Adele. Sean Smith
has stridently asserted, ‘never touched an illegal drug in her life’ – not even a sly puff of something aromatic at a party. Her explanation for resisting the everyday vices of urban life is disarmingly simple: ‘There was never anything I was embarrassed about with my mum, which I think is the reason I never rebelled. We always spoke about everything.’ Another good reason was that she didn’t want any news of misbehaviour to reach her nana’s ears in South Wales. Drugs were a particularly sensitive subject: ‘We had a family death from heroin when I was younger and it frightens me, the whole thing.’ She has never elaborated on this out of respect for those most affected by the distressing turn of events.
The one temptation Adele did give in to, at the age of thirteen, was smoking – she loved it. She liked nothing better than gathering with her friends in Brockwell Park, which was a mile or so away, to talk and smoke her preferred ‘rollies’ before drifting home. Adele smoked a lot.
Penny was young and enlightened enough to want Adele to find her own feet, so she didn’t judge or interfere when her daughter was, at various time, a grunger, a rude girl, a skater and a nu-metaller. She was more concerned when Adele was sent home from school for fighting – a spat about Pop Idol of all things.
The autumn of 2001 saw the first series of the talent show that launched Simon Cowell on the nation. Unusually for a young teenage girl, Adele was instantly a huge fan of Will Young, not Gareth Gates, who had pin-up looks and was clear favourite to win. She recalled, ‘I was obsessed. Will Young was my first proper love.’
Tensions were running high in the corridors of Chestnut Grove, especially as Adele seemed to be in a gang of one where Will was concerned: ‘The Gareth Gates fans were horrible to me and I wasn’t having any of it. We had a fight and I was called into the head teacher’s office and sent home. It was serious.’
At least Adele had the satisfaction of seeing Will pull off a surprise win in the competition. She eventually met him when they appeared on the same bill in 2007: ‘It was so embarrassing. The first thing that came out of my mouth was “I voted for you 5,000 times.”’
Adele was in danger of drifting aimlessly through her teenage years, her future threatened by poor attendance at school and a lack of direction and purpose. All she knew was that she wanted to pursue music professionally.
She had no desire to follow in Will Young’s footsteps and try to win Pop Idol. She may have thought he was terrific, but she was unimpressed by much of what she saw on the show. The problem, as she saw it, was that kids were being given false hope by their parents. It even made her mistrust the nice things Penny was saying about her singing.
‘You’ve got all their parents, and they’re like, “Yeah, she’s the next Whitney, the next Mariah.” And then they go on and they’re shit. So when my mum was saying that, I was like, “Oh yeah, you’re trying to con me. You’re trying to get me to make a fool of myself.”’ In any case, as the rules stood at the time, she was too young and would have to wait a couple of years.
Adele was still only thirteen, and doing her best impression of a bolshie teenager, when someone whose opinion she valued praised her. A friend of her mother’s, who, according to Adele, was an ‘amazing Faith Evans-type singer’, heard her singing one night at the flat. She was sufficiently impressed to insist that Adele should pursue her singing seriously. Adele didn’t need much persuading. She was well aware that music was the only career she wished to have.
Penny was enthusiastic, but wasn’t sure how to proceed. As Adele explained, ‘While my mum is the most supportive mum on Earth, she wouldn’t have known how to channel me. With her I’d probably have gone the classical music route, or maybe Disney, or musical theatre.’
Fortunately, the solution was a short train ride away in a suburb of Croydon called Selhurst. The BRIT School was the only free performing arts school in the country and it would change Adele’s life for ever.
4
Adele’s reaction was forthright when it was first suggested she might apply to the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology. ‘I’m not going there!’ she bellowed. ‘It’s a fucking stage school. I can make it on my own.’
She might, at a pinch, have considered going to the Sylvia Young Theatre School on the grounds that Emma Bunton had blossomed there. That was a non-starter, though, because her mother couldn’t afford the fees. Further investigation revealed that the BRIT School cost nothing, although you needed to pass an audition to be accepted for a place. It was basically a state comprehensive with a twist. It would mean she could leave Chestnut Grove – and that was certainly a good thing as far as she was concerned.
The BRIT School was founded in 1991, but, a decade later, was hardly the household name it is today. It was the brainchild of an educational entrepreneur, Mark Featherstone-Witty, who saw the possibilities for a charitable performing arts school in London after watching the Oscar-winning 1980 film Fame. Alan Parker’s invigorating and inspiring tale of life in the New York High School of Performing Arts was so popular that it gave rise to a TV series that ran for five years. Cast members formed The Kids from Fame and had a number one album.
Featherstone-Witty persuaded George Martin, the celebrated producer of The Beatles, to back his idea. Martin’s support and enthusiasm proved so influential in getting things up and running that he was described as the ‘Godfather of the BRIT School’.
The other key figure was Richard Branson, whom George Martin brought on board. In the early days, the boss of Virgin was the public face of the project, initially called the London School of Performing Arts and Technology. He insisted that other record companies, as well as his own, contribute to the new venture.
Politically, the time was right for such a school and the Conservative government backed the idea for state funding as part of their City Technology College (CTC) scheme. The impetus it needed came when the record industry signed up as its sponsor.
The British Record Industry Trust (BRIT) gave the school its catchy name and has contributed in excess of £7 million during the last twenty-five years. The school is partly funded from the profits from the annual BRIT Awards, which makes it rather fitting when old pupils clean up on the night. It also raises a great deal of money through student performances at venues including the Roundhouse in North London, a favourite of Adele’s because it was close to the vintage stalls of Camden Market.
The school principal when Adele submitted the long and detailed application was Nick Williams, a career educationalist who mostly left the teaching to his artistic faculty. His task was to disprove the famous observation of Margaret Thatcher that she didn’t want a ‘school for unemployed artists’.
Perhaps perversely, his job at a school that many perceived to be a fame academy was to dampen aspirations: ‘Students think that you expect them to want to be famous. It’s just a view that has something to do with celebrity culture or with what a fame school is, and we aren’t any of these things. We almost have to say to pupils, “We don’t expect you to be successful.” We get their feet on the ground and make them realistic.’
The priority for Penny Adkins was to make sure her daughter was happy and had the opportunity to do what she wanted. The BRIT School might be the answer, but first Adele had to be accepted. Competition was fierce even before it could boast of alumni who were household names. Her application was strong enough to be selected for the next part of the process. The school had been impressed by the articulate and mature way she described herself as ‘someone who is dedicated to music purely through love and passion for it’.
She wrote that she was willing and able to explore different styles of singing, playing and performing. She told the school that she was interested in arranging music, because it would ‘help me to build on my songwriting both musically and lyrically’. This was not the work of a typical thirteen-year-old. Her personal insight shone through when she described herself as someone who will ‘keep trying until