Suzi Quatro
This pioneering rock chick is still belting out the classics to her adoring fans.
The Castaway Women
Believing there is nothing a woman cannot do was the attitude shared by the all-female team in the Auckland Islands.
Brewing their own Success (PDF)
Tammy Viitakangas
Tammy was brewing her first 1000 litre batch of MATA Beer in Kawerau, only days after giving birth!
23 Things Every Businesswoman Should Have
Forget the fancy car or the corner office. Today’s businesswoman has more practical needs to address.
her inspiration
Suzi Quatro By Jo Bailey
When Suzi Quatro burst onto the rock scene in the early 1970s, she was a leather-clad trailblazer for guitar-wielding girls everywhere. More than 35 years on, this pioneering rock chick is still belting out the classics to her adoring fans. On the eve of her recent New Zealand tour, Suzi told Jo Bailey about her new book, Unzipped, and just how hot it really gets inside her trademark leather jumpsuit.
When she was about five or six ‘Little Susie’ Quatro, from Detroit, USA, saw a young singer named Elvis Presley on television. It was in that moment that Suzi Quatro, superstar, was born.
In her new autobiography Unzipped, Suzi says that she was so taken by Elvis’s performance that she was determined to be just like him in all his hip-swivelling glory. Never mind the fact that he was a man and she was still a small girl. How ironic then, that some twenty years later, when Elvis invited her to Graceland after loving her version of All Shook Up, she was too overwhelmed to accept.
This story is one of many in Suzi’s straight-talking account of her career as one of the biggest artists of the glam-rock era, with early hits like Can the Can and Devil Gate Drive and later, Stumblin’ in and If You Can’t Give Me Love. The story details her life from her childhood in Detroit, where she sang in an all-girl band with her sisters, to her discovery by producer Mickie Most, who whisked her off to the UK and fashioned her image as the world’s first bona-fide rock chick. As Suzi herself said, she didn’t just open the door for other female guitarists and singers to enter rock’s male domain – she “kicked it down”.
The book is full of great stories of Suzi rocking and partying with other legendary figures such as Alice Cooper, Noddy Holder and Iggy Pop, as well as her stint acting the part of ‘Leather Tuscadero’ on the hit US sitcom, ‘Happy Days’. Her marriage to lead guitarist Len Tuckey, endless touring, stints on television and stage, motherhood, marriage breakdown and remarriage are all covered with her trademark honesty. “I’m candid. I can’t be anything else; I’m just that kind of person. I’m honest but I’m not cruel,” says Suzi on the phone from Brisbane.
She has returned to tour down-under, following her hugely successfully Australian tour in September last year. “At the time, the book had just been launched and was number two in the charts and all the shows totally sold out, which was fantastic. This tour is like the overflow of those gigs and we decided to do New Zealand this time as well. I haven’t been there for years and I’m really looking forward to it.” Suzi has always had a big following in Australia. On her first tour there in 1974, a huge convoy of bikers famously escorted her from the airport to her hotel.
A diminutive 5ft tall and as svelte as ever, 57-year-old Suzi squeezes into her trademark leather jumpsuit for part of her current show. “It really is a show of two halves. I play my recent material first then I put on the jumpsuit and play my older stuff. Everybody gets everything they want from the show, plus more.”
So just how hot is it inside that jumpsuit? “It’s hot; it keeps me fit. It’s my own private sweat machine,” she chuckles.
Suzi says the book and her most recent album ‘Back to the Drive’ are “doing great everywhere”, something she is very pleased about. While writing a book had been in her thoughts for several years, she decided to wait until she knew instinctively that the time was right. “My album was autobiographical as it represented 15 years of my life. When that was well received, I knew it was time to do the book.” As a songwriter and poet, she says writing has always come naturally to her. “It wasn’t difficult to do the book at all. I just write as I speak. People have said to me that it makes them both laugh and cry, so I guess that’s the sign of a good book.
Suzi was born in 1950 in Detroit, Michigan, USA, the fourth of five children to an Italian father and Hungarian mother. By the age of seven she was playing bongos in her father’s semi-professional band, and at 14 formed her first band, the Pleasure Seekers, with her sister Patti. The band was later renamed Cradle and also featured Suzi’s other two sisters. Seven years and two albums later, British record producer Mickie Most spotted Suzi’s talents and invited her to go to the UK to make an album – as a solo artist. She jumped at the opportunity, despite the strain the decision put on her relationship with her family. It took two lonely years of song writing and recording before she finally put her first UK band together and had her first number one hit single with ‘Can the Can’.
