Little Nell

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Little Nell is the stage name of Nell Campbell, an Australian actress, singer and former club owner, born in Sydney in 1953. Her father, a writer, called her Little Nell in his column in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, after a character in Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop. When she arrived in England with her family in the early 1970s, she chose that name as her stage name. She sold clothes at Kensington Market, next to Freddie Mercury's stall, and worked as a street musician and in a café. There her tap dancing was noticed, and that was one reason she got the role of Columbia in the first production of The Rocky Horror Show.

Music and breakthrough

In 1975 she also played Columbia in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She then signed to A&M Records. Her first single was Stilettos and Lipstick with Do the Swim on the B-side, in 1975. In 1978 followed a disco version of Fever and the EP The Musical World of Little Nell. In the British television series Rock Follies of '77 she played Sandra LeMon, in 1981 she was Nurse Ansalong in Shock Treatment and in 1984 Beth in The Killing Fields.

Influence

In 1986 she opened the nightclub Nell's in New York, which she owned until 2004 and which became a well-known meeting place. Her contribution to pop history lies mainly in the cult classic Rocky Horror, in which Columbia, with her glittering tap dance, became a fixture.

Listening