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“I’m a restless David person by nature” Pictures by Philip Ree From the role in Godspell that made him a star, to , and EastEnders , David Essex has never been far from the limelight for more than 40 years. Nicky Household meets him.

AVID ESSEX arrives for our production of She Stoops to Conquer for a rendezvous in the lounge of year and a half. “That was interesting,” he a Covent Garden hotel, says, “but I’m more comfortable with wrapped up against the icy things that involve music.” December wind in a cashmere overcoat Yet he did agree to play the enigmatic and peaked leather cap. As we start to Eddie Moon – yet another loveable rogue talk, it seems almost incredible that this – in EastEnders f or five months in 2011. modest, quietly-spoken, 65 year-old is the But five months was enough. “Longer same David Essex who, back in than that would have been too much of a the Seventies, had to be protected from commitment,” he explains. “I’m a fairly his adoring fans by policemen wielding restless person by nature and I felt it was dustbin lids. time to move on.” Will the character ever With his pop idol looks, his string of top return? “I doubt it, but we’ll see. I’ve shut ten hits and his phenomenally successful the door but I haven’t locked it! stage debut as Jesus in the 1971 “I’m very lucky that I’ve been able to musical Godspell , work in different David remained a mediums with a teenage heartthrob “My dad was my best certain amount for more than a friend and my hero” of success,” he decade. But his continues, “and, at career didn’t end the moment, my there, of course, because his acting, singing main focus is filmic music.” The film in and song-writing talents took him on to question is Traveller (based on John F starring roles in the films That’ll Be The Day McDonald’s book Tribe ) in which David (which contained his hit single Rock On ) plays “an elder statesman gypsy” but and Silver Dream Racer as well as the role of which stars his 24 year-old son, Billy in the original stage version of Cook, as a young half-gypsy caught and ’s Evita . between two worlds. “There’s quite a In the Eighties, he co-wrote and starred buzz around Billy as an actor. He’s got in the West End musical Mutiny! (based presence and charisma and I’m very on Mutiny On The Bounty ) and played proud of him,” says his dad. the roguish cockney lock-keeper, Davey, The film’s subject is close to David’s in the BBC’s romantic comedy series The heart because of his own half-gypsy roots. River – for which he also wrote the music. Although his father, Albert, was a real David has, in fact, never stopped East-ender who worked in London’s writing music, doing rock tours and docklands, his mother, Dolly, came from appearing in musicals, including Lloyd a family of Irish gypsies. Webber’s and his own “Her father, Tom Kemp, described successful musical All The Fun Of The Fair . himself on his marriage certificate as a He has even done some straight acting – ‘travelling tinker’. He died before I was

