Mum showing off her new boobs in one of her backless dresses; no bra needed!
So, here was the moment that I had been waiting for after two months, there in front of me. I wanted to rip it open, but it was not addressed to me. On the other hand, I didn’t want to know what was inside, in case it was not ‘yes’. Dad had already gone to work, so it was down to Mum to open it and let me know my fate, but at the end of the day it was not my choice, it would be down to Mum and Dad.
I watched Mum’s face intently as she opened the letter and started to read it. There was no expression, no sudden cry of ‘You’ve got in! I can’t believe it’. Nor were there tears for me, her expression remained blank. Finally, she told me that I had been accepted and at this point you think I would high kick, back flip and scream, but I didn’t.
I could tell from Mum’s face, even though it was a ‘yes’, there was a big chance/probability of me not going. Dad’s business was not going so well and they had just taken out a huge mortgage on the house – and Mum had already spent the first term’s fee on her tits.
As you can imagine, it was a bittersweet moment. It was all now dependent on Dad, as he was the main breadwinner. I knew I had proved to him how much I wanted this by giving up my dance classes on Saturdays to go and work with him at the tyre depot, but as he had made very clear to me, money did not grow on trees and times were hard. It might just not be possible to find another few thousand pounds each term, but Dad did the most incredible thing for me.
He put his house and business at risk by taking out a second mortgage to pay for my school fees for the next four years. It was at that moment that I understood that when you love someone unconditionally, you will do anything for them if you can. Although, as I said, Dad wasn’t someone who took us to the park to play on the swings and all of those things, he would work every hour of the day to make sure all of his children were happy and were given the best opportunities in life. If it wasn’t for him doing that for me, I would not have experienced and be living the most amazing life that I have.
Saying ‘I love you’ can sometimes be meaningless when they are only words, but what he has done for me no words can fully express: it is beyond love. Right, that’s it, I can feel a tear welling up. Yes, you’ve all just witnessed me telling my dad how much I love him, which I don’t do. But it’s done: so, thanks for that, Dad! That’s if he reads this! He’s never read a book in his life. Maybe they’ll serialise it in the Sun – that’s as much as he’ll read.
IF YOU haven’t worked it out, I got in to Italia Conti and my life truly began.
There are so many things I can remember really clearly, but my first day at Italia Conti – I can’t recall a bloody thing! I was so filled with nerves and excitement that it is all of a blur. Things were so different at Italia Conti compared to school. In the morning, we would do what was called ‘school rooms’: English, Maths, French, etc. In the afternoon, you would do your singing, your dancing, your acting. It was just amazing and I loved it.
I say I loved it; I didn’t love it all. I still didn’t like the academic side of it, but it was more interesting than at a normal comprehensive school. Everyone was theatrical, so there was always a drama going on somewhere in class. Someone had just got a part in Grange Hill, someone else didn’t get the commercial they went for. You see, there was an agency at the school and casting agents would get in contact with the agency and tell them exactly what they were looking for. Whenever you came out of class, you would always check to see if your name was up on the board, calling you to a casting at the agency.
It was amazing. One of my first jobs was as an extra on Grange Hill – it was so surreal. To think one minute I was watching it, and the next I was on the set. Camera, lights, action! Everyone at stage school seemed so much more grown-up – talking about work, and how much they were earning for this, how much they got paid for that. Some of those kids were earning a lot of money at 13 or 14, especially the regular parts. We had a few regulars in Grange Hill at Italia Conti. Don’t ask me what the character names were.
Naomi Campbell was in the year below me at Italia Conti; when she did her campaign for Hyper Hyper, a popular clothing store, her face was everywhere. Kids would say, ‘Have you seen Naomi?’ You couldn’t miss her, she was all over every tube station. She didn’t do too badly, did she? I find it really funny when I read stories about her – I remember her as a shy, timid, lovely girl. She was only 14. We all change, don’t we?
Another job I got when I was at Conti’s was on the Hot Shoe Show, which was a massive dance show on TV, on Saturday or Sunday night. It starred Wayne Sleep and Bonnie Langford and Cherry Gillespie, who was in Pan’s People or Hot Gossip, or both, I can’t remember. Anyway, it was an amazing show. Arlene Phillips was a choreographer on the show, although she didn’t choreograph my number. I did a tap dance along with about eight other boys and Wayne Sleep. There was a height requirement on the job, none of us could be taller than Wayne, so we must all have been around five foot two at that time.
And you know who else did it with me? John Partridge from EastEnders – he plays the gay character, Christian. You see, we’ve all been at it a long time. We rehearsed for about a week and I can remember the professionals, like Bonnie, rehearsing in the studio next door. I would think, that’s what I want to do, I want to dance like that. They were doing all the things I wanted to do, but with a lot more precision, obviously. Beautiful, lyrical combinations, high-kicking and pirouetting (pirouettes are when you see dancers turn on one leg), and making it look all so easy.
I never would have thought then that a few years later (quite a few years later) I would have been in class with these dancers at Pineapple, dancing alongside them and may I add, giving them a run for their money.
And then there was the biggest job I did as a child – biggest job because it was a West End show. When you are a child, you can only work a certain number of days per year. I think it was about three months.
I was called to the agency to go for an audition for Bugsy Malone the musical. Obviously, I had seen the film – what theatrical child would not want to be in a show like Bugsy Malone? You can imagine, every boy in school wanted to go up for it, but only about 10 of us got chosen to audition. We were told that you had to be able to tap-dance well, which was fine, thanks to Doreen Cliff. Even though Italia Conti was amazing, their classical ballet was not up to much. But, thank goodness, their tap classes were amazing. We had a lovely tap teacher named Ms Swivel. She was really quite strict, but she guaranteed we never missed a beat. So that box was ticked, but that was true for every other boy who was chosen to audition because of the high standard of tap teaching at the school. But then came my trump card! They wanted to know if anyone could do acrobatics!
Now, as well as being trampoline champion, I was also a pretty mean tumbler, thanks to the local farmers. When they cut the hay in the fields, we would do backflips and summersaults on the hay stacks. Being a natural, I graduated from hay to grass, and from grass to concrete – I had no fear.
I knew this job could be mine and then we were narrowed down to four boys. We were all similar tap dancers, so it was down to our tricks to separate us. Breakdancing was very big at the time, but it wasn’t what they were looking for in a 1930s musical, so now it was down to three.
I mean, really, a hand spring? I was doing that aged three. So, now it’s down to two.
A one-handed cartwheel? Really? I knew the job was mine, but I hadn’t quite finished yet. I wasn’t just going to get this job, I was going to get it with flying colours.
When they said to me, ‘And what can you do, Louie?’ I could feel my heart pumping with adrenaline. I took myself to the corner of the rehearsal room, where I proceeded to do Arab spring, five backflips, open-layout summersault,