve been reading that you’re a real fan of my show’, and I was like, ‘Yes, and I’m going to try and not stalk you ’cause I’m obviously so excited right now and I don’t know what to say’. You know, you’re just stuck in that moment where you admire someone and all your real senses kind of go, but it’s a nice feeling to admire someone.

 

Indeed the tables do turn occasionally.

All the time. I’m really lucky there are events to go to where I meet people I really admire. I like that.

 

 

Have you ever done the typical celebrity thing and checked into a hotel under a pseudonym?

Sometimes. The strangest one I’ve used was when I played the game of working out my porn star name – you know, where you take the name of your first pet [for your first name] and your mother’s maiden name [for your surname]. Mine ended up being ‘Pussy Jones’. So I used to check into hotels under ‘Pussy Jones’, but I can’t do that anymore because I’ve been found out now.

 

Do you get special treatment when you do things like checking in to hotels, or going to see the doctor?

No, I’m definitely not the kind of person to work that.

 

Well not that you’d want to work it, necessarily. Some people might be insistent in wanting to grant you a discount.

Well, with clothing designers, for example, people want you to wear their stuff, so I do get sent a lot of clothes. You build a rapport with designers you admire.

 

“When I played the game of working out my porn star name – you know, where you take the name of your first pet [for your first name] and your mother’s maiden name [for your surname], mine ended up being ‘Pussy Jones’.”

 

Have you ever received a designer outfit and wondered, ‘Ooh do I have to give this back?’ or is it assumed that it is a gift for you?

Sometimes, but obviously there’s a lot of stuff we borrow through stylists that are samples, and they have to go back because it’s the only sample they have at that point. And there are designers who make special stuff for you, where there can be confusion whether or not it’s been given as a gift. But I’m not one to run off with something unless I know it has been given as a gift. I was lucky to use a lot of Australian designers in one of my videos. We used Zimmerman swimwear and Nicola Finetti dresses.

 

Nicola Finetti is a good friend of mine, actually. And his designs are exceptional…

No way! My god. On the [merchandising] stand cards for one of my singles, I’m wearing this gorgeous cream puffball dress by Nicola, with black beading around the neck. Tell him for me that his whole collection is absolutely amazing. And can you please send my love to Nicola and tell him I’m a huge fan?

 

I’ll be sure to.

Thanks.

____

Bit of a post-script for you:

The next time I saw Nicola Finetti, I told him Dannii was a huge fan and that she sends him her love. His immediate response was: “Nice girl. I wish she’d send back the dresses we loaned her months ago.” Ahhh Dannii, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

This interview was originally published in the music interview anthology ‘There’s Your Quote, Mate’ by Cream editor Antonino Tati.

The 20th Anniversary of ‘Neon Nights’ is released Friday 16 June, 2023.

 

More from Cream’s Interview Archives