| School |
| Your school reports weren't exactly glowing. Why do you think you messed around so much? I got frustrated because I couldn't understand the work most of the time. Teachers also used to put me down. I used to argue with one teacher because I was trying to fight my corner, but then the other teachers would come in and start having a go at me as well. It was a nightmare. What used to distract you at school? Singing lessons. I used to bunk off my lessons and go to other people'e singing lessons. I used to hide behind at the back so the teacher didn't see me. According to your reports you used to daydream a lot.... Yeah, the lessons didn't interest me so I'd go off daydreaming. I think school doesn't teach you enough about the future, they only teach you about the past, and that's not helpful. I didn't want to learn about the past, so I used to go off in my own world. Did you get other people into trouble? Or did they get you into trouble? Both, really. But I remember when I kicked this can out of the window and it hit the cleaner and this girl got caught laughing at him out of the window. She got blamed, but she never grassed me up. I had repect for that because everyone else used to grass me up and get me into trouble. What was the worst trouble you got into? I never did anything really bad. Some kids round my way punched teachers and stuff, but I never did that. I used to get annoyed if kids were being bullied by older kids, so I'd step in and end up in trouble myself. You studied ballet. What was that like? To be honest, looking back I quite enjoyed it, but at the time I didn't. When I was at Italia Conti I was more singing than my dancing, but I didn't mind doing the dancing as well. Do you regret messing around when you look back on things? No, I hated school and I don't regret anything. My diary at school was always filled in with red marks where I'd missed a day or got told off. But the thing is, no-one knew I was dyslexic so I didn't really get the help I needed. When I was young I used to cry about it and stuff, but no-one knew what I was going through. In a way school taught me to be myself and not what the teachers wanted me to be. Well, I taught myself really because I saw how fake they were and I made sure that I wasn't anything like them, that's why I'm always myself with people. We've got one of your poems, 'Diana.' When did you start writing poetry? I didn't start writing them until I was in my teens. My mum always used to write loads of poems, and she suggested that I tried it one time. I didn't like English so I wasn't really that keen, but then I tried it and loved it. I used to sing all the time, so then I starting writing songs rather that poems. What is 'Diana' about? Diana was actually a song, I worte it when Princess Diana died. I liked what Diana stood for. What do you think poetry has done for you? It's helped me to write songs. I learnt a lot through writing poetry that I didn't realise I would. |