![]() I was about to start six months’ work and we pleaded for more time, but they just wouldn’t listen. The first time I realised something was seriously amiss was when Brian received a call from a car hire company about two or three missed payments. My sister Coleen and her then-husband Shane Richie even lent us £2,000 when things were especially tight. I’d have six months’ work and then there’d be nothing. I don’t regret leaving because I’ve had a brilliant time as a solo artist, but in showbiz it’s either feast or famine. I realise now that maybe the band didn’t have enough money to pay me because I left just as the hit records stopped. To add insult to injury, I’d just had a tax bill for almost exactly £13,000, so I didn’t have a penny to show for all that work. At first my sisters wouldn’t even agree that I should get a share of the royalties for the hits we’d had. When the other girls decided that my husband Brian wasn’t right as their tour manager, I was devastated and opted to launch a solo career instead.Ī horrible situation then became even worse when dad handed me a £13,000 pay cheque as redundancy money, supposedly my share of everything we had earned. We were so excited when we were told we’d be recording two albums a year that we practically signed our lives away. Sadly, he was slightly out of his depth by the time we signed with CBS and people took advantage of him. We were still on the same £150 a week dad had initially negotiated. Was this reflected in your pay packet?įar from it. I’m not sure what the worldwide sales figures were for I’m in the Mood for Dancing, but in Japan we reached number one and sold 8.2m records, outselling The Beatles. That’s when all the big tours came in across Europe and Japan. When we signed with Epic Sony-CBS Records in 1978 and started having hit records. It was agreed we would be paid £1,000 a week, amounting to £150 each, which seemed like a fortune at the age of 14. We were promised regular gigs, a recording contract and even the chance of performing on TV shows.ĭad was worried about us moving to London, but eventually a deal was done. On Christmas Day 1973, dad landed us a gig performing at a special lunchtime show at the Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool.Īfterwards, Joe Lewis, the managing director of the Hanover Grand entertainment company, rushed up to us and said we were going to be megastars. We never got a pay cheque in the early days – our parents took our fee to help pay the household bills – but we did eventually get two shillings and sixpence pocket money. By the age of nine I was also frequently performing with my older sisters. When I was 11, I served at my auntie Theresa’s cake shop in Blackpool on Saturday mornings, for which she gave me a 10 shilling note. What was your first job and what was your first pay cheque? ![]() I’m lavish with money, but generous to a fault. ![]() The importance of hard work was drummed into us at an early age and my attitude has always been that unless I’m on a stretcher, the show must go on. I was one of eight children and money was tight, but mum and dad shielded us from their financial worries and I don’t remember feeling hard done by. My parents moved from Dublin to Blackpool in search of work when I was four. How did your childhood influence your work ethic and attitude towards money? In 2009, she joined The Nolans’ successful reunion tour and in 2014 was a contestant in Celebrity Big Brother. She quit the band in 1983 and found new success in musical theatre, notably in the West End production of Blood Brothers. They had seven UK top 20 hits, including I’m in the Mood for Dancing, which reached number three in 1980. Linda Nolan, 59, rose to fame alongside her sisters as a member of The Nolans in 1974. ![]()
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