Suzi Quatro had well and truly arrived, in all her high energy, raunchy glory, furiously playing her bass guitar and singing in front of her band of leather clad he-men. She says she never intentionally set out to have an all-male band. “I put out the audition call and no women showed up. I didn’t care, as there weren’t that many great girl musicians around – at least up to what I expected. A lot of girls tended to use their instrument as a prop.”
Suzi was unfazed by being the first woman to break into rock music. “I was brought up in a musical family, so I had a different attitude straightaway. My father brought us up to believe that we could be whatever we wanted and that our gender didn’t make any difference. I had been trained in classical piano and percussion, and had always considered that music was my career. I took it seriously and believed in myself. That was the main thing.”
With no female role model to follow, Suzi forged the new territory herself. “I didn’t think about it; it didn’t bother me. I was happy to create the niche and stick to being me. I followed my instinct into rock and roll, moved one leg one way and the other the other way, strapped on my bass and that was me.”
Other female rockers like Joan Jett and Chrissie Hynde would later follow Suzi’s lead. “Joan Jett took a lot of inspiration from me. She was at every one of my shows before she started her own band. When we toured Japan years later, she used to go from her show to my show to watch me every night. While it was a compliment, she didn’t just take a little bit of what I did. When I first saw her play I thought ‘oh my god, she has taken ninety percent of the very early Suzi’ but I will always be the original, and I’m proud of that.”
There are few female rockers of the same ilk around today, Suzi believes. “There are plenty of women playing acoustic type guitar, like KT Tunstall, but I don’t know any others like me but then it’s not an easy job.”
On the personal front, Suzi married her lead guitarist, Len Tuckey, in 1976. They had a daughter, Laura, in 1982 and a son, Richard, in 1984. In 1992, their marriage ended and in 1993, she married her German concert promoter, Rainer Haas. The couple are still happily married and continue to live in separate countries – Suzi is based in Essex, while Rainer lives in Hamburg. Suzi’s daughter Laura had a child, Amy, in 2001, Suzi’s first grandchild.
Along with her hectic touring schedule, Suzi has a number of other creative projects on the go. Last year, she appeared on stage in the role of death row survivor Sunny Jacobs, in the moving play, ‘The Exonerated’. “I had always had my own idea about capital punishment but that play changed everything.” A documentary of her life and career called ‘Naked Under Leather’ is at the post-editing stage and should be released in the next few months. “I’d still love to act in a movie – and it would be great to see a feature film made about my life.”
After nine years with her own radio show ‘Rockin’ with Suzi Q’ on BBC Radio 2, Suzi has just started recording her new weekly show ‘Wake Up Little Suzi’. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of the new show. I’ll be playing great songs from the 1950s to the 1980s and will have guests in for interviews. The BBC has said I can do whatever I like with the show so it may be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’.”
Suzi is showing no signs of slowing down and still has plenty of fire in her belly. When I asked her whether she would like to read this story before it went to print she said that wouldn’t be necessary. “I’ve answered your questions honestly. Just promise me you won’t write any bullshit.” There’ll be no bullshit, I promise. She laughed. “You can quote me on that.”
By Jo Bailey
her insight 
The Castaway Women By Jennie Scotcher
Believing there is nothing a woman cannot do was the attitude shared by the all-female team, who recently worked in the remote sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. They were studying the endangered New Zealand sea lion population, who meet to breed and raise their pups there.
Dr Louise Chilvers, 35, team leader and marine mammal scientist working for the Department of Conservation, has spent her last seven summers on these bleak islands, where temperatures rarely rise above eight degrees and rain falls much of the time. The islands are amongst the most remote and inhospitable in the world; European settlement was abandoned in the 19th century after just three years and the seas around the islands are littered with the numerous shipwrecks, caused in part by the treacherous weather. This trip, however, was the first time Louise led an all-women team to carry out the essential research into this breed of sea lion, the most rare in the world.
