Sega Power, Article 2

Originally printed in Sega Power Issue 38, reproduced here without permission.
Contents listing...
There was no by line to the original listing.

CATHY'S GAME?... WHAT IS IT?

We should have known this would all get out of hand. Once you get one pop star talking about playing Sega, they all want to get in on the act! Still, it means we can pick and choose wwho we talk to and the current office fave in the singing babe stakes is the delicious Cathy Dennis. We agreed to let her say a few words about Sega gaming and life in general.
(Question is: if you were playing a two-player game of Road Rash 2 with Cathy, could you be hard enough to knock her off? Dean and Dan both would, but John and Andy reckon she's far too smashing for that kinda thing!)

The article is credited to John Cantlie.

Cathy's
GAME

The latest in the line of Sega converts, Cathy Dennis joins John Cantlie for an afternoon of grinnin', spinnin', jumpin' and hump... (Oops, cut!- Andy)

She's sold over 3.5 million records worldwide, she's won Best Female Artist and International Newcomer awards twice, and she packs out stadiums in the States, Japan and the UK. She's been on the Oprah Winfrey show and joined the Gap Girls. "But my music isn''t a business thing at all - it's for me primarily," says Cathy Dennis, the quietly-spoken redhead from Richmond who's also getting in on the Sega groove. She's a girl who can keep her cool when the heat in on...

The studio is sticky, and Cathy Dennis is looking uneasy. She has one "look" that can shut you up at 20 paces - and then, seconds later, another that invites you to relax and chat. She's either on or off, and the switch is moving the wrong way.

GIVING HER ALL

The the photographer says something, everyone laughs, and all is well again. Under the glare of the photofloods and the photographer's flash, it's got to be at least 32 degress centigrade in here, and the make-up and PR people are flaked out on benches, sucking Pepsis...
But not Ms Dennis, who's still giving everything she's got to the camera like it's all she knows - even if it does mean sweating like a turkey at Christmas.
"My greatest fear is of losing my hunger to be the best at whatever I do," establishes Cathy, pulling another pose for the camera.
"I know it sounds like a cliché, but if I was a cleaner, I'd aim to be the best cleaner in the world..."

PHILOSOPHER

Such is the 23 year old's simple but admirable philosophy - an approach that has seen her music career growing steadily while others' have slid down the slippery slope. "I don't know if I'll ever be satisfied with what I've got - it's just the way I am," she says.
Originally known for fronting UK rap group D-Mob with hits like "C'mon and get my love" and "Just another dream", Cathy then went solo and made it big time - especially in the States where she's joined the major celebrity league.

VERY FAMOUS...

She's done the rounds on the Oprah Winfrey Show, been signed up as one of the Gap Girls ("Not bimbos, you know"), and now even Prince himself is pushing to work with her.
"I think he has a thing for 'deep' women," said a Record Executive. "First, Sheena Easton, then Martika - and now possibly Cathy. They're all space cadets."
Anything to say, Cathy? "Yeah, I guess I'm a pretty intense person," she confirms. "I keep everything inside until a certain time - and then I'll just go off on one! But, you know, I don't want to make people's life hell - just as I don't want them to make my life hell..."

STAGE ENERGY!

Certainly, the energy and intensity you witness when Cathy performs live on stage is typical of her Jeykll-and-Hyde character. You meet her backstage and she's ever so quiet and stuff, and the you see her up on the set and think:
"Look at her go!"
Having just completed her new album "Into the Skyline" - she write and produced it herself in both the States and the UK - Cathy's now acquired a whole new image. And believe me... that schoolgirl voice hides a character of huge strength.
"I have elements of excitement in me - if that makes any sense," she admits. "On the last album, I went for extreme colours to create one mood. One the new LP it's a different feeling totally. More subtle, I guess."

A TAZ EXPERT

Well, that may all be true, but can she cut it on Taz Mania (Sega Power 33: 89%), eh? Let's face it, anyone who's anyone is getting in on the Sega tip today, so what does Cathy make of the console craze that's ripping through the nation like a forest fire?
"Sega? Yeah, I think it's great for people to have as many interests as possible, but I don't think it's good if kids are getting totally obsessed with them. I mean, everyone's got something they're into, right? But sometimes, you get the idea that console games are too addictive for their own good."
Boo! Well, when you come right down to it, that's exactly what your average Sega's about, but not convinced that Cathy was giving it her fullest attention, he dragged her off to the Garage Studio in London to see just what she was made of.
If it has been any hotter, the scene would have sizzled. As it was, we were quietly smouldering...

PLAYING GAMES

"Aha, you want me to do that?" she enquires... There's an eyebrow raised and I'm getting that look again as I show her the way through level one on Taz Mania.
She picks up the joypad and gets stuck in. "I've hardly played these things at all you know," she sidelines as way of an excuse, and then proceeds to spin and grin her way through the first three levels without so much as the wipe of a sweaty brow.
"Hey, this is great," she squeals. "The whole thing's so cartoony. The jumping and the geyser things are really tricky, but it's such a blast to play.
"It's like everyone has this idea of computer games as aliens and guns and stuff, right? And here's this cool, cool character moving across the screen. And when he gets impatient - it's so well done.
"Hmm, you know, I could get into this." And she did too. Having never so much as seen the game before, Catherine Roseanne Dennis blitzed her way upwards to the ACME factory level - until the heat just became too overpowering.

PRIVATE GIRL

But aren't you used to the heat Cathy? I mean you're pretty huge out in Japan and Tokyo, right?
"I've got a large following out in Japan. It's a really mixed and fickle market, but I've done pretty well out there." Modesty is another one of her virtues - and she makes every effort to keep her business life out of her private goings-on.
"Yeah, I separate myself from this marketing product 'Cathy Dennis'. You've got to. Otherwise you end up believing you're this superhuman. Sure, I decide how I want to be presented, but I'm not into myself.

FAVE MUSICIANS

"Cathy Dennis the signer is another part of me - that's why I can let it all out on stage and get a real kick out of it.
"And as to my favourite musicians, she isn't in there!
"Stevie Wonder has got to be number one, then there's mixers like Tony Humphries and David Morales (Hey, someone's got some real taste round here - John). Garage is really my thing. I've never been into the rave scene."

SPINAL HEROES

Good stuff - and it gets better by the minute. She goes on to reveal that: Spinal Tap are her heroes, (yess!). "Batman Returns" was crap (yess!), and that she drives her Audio Cabriolet motor "much too fast" (err...!).
Cathy Dennis is seriously sound, and when she became one of the first to play Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Sega Power 37: 89%), she was, as one might expect, mightily well impressed.
"This is so quick. The pictures are really beautiful, especially the background stuff... And the way Sonic moves! It's like watching TV on a Saturday morning. It's hard to control, but I never knew console games were like this."
Can't say I ever make it out of bed early enough to confirm the Saturday morning bit, but she's got a point!
There are two relevant captions...

Caption: Getting a lift from a rock monster in Taz Mania. Cathy was told this was a bad idea, but did it anyway. "Hey, I'm still learning."

Caption: Fortunately the Mega Drive sees sense after a wave of Withering Stare from Cathy. If a console responds this way, think what it does to your average human... Dennis one, Sega nil. Way ta go!

The Sega Power web site is located in Futurenet, it's quite good, but has no Cathy stuff...
Take me back to the index.
Take me back to the Cathy information.
Take me back to the First Sega Power Article.
Take me on to the Third Sega Power Article.
Last Updated 22nd November 1996
by stephen@ukmix.net