Many, many years ago in a town not so far from Manchester, a little boy received the gift of a Sanyo radio. So began his love of music. Several years later that radio was sold at auction for 7 million pounds. OK, that's not entirely true.
I've always loved music. I come from a musical family. My sister was famous but then decided that she she didn't want to continue along that route. Fame is clearly not for everyone and despite what the public think, it can be difficult and it can potentially destroy lives. Our family were supportive as my sister decided to reject opportunities that were given to her. Some of those opportunities would have excelled her career to a much greater level, but it didn't matter because she wanted a better quality of life. No more people hounding her (although that still happened for a while afterwards). No more travelling to and from London. Enough was enough.
As a youngster, I would often be heard singing along to Madonna (doesn't every boy do that?) with my head stuck outside my bedroom window, hoping some media exec would be passing by, hear my voice and offer me a dream contract. Sadly, it didn't happen like that.
I've also been a singer - although not a very confident one. I've sung on several singles and albums. The lessons I learnt from my sister were clear. Fame is not all it is cracked up to be. Celebrities, pop stars etc... - they are all human beings, and whilst some have rare talents and qualities that are exciting and inspiring, we are all essentially the same. I treat everybody with the same level of respect (unless they are wearing bad shoes). That's a sensible piece of advice and many X-Factor wannabes could learn from that (particularly the shoes part).
Apart from the singing (which I won't reveal anymore about), I've done many things. I trained to be a DJ at a popular and famous radio station. I still have the demo radio shows on CD. Wow! My show was bad, but my colleague went on to present in radio and I'd like to think that I played a small but essential part in her success by telling her that she should stick to the presenting. (She released about 4 singles - 2 of which made the lower end of the top 40, but she needed to stop pursuing a pop career as she was not earning any money).
I've done the party scene. Members only clubs where the famous hang out - and boy, they are are not as interesting as what you would imagine! Dull, dull, dull.... I've also worked at the BBC for a little while - and ITV...
I came out of the closet (wearing Vivienne Westwood) quite a long time ago. Nobody was shocked. I have no regrets about that - other than breaking down in tears as I told my dad, who didn't even flinch at the news.
My only other regret was falling for an American guy and nearly moving to Idaho. I'm not joking. I nearly moved to Idaho.
