DEBRA

Picture it - A convent school in deepest, darkest Hertfordshire. A load of posh kids, none of whom really needed to amount to anything much because there was 'always Daddy'! No, the whole picture... crumbling towers, walled grounds with high metal gates, the most disgusting prison uniforms (that really did make your bum look big) and nuns.... everywhere you turned. Combine that with seemingly endless religious education lessons, holy communions and Latin and your just about there. "Where"? Debra's first experience with self-expression and the downward spiral into kicking against what was good for her!Debra hated school. Really, really hated school. She knew from age dot that all she wanted to do was perform; initially as a dancer and later a singer/ muso. Trouble was that the nuns at Rosary Priory Convent School for Girls, and in particular a certain Sister Mary Alphonsus, didn't approve. Singing was for hymns in mass and the guitar was made for playing 'kumbaya'. She was told to abandon such whimsical fantasies and think about how she was going to become a better typist or the perfect society wife. (Yes it was one of those schools). It didn't help that Debra was not one of those posh kids. She came from a perfectly nice, but very un-posh background and didn't fit in with either the teachers or the other girls.Music became her escape and a way of finding and expressing her own unique style. Growing up she listened to a wide variety of music wearing out more than one copy of Dark Side of The Moon (Floyd), Human Racing (Nik Kershaw, who she was utterly convinced she would make beautiful music with someday) and even some Barbara Streisand LPs. She picked out keyboard lines on an old DX7 and bought any 7" or 12" single that had an instrumental B-side... karaoke queen in the making!The news that Rosary Priory was to close down the year before Debra’s GCSE came as a terrible shock .. ‘Ahem!.. Did I say shock? Meant to say HURRAH!!!!!!!!!!!’ and Debra was finally transferred to a full time ‘Fame’ style performing arts school where she could sing and dance all day long with not a typewriter or communion cup in site. When she left school, Debra had a new found confidence, creativity and two whole GCSE’s. (ok, perhaps that’s not something we should shout about). Debra answered an ad in the Watford Observer for a keyboard player and backing singer. The band, called ‘Thick As Thieves’ had large following around the local area. They were rapidly gaining a great reputation. Half of their set was made up of U2, Simple Minds and INXS covers and the other half of original songs written by the base player Roy. Debra wanted more input into song writing however and left after two years to join a new band called Media Freaks. This didn’t work out either however as there was one chief in the band who would not let the Indians near his tepee. Debra was told what to play, how to play it, and basically felt like a piano playing puppet.Time to venture out alone! Debra had met a producer called Dave West some years earlier at the Basement Recording Studios in Watford. He had produced some early demos of her own songs and they soon became the best of buddies. At weekends, Dave performed solo gigs in pubs and clubs singing covers with backing tracks and a guitar and Debra often went along and reluctantly sang one or two songs. One day, she received a phone call from Dave who said that he had Laryngitis and couldn’t sing, so Debra would have to do the gig that night. ‘AARGH’ Talk about a baptism of fire! To be continued…………..