“According to archaeological evidence, they used to be found all around our beaches. Now, there are only about 12,000 New Zealand sea lions and 86 percent of them live on these uninhabited islands,” says Louise. Her research has shown their numbers have declined by 30 percent over the past eight years due to drowning in trawl fisheries, low immunity to disease and shark attacks.
This group of highly skilled women landed boats on these islands, which is a challenge by itself. They were then totally self-sufficient with the most basic of facilities. Most importantly, they carried out extensive scientific research on the sea lions, the males of which can weigh up to 500kg and the females 160kg.
Their research includes putting tracking devices on the sea lions so they can monitor where they go to feed and how deep they dive, analysing blubber samples so the diet of the sea lions can be understood, analysing milk fat contents of lactating females and studying the diseases and immunity affecting the species.
Everything the team needed for their two-month trip had to be taken with them, including extensive veterinary equipment, food and supplies, solar powered computers for recording their research data and spares of everything. The Auckland Islands are 500km south of Bluff and there is only emergency radio contact between them so no chance to get supplies once on the islands. “It takes two months to plan for the trip and then two months to pack and get everything there,” says Louise. As a protected marine reserve, the team also had to take everything off the islands again, including all their own rubbish.
Living conditions are more basic than many women would be willing to tolerate. They stay in a hut with an erratic diesel-powered generator for heating of one room and cooking facilities. Rainwater is collected on the roof of the hut and stored in a 20,000-litre tank, which two of the team moved and installed on a new wooden platform during their trip. The toilet is a long drop. Until this year, washing facilities have consisted of a bowl of hot water and a flannel. After several failed attempts in the past, Louise is really proud to have installed a shower and header tank this year. She and fellow team members also did some hut maintenance, including taking down a wall. “Most guys think that girls cannot do these things but they are a piece of cake,” Louise says. “We are all fit, strong women. We have to be as the work is physically demanding. Just picking up and weighing 200 sea lion pups a day takes enormous strength.”
Louise did not notice many differences having just women on this trip other than the decrease in ‘input and output’. “Women eat nothing compared with men; we had loads of food left over at the end. Consequently, we also noticed the long drop was not nearly as full with just women on the team.”
Keeping energy levels high was necessary and creativity was needed to produce meals with the limited supplies and cooking facilities. It is so cold refrigeration is not needed; fresh vegetables ran out after the first few weeks. The food has to be vacuum- packed, dried or tinned. With a vegetarian, a non-chicken eater and another who does not eat lamb or beef, the perfect meal for all was elusive. It was not a big issue but Louise admits there was a lot of chocolate consumption. Coffee is the one big luxury and the team took a coffee grinder (and a spare). “If we didn’t have decent coffee, there would be mutiny I am sure,” says Louise.
The team got on very well. Louise says it was one of her biggest roles – making sure everyone got on, as they are so dependent on each other to survive. “I totally trusted every woman there, they were amazing.”
Louise delegated responsibilities to each member of the team: Dr Laura Boren, 30, Jacinda Amey, 39, Amelie Auge, 26, Helen McConnell, 31, and vet Wendi Rose, 43. They did not necessarily have to do all the work themselves but just had to make sure it got done. Obviously, collecting and sieving sea lion excrement for diet analysis was not a popular job but everyone took turns to carry out this essential work.
One of the most challenging aspects of working on these islands is landing on the smaller Dundas Island, which is always problematic. This year, however, Jacinda came up with a creative solution. They put an anchor on land and used a pulley system to drag the boat in. “It was a classic case of using brains instead of muscles,” Louise admits. “It worked fabulously and now, in future, we will know exactly how to set it up again.”
Using brains instead of muscles certainly seems testament to women-power although this unique group of women have proved they have the muscles too.
By Jennie Scotcher
her inform 
23 Things Every Businesswoman Should Have
Forget the fancy car or the corner office. Today’s businesswoman has more practical needs to address. Take an inventory of the following ‘must-haves’ to make sure you’re prepared to move up, move on or just be happy in your own skin.
1 A great black and/or navy suit. Although it’s fine to own other colours, black and navy make for great all-occasion pieces, including funerals, interviews, meetings and other formal occasions.
2 A good handshake. You don’t need to press the flesh like a bodybuilder, but rather find the common ground between Superman and a princess. Aim for a firm but comfortable shake with direct eye contact.
