Camilla Kerslake is the UK’s newest and hottest classical diva. Judith Dornan heard how Gary Barlow’s protege first discovered her amazing voice in tiny Nateby Primary School, near Garstang Camilla Kerslake has an amazing life. Take That’s Gary Barlow is her boss, her debut LP was up for Best Album at the Classical BRITs and she sang for Carling Cup crowds at Wembley.
But the 21 year old London-born diva, now on tour supporting Irish vocal trio, The Priests, has a secret longing, from her childhood days living in tiny Nateby, near Garstang.
She reveals: “I miss Lancashire hotpot! I miss it very much, they don’t make it the same down here. I’ve got a gig in Manchester with The Priests in a few weeks and when I go up, I’m going to be like: ‘Feed me Lancashire hotpot, morning, noon and night. And sausage butties!’ And there was a bakery in Garstang that did the most incredible cupcakes. I have not tasted a cupcake of the like since.
“Whether that’s because I was a child and cupcakes were terribly exciting or because they were actually the best cupcakes in the world, I will never know. But when I go back there, I eat cupcakes!”
Camilla’s star began rising when she became the first artist to sign to Take That supremo Gary Barlow’s brand new label, Future Records.
These days, the star is Speed-dial 7 on her phone. But she won her big break by pretty much stalking Barlow, going to his studio every day with her demos, until her sheer persistence persuaded him to listen.
She laughs: “Polite stalking!
“It was just that I’d done everything else. I’d been to record labels, handing in demos, I’d done open mic nights, I’d auditioned for everything. I’d got into a few bands and then got turned away for being too old or not cool enough. I thought I needed someone’s advice. Because if someone like him gives the nod to someone else in the industry, you know, then that’s your way in.”
Once Barlow did listen, Camilla suddenly got a strange phone call from an unknown woman. She recalls: “I knew it was a work conversation because she was obviously talking about my voice but I hadn’t been on any auditions and I hadn’t been giving my demo to anyone else.
“So I knew it was work but I had no idea and she was asking me all these weird questions. Obviously, I answered and then 10 minutes after that phone call, Gary rang me.
“He said: ‘Hi, I’m Gary Barlow.’ I was like, HAHAHAHA! He went: ‘Yeah, I get that all the time.’ I thought: Oooh, he’s serious, hello!
“You don’t expect it, do you? Ooooh, it’s so weird! Every time he rings me now, I’m still, like, wuh? I’m talking to Gary Barlow! Sooo cool! I should be used to it, we’ve been working together for over a year but I’m not.
“I really wasn’t after a record deal, I didn’t know he was doing it. I just thought: Well, he’s lovely. Everyone says how wonderful he is so I might as well try him. And I don’t know what happened, just the stars aligned.
“But it just so happened that he was starting a label. His negotiations for the label weren’t even finished when he signed me. First signing, first release, all very exciting. I’m ever so lucky.”
This week, Camilla sang at the Classical BRITs where she was nominated for Best Album. Despite losing to Only Men Aloud, the thrill of performing on the same stage as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will stay with her.
She says: “She was the first classical singer I ever heard, when I was about six in New Zealand. I’d watch her and I’d sort of secretly wish. But for it to actually happen is surreal.”
It was back in Nateby Primary School where Camilla first realised that her voice was extraordinary.
After emigrating to New Zealand when she was a toddler, her family moved to the hamlet, near Garstang, for two years on returning to England when she was nine after her father got a job with Time Computers.
She says: “Nateby, that’s when I realised I could sing. It was my head teacher, Mrs Chambers, who noticed it. She said: ‘Wow, you’ve got a really good voice!’”
Some of her first memories of performing are of Nateby school shows. She says: “I was a Druid in one thing. I can’t remember why but we couldn’t afford a sheet to make the costume so I had a pillow case with a head hole! It wasn’t a good look when all your friends have these big Grecian-type things – and you’re in a definite, DEFINITE pillow case. Unfortunately, I left just before our Year Six final show and I was meant to star in it but I had to leave because daddy got a job. It would have been really fun.”
Her two years here were, she says: “Enough for me to develop the accent! It’s good when I communicate with Gary because he speaks pure Northern and I completely can keep up. All our Southern counterparts are like, Whaaat? It’s good, it’s like we’ve got a little secret language.”
She has fond memories of idyllic days playing in the countryside here. “I lived next door to this massive family called The Keithleys and they were amazing because I’m an only child.
“There were six kids and we all used to muck in. They were actually the people that took me to my first PNE match. We lost! But I had an amazing time. I learnt a multitude of colourful new words that I could go home and say to my mum!”
She remains a Lilywhites fan to this day, saying: “I love to root for the underdog.
“Plus everyone supports the Big Four, don’t they, and that’s not me, Im not interested in that.
“I was studying for my 11 plus and stuff but I went a few times – and they were exhilarating!”
She recorded a version of Can’t Help Falling In Love for her album; a song often sung on the PNE terraces and told the Evening Post she would love to sing it for the North End crowd.
She says: “It would be lovely because I did Wembley for the Carling Cup so I’m quite up there with the footballers.
“You’ve got to stay true to your roots, haven’t you, and the first match I ever went to was PNE – so that’s my roots!”
http://www.lep.co.uk/lifestyle/diva_delightful_1_768073
