Page 29 - Ritz Issue 50

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If you go down the Seven Sisters Rd., turn left to Tottenham and right by the American Pool Billiard Hall and New Acropolis fish 'n' chip shop, along the railway line you come to a neat row of terraced houses. In one of these DEBBIE CARPENTER (recently accepted by ARLENE PHILLIPS to join Hot Gossip and only rejected because of her age. She is fourteen!). MAUREEN CARPENTER is DEBBIE'S Mum, a big handsome comfortable woman with a nice line in chat ("when they said RITZ was coming,' I thought they meant the biscuits.") Her children are lying in various angles round the big cosy front room watching telly. ("You mustn't mind the mess dear, we're a posh family"). DEBBIE'S two handsome brothers, RICKY and GARY, RICKY'S girlfriend MIRIAM and on the sofa curled up together, her five-year old daughter WENDY and an adorable little one-year old black girl who belongs to a neighbour. DEBBIE is ironing her dress to wear to the dance classes tonight and putting in her Carmen rollers at the same time. She could be anything from fourteen to twenty. There is an easy flow of conversation among the family. It is obviously a close and caring one. MAUREEN makes us both a cup of strong sweet tea before sending us up to the bedroom that DEBBIE shares with her sister so we can talk quietly. ("Is your room in a mess, Debbie, what will this lady think?") The room isn't a mess and while DEBBIE talks to me she does her make-up and varnishes her nails. Her mum pops in from time to time and when her dad gets back from the factory he comes to say hello and I see where his sons get their good looks from. The family treat DEBBIE's good fortune with pride and just a little teasing.
CW: How do you feel about all this excitement?
DC: Ooh, I loved going on telly! It was really good. Someone came and did me hair and me make-up. It was the first time that's ever happened, I loved it! I'd always wanted to be a professional dancer and I felt like I'd finally done it!
CW: Are your friends all dancers?
DC: Yeah, I go to the MORGAN ASLANOFF School every Tuesday and Thursday, and on weekends I go out with a gang of my girlfriends.
CW: Where do you go?
DC: To the disco and the pictures
CW: What about the boys?
DC: (Debbie giggles and looks at her feet) There's a couple of boys from the dancing school, the dancing teacher's son ...
CW: Is that your boyfriend?
AA. Especially after all this publicity, if anyone's seen a paper they say 'You can't come in 'ere, you're only fourteen'
CW: Do you watch a lot of TV?
DC: Yeah, anything to do with dancing I watch. If there's football on one side and dancing on the other I make them turn over.
At this point MRS CARPENTER interjects affectionately.
MC: "She's a cheeky little girl, you can put that in your interview"
CW: Do you have any other interests apart from dancing?
DC: I wouldn't mind becoming a singer. I wouldn't say I'm good or bad, but I like singing a lot. Perhaps /'II do both.
CW: Have you always lived in this house?.
DC: Yeah. I was born here.
CW: What about school?
DC: The teachers are really pleased, I've always said to them that I'm not really interested in schoolwork, dancing's what I want to do. The schoolkids all say 'Ooh look there she is, that one there, can I have your autograph'
CW: So you're getting your first taste of stardom, is that what you want to be, a Big Star?
DC: Oh yeah, it'd be great! But I really want to be a good dancer. I don't know whether I'd like to marry young. Usually a dancing career goes to about 33 or 34. After that I'd like to have my own dancing school like ARLENE PHILLIPS.
CW: You've got it really worked out, that's terrific, but isn't that a bit hard on your boyfriend now?
DC: Yeah! (Lots more giggling) He's always said he doesn't want to grow up. He's nineteen but acts about sixteen.
CW: Do you ever have fights?
DC: Yeah, once we broke up but now we're back together again.
CW: Why'd it break up?
DC: My friend got· 'im !!! (Shrieks of laughter)
CW: Have you forgiven your friend?
DC: Oh yeah, we're close again
CW: Tell me about the HOT GOSSIP audition, were you nervous?
