Tracey Thorn

“Too embarrassed even to try as long as everyone was looking at me, I made what was probably a fairly unique request. ‘Um, I’ll have a go. But I can’t do it if you’re all looking at me. Can I go inside the wardrobe and sing from there?’ The others looked at me strangely, possibly beginning to worry about the apparent absence of any stage personality in this girl they had just recruited, but to their credit they agreed, without killing themselves laughing, and so in I went. From inside my hidey-hole I sang David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’. I emerged to a very positive response, the others all declaring that I sounded like Siouxsie Sioux – I was trying very hard to – and while I was quite pleased with myself, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to do it in front of an audience. We could hardly take the wardrobe around with us.”
― Tracey Thorn, Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star

“I realise that this is exactly how inspirational artists work, and why we need them. They don’t inspire the brave (they’re fine already); they inspire the timid.”
― Tracey Thorn, Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia