Tina Turner 'giggled when given Gateshead roses with her name'

A woman who presented Tina Turner with a rose named after her moments before she went on stage on Tyneside has remembered her "overawing" presence.

The singer, who has died at the aged of 83, was performing in July 1990 at Gateshead International Stadium, as the town hosted a national garden festival.

Susan Wear, who worked at the festival, gave her the flower, created by one of Queen Elizabeth II's rose growers.

She told BBC Radio Newcastle the star giggled when she was given the rose.

More than three million visitors flocked to the Gateshead Garden Festival, which was one of five held across Britain in the late-1980s and early-1990s on former industrial sites.

Susan, who was head of communications at the National Garden Festival in Gateshead, was tasked with publicising the event, something the star's team was up for.

"Tina Turner was coming to do a concert at Gateshead stadium and we thought what would be elegant for Tina Turner would be to get a rose named after her," she said.

"We somehow managed to persuade her people to let us go and present it backstage - it was so hot.

"By the time we got in to see Miss Turner there were strict conditions that we weren't to speak to her because she couldn't speak before the concert - she had to rest her voice - so we just had to give her the roses and she would pose for a photograph."

However, Susan said she remembered her fear when the orange and yellow roses started to wilt in her hands before coming face-to-face with the US star backstage at her Foreign Affair world tour.

"The heads just drooped and it was mortifying," she recalled.

"We got into the room and I was just overawed by her presence.

"She seemed tiny but she filled up the whole room and she was absolutely stunningly beautiful.

"She just had this great big smile and these big eyes and she just giggled when she saw the roses and said, 'Oh I'm going to give them a drink, I'm a really keen gardener,' and she started talking away.

"After all this time I have always had fond memories of Tina Turner obviously because of her fantastic talent but also how kind she was."

The star told reporters at the time she would plant the roses in her new home in the south of France. She performed once more in Gateshead in 1996.

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