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I got married, had a couple of
wonderful children and to all extents and
purposes gave up the music game. It was 1980
before I re-emerged and, collaborating with
Peter Hope, wrote the music for Channel 4’s
Chips Comic. All this came about because I
met Peter’s wife whilst collecting children from
a crèche.
We wrote 12 songs for two
episodes, which taught me an awful lot about
structure, discipline and deadlines. No more the
wafting and whimsical girl, I was honing the art
of songwriting.
Peter and I wrote many songs
together, including some with a dramatic
storyline, in 1990, for which I then wrote a
script. We had a show – Flowers from Detroit.
This little show, about a working mother trying
to juggle her various commitments, still
resonates 15 years later. It was a wonderful
experience – we had a three-week run and I then
wrote a kind of sequel. Flowers had been
only a one act play and I could visualise how my
two central characters could develop and create
a different scenario one year later. As ever,
though, something else happened that took me
down another road. I met Bim and Bud.
Bim and Bud were record
producers Mark and Barry Sinclair. We started
planning a new album in 1992 and a year later we
completed The one that got away. I call
it ‘the pink’ album and I look demure and sugar
sweet on the cover. It was never released on the
open market – I sold it by mail order and slowly
but surely it picked up a modest following,
mostly by word of mouth.
Throughout this time I was
writing. In 1998, I put on a one-woman show
called Throw it on the water. It was the
story of my life, in song – my songs. We
performed it for three weeks at the Rosemary
Branch theatre in Islington and picked up some
decent reviews. The show was revamped and
performed again two years later at the Jermyn
Street theatre and the following year at the
Wimbledon Studio theatre.
There were certain songs that
were really beginning to have a life of their
own but I resolutely stayed away from the music
industry. I knew that ageism stood in the way of
my getting any sort of record deal, but no
matter, I could do it myself. So in 2001, I
began recording Where I’m coming from,
produced by John Hamilton. Some of my favourite
songs are on this CD.
I have written over 150 songs,
and I know the ones that are special. Many of
them remain unfinished, mere sketches on old
cassettes. I do a few gigs each year, because I
love it, but the songs are my legacy. I have
started to paint and draw again and there are a
couple of plays to be written so maybe I’m going
full circle. I am certainly happy the way it is
….
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