My dad Chip used to say that I came out of the womb singing. Because he was in the band The Tremeloes, we had guitars in every corner of the house and all his friends were 1960s superstars like Gerry Marsden from Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Searchers, Herman’s Hermits, and Marmalade. My parents were always throwing parties – it was a very rock ‘n’ roll and liberal upbringing.
I guess I was never going to be an accountant! Still, I could never have expected to become famous the way that I did. I got a part in the film , playing Roger Daltrey’s character’s son, and we had this song on the soundtrack called , which was written by Nik Kershaw and sung by me. Amazingly it went to number one and stayed there for five weeks.
I was only 19 years old and I found it really weird. One minute I was just the piano player in the local pub, banging out Elton John and John Lennon songs, the next I couldn’t step outside my house because there were hundreds of girls camping on the lawn. I used to sneak past them by hiding in the boot of my mum’s car.
Sudden fame like that is a shock to the system. You quickly realise that your life is not your own. When it’s that big, everyone in the country – all over the world really – knows who you are, and you can’t go anywhere without being recognised.
I found that difficult in a way, because all my friends were going through these rites of passage, heading off to university, and I couldn’t even go to the pub. It’s a lonely e.