Q; Were you born into a musical family?

A; Mom didn’t do anything professionally, but she recited poetry for her school in Jamaica, and entered many festivals in poetry for her school.. My Granny , I believe had a spell in silent movies. My Dad did some dancing for a dance troupe in Guyana, and certainly my parents had an avid interest in ballroom dancing straight after their marriage.

Q; How did you get started with singing?

A; I always wanted to sing. And as a child I always admired others who sang, and when I was 8, much to my delight I discovered I could sing. The first time I sang publicly was FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD, from Oliver, for my old dancing school, when I was 9 years old.

Q; At what point did you decide you wanted to make a professional career of singing?

A; Shortly after my debut. When I was a teenager playing the piano, singing and dancing acting were fun. During this time, I saw other people doing it and thought ‘ I can do that’, and thus wanted to become a pro. We had a lot of Dianna Ross, Bassey, David Cassidy, David Essex. The year I was born, was the year Billie Holiday died. I always had a hankering for Ella Fitzgerald.

Q After you finished school, what steps did you take in order to become a professional artiste?

A; I was a singer/dancer for a dance company called Pierre Franck and the Swings, and we toured extensively Middle East, Turkey, Greece, Rhodes, Crete. I loved it there, and bumped into David Niven in Rhodes, who claimed to have had a sore throat, a ruse it seems he often employed to put off doting fans. I was in Turkey when the military took over. My family managed somehow to smuggle me out of Turkey.

Q’ Did you have any ambitions to be a solo performer?

A; Yes I id but I kept it to myself, but it became an ambition of mine,.. I came back to UK and auditioned extensively, and joined a troupe an all black ;performers doing a black Joseph in Technical etc. I worked with Dougie Squires kin the Second Generation, a dance troupe of the 80s..

Q; Since then where has your career taken you?

A; I did Little Shop of Horrors, 42cnd Street, Showboat, Porgy and Bess.. While in 42cnd street I did the \Cavalcade of Coward and entertained many luminaries including Charles and Di. Mystique was formed by Dougie Squires and we did Sheraton and this did well, though didn’t change the landscape of the world. Also around this time did a lot of 30s/40s music with a troupe called The Berkley Set. And then I was headhunted by Boney M.

Perhaps there was a link because my surname and Bobby Farrell were similar, who knows, I was headhunted anyway and thus began a long journey with the music of Boney M. Now into the 90s Bobby had his version of his group and indeed we did TV, concerts, travelling the world, and enjoying the incredible popularity afforded to Boney M. This took over my life and indeed we were working hard and with lots of big 70s names also, and this has been a fantastic creative outlet for me for the past 15 years.

Q; And now?

A; recently, I reassessed and decided time to get back to serious roots, serious frocks, serious music, in an elegant and sophisticated way. My yen and passion led back to Ella and Billie and I am delighted to have been developing a show celebrating such great artists, and really feeling an incredibly strong connexion with these artists. I trust all my friends and new fans will enjoy this new chapter of my professional life as much as I am. Xx Love Anthea