| It could be Rotterdam, or anywhere. Liverpool or Rome. But it's not, it's Northampton train station and it's raining. "A return to London, please," says the woman with the red-streaked hair as she shuffles up to the counter. No-one pays much attention as she hands over the fare that will take her home to her parents for the weekend - but if the milling commuters knew who she was, there wouldn't be an uncraned neck or unpeeked eye in the station. "Sorry about that," apologises Alison Wheeler as she tucks the ticket in her pocket and begins her search for the right platform. To say the 31-year-old is the one of the most unstarry pop stars on the planet is a bit of anb understatement. Despite being a member of one of the UK's biggest bands for the last eight months, the overriding impression is that the former session singer still can't beleive her luck. "I know, me in The Beautiful South, it's brilliant isn't it," she coos, beaming at the mere thought of it. Plucked from obscurity and an admin assistant desk job at BMG (the record company that spawned Will Young and Gareth Gates) Alison has spent the last few months in a whirlwind. She's recorded her first album with Paul Heaton and the boys, Gaze, performed live with the band in front of rabid fans across the country and seen her first single sail into the top 40. "Ooh, it's an amazing feeling to have a song in the charts," laughs Alison. It's been a long and arduous road for the singer to get to where she is today. After graduating from Cambridge with the joint honours in law and Japenese in 1995, it seemed the gifted student had a bright future ahead of her in the lucrative, if slightly dull, world of international finance. But the would-be pop idol had other ideas. Ditching the law and the languages she set herself a four-year masterplan to make it big in the music industry, taking sesion work where she could and paying the bills (no doubt with the odd pang of jealousy) by looking after other singers who'd already made it. Looking back, as four years came and went, Alison admits there were moments when she almost cracked and took her parents' advice to get "a proper job." "They were a bit dubious about it at first," she shrugs. "But after a while they realised it was something I really wanted to do. My dad used to be in a band, but he gave it up when hewas 24 - so I think he was secretly quite proud that I had determination to keep going. "i set myself a target when I left university that if I hadn't got anywhere in four years I was going to jack it in. But four years went in a blink and I just kept going. I mean, they hadn't been wasted years, I was learning all the time and making contacts. "I always had Madonna as my benchmark because she didn't have her first hit until she was 26. When I passed 26 I switched to Sheryl Crow because she didn't get anywhere until she was 32." When she steps out on stage at Bridlington Spa on Tuesday, November 11, as part of the band's 12-date tour, their first in three years, mum and dad will finally be able to see the fruits of Alison's determination. "The best thing about being in the band is it's a real laugh," she chirps, clearly enjoying the hurley-burley of life in the spotlight. "I've been with them since April, in the studio and on the road, and there honestly hasn't been a cross word said." "They do have their own peculiar way of looking at life. I think that comes through in the music, but they're great fun to be with." "I'm still not used to talking about myself," she concedes as her train chugs into the station. "I'm finding that a bit weird, but it's nice. Everyone's so interested. For years I was working at a company where I was organising other people's diaries and the interviews. But now the shoe's on the other foot." She grins like the cat who got the cream. "And I'm loving it." *Taken from the Hull Daily Mail |
| ALISON'S GAZING AT THE STARS |
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