Eventually two phone calls came in that felt right, I spoke to two Gentlemen; the first being a Man by the name of Brian Harris and the second another Manager called Paul Connelly. Both had very different ways of presenting their ideas to me with regards to my Career and both came from very different musical backgrounds, the latter being slightly cooler if I am honest. Arrangements were made to go and see both consecutively in London at their offices to discuss their plans/ideas in more detail.
London always felt like the land of dreams to me growing up and the day of the meetings I awoke with butterflies in my tummy, I really felt like I was on the right track, BIG things were about to happen. My Mom came with me for moral support that day because it was a HUGE deal and for some maybe could have been quite overwhelming; I had only just left school after deciding that studying for my A levels would only serve to delay my inevitable rise to stardom.
My first meeting of the day was with Paul Connelly. Paul was in his early 30's quite handsome and his offices/recording studios were dark and a little mysterious. He was from an Indie background and his ideas and plans for my career were delivered in a laid back style, speaking of long term development and experimenting AND without any real name dropping (well none that I knew of anyway). I came out of the meeting feeling comfortable but slightly unsure whether his ideas would marry my own ideals.
My second meeting of the day was in Hammersmith with a Manager by the name of Brian Harris and was held at the MCA Publishing offices (not his own may I add) but the location served its purpose, I was in awe! Brian was I believe in his late 30's possibly early 40's maybe; he actually looked older then than he does now believe it or not. He was a very warm Jewish Gentleman, balding, approachable and wearing an Armani suit; basically the perfect sales man. Brian explained that day that I had actually been discovered on the TV show by a good friend of his. This Friends was the A&R Man; actually not just an A&R man but the head of A&R at that time with A&M Records who previously discovered and launched the career of Dina Carroll. THE A&R man (who I will name later on), upon witnessing my sublime talent had been moved to action and called Brian that same night demanding he find me.
I sat there in the meeting with more confidence, grace and integrity than I knew I had in me and worked hard to not let my excitement show. I was controlled and demure (not me at all), as I knew that if I was to be taken seriously I had to show that I was ready. Brian continued his charm assault dropping all the names that I admired: Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Rick Wake (Grammy winning Producer), C&C Music Factory (Grammy winning Producers and Remixers) and the legend Nigel Lowis who was at that time working with the whos's who of the British Pop RnB World; it was as if he was in my head. He mentioned that my artist development period would take just three months and that I would work with solely with Nigel developing my sound and getting together a repertoire of unique songs, even a song that had been penned by the legend Burt Bacharach.
He would also disclose at that moment that within this development period that he would take me shopping for an entire new wardrobe (all designer brands), totally restyle me, make sure that I was seen in all the right places and FINALLY when the package (ME) was complete shop me to all the MAJOR labels. The onslaught of candy being thrown in my face was unrelenting and unavoidably I was consumed by his delights.
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