notably in Sir Peter Hall’s 1993 born so I never knew him, but I’ve seen ▼

22 CHOICE FEBRUARY 2013 FEBRUARY 2013 CHOICE 23 Life stories

David Essex ▼ pictures and he was a strong, very and, especially, motorbikes, which Essex, simply because he lived there. handsome man. My mum said he put became a lifelong passion. Older boys, While David toured with a new band, paraffin in his hair to make himself look who should have known better, offered Moody Indigo, Derek got him a string of dark and interesting. Presumably he didn’t him rides through the Blackwall tunnel auditions, which led to small roles in smoke!” Albert and Dolly were poor and at 100 miles an hour. He got involved in various films and pantomimes. Then, forever having to move house, but David gang fights and, for a while, worked on in 1971, he landed the leading role in recalls an almost idyllic childhood in the dodgems at a travelling fair. When Godspell and became a star overnight. where they eventually the fair moved on, he wanted to go with By now David had married his first settled. “My dad was my best friend and them, but was persuaded by his dad to go wife, Maureen, and the couple were my hero,” he says. “He’d take me out and back to school. expecting their first child, Verity, now about on the crossbar of his bike or down However, the teenager’s focus changed David’s PA and a mother herself. A son, to the docks to watch the cargoes being dramatically when, on an illicit trip to Dan, followed in 1978 but David and unloaded. Dad was a smart man and he Soho, he and some mates found Maureen’s marriage did not survive the probably would have gone to university if themselves in an all-night rhythm and years of Essexmania. he hadn’t come from such a poor family.” blues club, the Flamingo, where Georgie No one could get enough of David But, as he recounts in his recent Fame and the Blue Flames were on Essex during that era. His albums and autobiography, Over the Moon , David’s stage. “I was completely transfixed, just singles topped the charts, he was in world fell apart when his father contracted blown away,” he says, “and I made up my demand all over the world and his name TB and had to spend some months in a mind there and then that I was going to linked to countless glamorous women. convalescent hospital in Hertfordshire. be a rock ‘n roll drummer.” “Looking back, I felt quite uncomfortable When he eventually came home, he was His loving parents agreed to pay for with all the adulation. It came as a shock drumming lessons and a few months later, aged just 15, David answered a “I felt uncomfortable ‘Drummer Wanted’ ad in the local paper. “I don’t really think of with all the adulation” His new band mates turned out to be two what I do as work” middle-aged musicians, and for a while he found himself playing cha-cha-chas to too weak to go back to his old job on and pasa dobles in local Conservative to me and I tried to protect my family the docks and qualified to become a tally and working men’s clubs. But then he from the madness,” he says. clerk instead. More children were out of the joined a blues band, the Everons, whose “It’s a long time ago now and you do question, so David remained an only child. music was more to his liking. forget, but I’m reminded whenever I go Meanwhile, David’s mother worked as The Everons had some modest out on the road. I’ve just done a 34-date a cleaner in a pub, and sometimes played success, changed their name to the rock tour and the reaction was amazing. the piano there in the evenings. So it was China Plates and even recorded a couple The fans may be older but they from ‘gypsy’ Dolly that David inherited of songs that David had written. They still scream and shout – it’s fantastic! I his musical genes, although, as a boy, also found a manager, Derek Bowman, a suppose the difference is that at least his only ambition was to play football showbusiness writer and critic with I can hear myself now, whereas I for . connections in the theatre. couldn’t in the Seventies and Eighties.” So passionate was this ambition that When the China Plates were clearly His parents, though very proud, were when the time came for him to take his going nowhere, it was Derek who bewildered by his success. “Immense 11-plus, David deliberately failed it by persuaded the 17 year-old David to give fame has a strange effect on families,” he Wright, whom he met when she next project may possibly be a stage play, drawing pictures of Popeye all over his up his day job (he’d been working as a says. “My mum and dad found that was playing his son’s wife in a tour of but he is still “thinking about it”. maths paper so he could go to the local trainee electrical engineer since leaving distant relatives who’d never bothered to his musical All The Fun of The Fair . When he was awarded an OBE in secondary modern, where they played school at 15), take acting and singing keep in touch were suddenly ringing up David describes Susan, who is 26 1999, in recognition of his six years as a football, instead of the grammar school lessons, and embark on a solo career. and wanting to be part of the action. years his junior, as “lovely outside and VSO ambassador as well as his amazing where they only played rugby. “Derek was my guide and mentor and, That can be tricky for close family and it lovely inside”. The couple live in a career, David took along his two oldest The plan worked, and after only a short without him, I doubt whether any of it tends to make them a bit reclusive.” central London flat with their terrier children and his mum, Dolly, who time at the school – which David admits would have happened,” David says. “I’d In 1984 David fell in love with the pup, Levi, named after David’s character bought a hat specially for the occasion. was educationally ‘lousy’ – he was spotted have gone on playing the drums and that American singer, Carlotta Christy and in the musical. “Life at the moment is fabulous,” he by a scout and invited to become a West would have been the end of it. Derek spent the next few years commuting Could more children be on the cards? declares. “I’m really, really happy. Not Ham United schoolboy player. For a year actually admitted, later on, that he only between London and New York. Their “You never know,” David smiles. because of my success or anything but or so this was a dream come true, agreed to manage the band because he twin sons, Billy and Kit, were born in 1988 Meanwhile, he has five grandchildren just because, well, the sun is shining.” especially as he was being coached by his saw some kind of charisma in me.” and they married some nine years later. and the offers of work keep rolling in. “I childhood heroes. There was already a David Cook But by 2008 that marriage, too, had ended. don’t really think of what I do as work ■ Over The Moon , by David Essex, is But, as he turned 13, the wilder side of (David’s real name) on Equity’s books, so Then, in September 2010, David because I move between so many different published by Virgin Books at £18.99. life started to beckon – girls, rock ‘n’ roll Derek suggested he change his name to married the actress Susan Hallam areas and find all of them stimulating.” The 24 CHOICE FEBRUARY 2013 FEBRUARY 2013 CHOICE 25