DC: Well I was more nervous about getting back to the
• pantomime that we were doing at the school that day. I was just about to leave when f,.RLENE said she'd chosen me to be in the group. Then I told her I was fourteen and all the photographers and reporters with their questions came in. I took it calmly because I was more worried about the panto than anything else. I didn't think I had any chance at all of gettir,g into the group.
CW: How did ARLENE PHILLIPS 'react when you told her your age?
DC:/ thought she'd be wild, but she wasn't at all, just surprised. I think she's really nice. I'd like my life to be
your body or your weight?
. DC: If I think I'm putting on weight I still can't cut down. If I think I'm getting thinner I eat more. I stay around seven stone. I can eat a lot and then dance it all off.
CW: What do you eat when you go out?
DC: MACDONALDS! I love sweets and I always have a Mars Bar or Kit-Kat in my hand, I like chips, but not fish.
CW: So you don't keep sticks of carrot in the fridge? (DEBBIE looks HORRIFIED ... Oh no!)
CW: Do you think that if you get successful you'll get spoilt?
DC: No I think I'll stay the :Jame, carry on dancing. Some of the girls at school say 'she's toffee-nosed now she's been on telly and that' but'/ won't change, I know I won't
CW: Your parents and family are very encouraging . aren't they?
DC: Yeah, they're lovely. I owe them a lot. If I said I didn't want to dance one night they wouldn't push me, they wouldn't say you've got to go .
CW: Who would you like to meet in the ~orld? DC: A load of big stars!!! I'd like to meet FRED
ASTA/RE!
CW: You'd better hurry up!
DC: He's not dead, is he?
CW: No, but ...
DC: He's going, I suppose ... CW: Who else?
DC: I don't really know
CW: What about NUREYEV? DC: Who?
CW: RUDOLF NUREYEV (Debbie looks blank)
DC: Who's he?
CW: Well, um. He's a very famous ballet dancer DC: (DEBBIE looks relieved)
Oh, I don't know anything about ballet dancers. I'm not really interested. I just like modern jazz.
CW: Ballroom dancing?
DC: Oh yes, we went to the BUTLINS HOL!DA Y COMPETITION in Yorkshire. They were ballroom dancing there, it was really good. We used to join in and have a laugh
DEBBIE'S mum says we have to go or we'll be late for her class at the Morgan Aslanoff School. On the way there she tells me that this school has done more than anyone else to encourage and train DEBBIE for her dancing career. We arrive at the Haringey Conservative Club where the dance school has its premises. On one side of a large room there is a bar where the father's can knock back a pint of beer and play darts, and on the other a piano and a row of tables and chairs where mothers help their children into tights and leotards and legwarmers. There is a class of eight year olds doing brilliant tap led by MAXINE ASLANOFF, the teacher, a warm blonde who looks like ·BARBARA WINDSOR. I look in vain for DEBBIE'S boyfriend, the dancing teacher's son. DEBBIE and her friends are clustered round a pile of Jackies and Photo-Loves giggling and reading horoscopes. No trace of sophistication about her now, but as soon as her class begins and she and ten friends perform a complicated routine from New York - New York, it becomes
apparent why ARLENE PHILLIPS thought her worthy of Hot Gossip. Even to my untrained eye she has a grace and poise way beyond her years:
DC: Oooh! I don't know really (More giggling) We're
always together, you know.
CW: Is he older than you?
DC: Yeah, Nineteen! (she makes this sound ancient) like hers
CW: Is he your first boyfriend?
DC: Not really, I've always been going out with boys and that, but it's the first time I've ever been out with someone alone.
CW: What do you do?
DC: We go dancing a lot
CW: What about the movies?
DC: Well, sometimes, see, if I go out with the boys I can get into an X, but if it's all girls, even if you dress up it doesn't work so well, so you have to go to see an
CW: HOT GOSSIP is a very erotic, sexy dance group. Would you have felt comfortable doing those routines?
DC: I'm not really worried. As long as it's to do with dancing, I'd do anything. Sometimes I think, oooh they wear sexy things and that, but then I think they're paid to be like that and they've got to do what they're paid for. I think that the three coloured boys are what make the group, they're so fit!
CW: What about keeping fit, are you very aware of
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