
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023) was a singer, songwriter and actress. Known as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the husband-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner before launching a successful career as a solo performer. She was noted for her “swagger, sensuality, powerful gravelly vocals and unstoppable energy”.
And that’s all I’ll write about TT here. Everyone knows everything about her.
And so, exactly fifty years ago on November 17, 1973, I was at her concert in Vienna. Afternoon bus ride there and back home in the middle of the night. I still remember that the last song she sang was I’ve been loving you too long, a soul music ballad written by Otis Redding and Jerry Butler.
The hall in darkness, she alone on a darkened stage illuminated by a single spotlight. Silence in the hall, people on their feet and when she finished, an outburst of emotions.
A night to remember.
Some time later, Ike and Tina Turner visited Ljubljana.
The exact date, however, looks like a minor mystery. When I browsed the web I found several different information. Somewhere it was written “on Monday September 15, 1975”. Then the date November 15, 1975 appears and again November 5, 1975. On Instagram, under the photo from this concert, it is written “Ike & Tina Turner performing at Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, November 1974. Photo by Jaka Jeraša”
If I think about it, the year doesn’t count. At that time, I was working at Stop magazine as a student. I edited the column Stopničke (Stop – ničke), for which Tomaž Domicelj wrote contributions. This must have been sometime in 1973 – 74. Certainly not later, because from 1974 I was already working in an architectural office.
And what is the relationship between me, Stop magazine and Tina?
The editor of the magazine at the time, Edi Hrausky, ordered the technical editor Franci Mulec to get a photo of Tina Turner upon her arrival at Brnik Airport. And we went. Tomaž Domicelj took Franci and me in his legendary Peugeot 404. Tomaž tells me to sit carefully in the car. Why? So that I don’t fall through the bottom onto the road. Just a little rust.
And so we drive towards the airport. When suddenly above us a plane. Franci says in horror, it must be Tina! And soon a black car pulls up towards us.
After a short consultation, Tomaž turns the car around and we drive at full speed along the shortcut through Vodice towards Ljubljana. The poor Peugeot was creaking and moaning, and I was in the back seat, once on the left side, the other time on the right side of the car.
We had secret information that Tina would be staying at the Hotel Lev. So we hurriedly arrived in front of the hotel where, to our relief, the black car was not there yet.
After a few minutes, the car finally arrives, and Ike gets out, followed by Tina. They stop at the reception and the receptionist coldly asks for passports. This, of course, hurts Ike’s ego badly. He starts yelling if they don’t know who he is, that nothing like this has ever happened to him anywhere in the world.
Meanwhile, Franci was moving around with that camera of his. All embarrassed and awkward, he doesn’t take any photos. Which upsets Tomaž. He takes the camera from Franci’s hands and quickly takes two or three photos.
In order not to incur Ike’s wrath, we quickly left the hotel.
I don’t know what happened to those photos, I never saw them. And fortunately, I don’t remember what the editor’s reaction was either.
And I wasn’t at the concert either.