3 A hobby. Knitting, sailing, writing a journal, cooking - whatever you take on in your ‘spare time’ should be fun and relaxing. If you don’t have a hobby, it doesn’t mean you’re untalented, but rather overworked.
4 A will. Getting your life in order is important for you, but being prepared for your death is important for those you leave behind.
5 Comfortable black dress shoes. Not all dress shoes have to kill your feet. Invest in one good pair of dress shoes (black goes with everything) that you can wear with pants, skirts or dresses. At the end of a long day, your feet and back will thank you.
6 Emergency cash in your wallet. You never know when you’ll get stranded without a credit card or in a place that doesn’t accept them. You may even want to keep a spare bill in the glove compartment of your car in case your purse is ever lost or stolen.
7 A retirement fund. If you haven’t started one, do it now. Your biggest advantage is time, so even a small amount invested today can add up when you’re ready to hang up your boots.
8 One timeless cocktail dress. Skip the trendy stuff and go for a timeless piece that you can wear for years to come. You can always change the accessories, add a shawl or have the piece tailored if you gain or lose weight.
9 At least one meal you can cook well. Bring your grandmother’s Quiche Lorraine to that breakfast meeting or invite your out-of-town client to your home for your best homemade lasagne.
10 One no-iron outfit. If you travel for business spend the money on a great ready to wear outfit (or mix-and-match pieces) that can you can slip on straight out of the suitcase.
11 An emergency fund. Everyone should have a minimum of three to six months’ income saved. Your business could burn down, you could get laid off or fired, or you might have to suddenly take leave due to illness or to take care of a family member. In addition, you should always have the option of being able to quit a job without worrying about how you’ll pay your bills until something else comes along.
12 A safe and/or safety deposit box. You should have copies of your important documents, among other things, in a fireproof safe in your home and/or a safety deposit box at a bank.
13 An opinion on things that matter. Politics, global warming, women’s issues, and the like affect your business. You should know how and why, and you should care!
14 Good luggage. Sturdy, professional luggage doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Either get the zipper fixed on your suitcase or invest in a new one.
15 An elevator pitch. This is a summary of who you are, what you do or your product/service. (The name comes from the length of time it would take to deliver your pitch, say 30 seconds riding an elevator). Hone your mini-speech for networking events, cocktail parties and business expos until you can say it without hesitation.
16 A passion to leave a legacy. There’s a reason why you work hard. What is it? Do you want to leave your children the family business? Are you changing the world with your product? Are you saving lives with your service? Will people be talking about you long after you’re gone? Setting goals is good, but living life with a purpose is great.
17 A plan of action in the event of your incapacitation or death. Who would feed your pets immediately after your hospitalisation or death? Who would adopt them? Who would go through your belongings? Who would arrange your funeral? Who would watch your kids if you were hospitalised? Don’t leave things up to chance. Unburden your friends and family from making those decisions during an already difficult time by planning in advance.
18 Something you love about yourself. Quick: name 10 things you love about yourself. If you can’t think of at least 10 or it takes you longer than three minutes, ask your friends what they love about you. Then work on your self-esteem.
19 Control and knowledge of your finances. Whether you’re single, married or living with a partner you should know your financial status, such as income, expenditures, savings, retirement, insurance coverage and credit score and how to manage things. If you can’t balance a cheque book or evaluate your investments, talk to someone who can.
20 Confidence to dine alone. Bring a book the first time if you need to ease into it. Otherwise, muster up the courage to take yourself out for a nice meal that doesn’t include anything paper, plastic or doused in ketchup.
21A resume with references. Things change and you should be ready to adapt if necessary. If you hate your job, find one you love. If you get fired or laid off you don’t want to have to scramble to assemble a resume or wait for permission to include former bosses as references. Ask now.
22A professional haircut that you can style yourself. We’ve all walked out of the salon with a great cut only to wake up the next morning and find we can’t replicate the results. Ask your stylist to show you how to maintain the look until your next visit.
23 A doctor, gynaecologist, therapist and dentist you love - or at least like. If you don’t feel comfortable enough to ask questions, speak the truth or complain about unsatisfactory treatment, you need to find another provider.
By Wendy Burt
