Today I have something really important to blog about and this is my daughter Linzi.
The day Linzi was born was the most amazing day for me. After hours of pain and a fairly long labour, there was this little tiny creature. 7lb 1oz. The tiniest hands and feet I'd ever seen. She was utterly beautiful in all the ways that mothers feel about their child. I looked at her and thought. Wow, she's so special and she's mine. I made her. I was responsible for her. The enormity of that realisation is still with me.
Linzi grew to be a sweet and charming little girl. She had something. People were always saying it. It
was a charisma she was born with and she charmed everyone. As she grew she did a little modelling, some acting - appeared for three months or so on
Coronation Street, and because she was a bit of a chatterbox and a character, she also appeared on
Kids Say the Funniest Things. After a time though, she wasn't that interested in doing the acting and modelling so we never pursued it.
Then, one day, I heard
Phantom of the Opera being played in the house. To be honest this wasn't much of a surprise because I was always playing it myself. And Linzi liked musicals as well, it was something I shared with her. But this music was different, it was coming from upstairs. And I called up to her and said, 'Are you playing the CD up there?' The music stopped and she said, 'No Mummy, I'm singing.'
I called her downstairs and said. 'Do it again.' And she did. She perfectly sang all of Sarah Brightman's lyrics in
The Phantom of the Opera - without any music at all
. And her voice was music. I'd never heard a child sing like that before. At the time I was running my own drama school with friends, singer songwriter Risa Hall and Actress Joanne Venet. We were gearing up to doing our first show with our students, and I got Linzi to show them what she could do.
I think she was 6 or 7 years old when she performed in front of a few hundred people for the first time. After that followed many shows, many recitals, and much training and hard work as Linzi worked on playing the piano and developing her voice.
Also at the same time she started to display a marvellous talent for art. And so she had two passions, she was either singing or drawing. As the years went by and our circumstances changed, the singing fell a little by the wayside and both of us stopped doing shows. Linzi however didn't stop singing. She was always singing. You could hear opera every time she went into the shower. But her art took over and she went to university to do an Animation and Illustration degree which she has almost completed.
On Boxing Day she came to a party with my
fiance, David, and I. I found myself sitting next to Alan Whitehead, former drummer of The Marmalade and during a casual conversation I asked Alan what he was up to these days. He told me that he managed bands. 'Really?' I said and being a very proud mum, I asked him if he would listen to my daughter singing.
Linzi was in another room while this was going on and I called her in, asked her to sing, and because she's actually quite used to me doing this, (I know - I'm an embarrassing mother!) she obliged. Within minutes other people were coming into the room and requesting that she sing this song, or that song. Because she knows a lot of songs and has a very eclectic interest in music she was able to sing a range of classical to pop music. By the end of what turned out to be a 30 minute recital, Alan said that he needed to talk to me.
The truth is I love her voice and think she's wonderful - and ever since that day when she first sang
Phantom I knew she was gifted - but I'm her mother and I would think that. I expected Alan to say, yes she's talented and leave it at that. But - he said instead that she was exceptional, unique, and rare - that she was in fact not just talented, but mindblowingly so.
Then he offered to manage her. Since then we have been on a roller coaster ride - and it's not even quite a month since Boxing Day and so much has happened.
Alan put Linzi with an award winning producer by the name of Alan Glass and she has already written a song with Alan, and has 7 more in the pipeline. Her EP of 4 songs is ready to be recorded but we could only manage to pay for the first one at this time.
You see, the music industry is very unlike the publishing industry that I am used to.
The way things are, musicians and artists have to pay for their own recording sessions, tours, all expenses, in fact, come out of their residuals. And, in order to be presented to the labels Linzi needs this EP, a music video, a set of professional photographs and image styling that will show the potential of what she is, and what she and can become.
We have therefore resorted to doing an Indiegogo project to help get these first things in place.
I'm asking everyone that knows me to help support my girl, Linzi Gold, by donating anything they can to the campaign, and if they can't afford to give at this time, then to share the campaign and her YouTube demo. Listen to it and see for yourself. If you like it. Then help in anyway you can.
Even positive comments on the YouTube channel can help her cause with a record label. Hits = success in this business. If she goes viral then she's on her way. Listen here:
LINZI GOLD - S.I.L.V.E.R
And if you can donate - or share - then here is the campaign link.
LINZI GOLD - EP
Thank you for taking the trouble to read this blog, and for any help you can give. I wouldn't be doing all this if I didn't believe, 100%, that she really does have a chance out there and deserves to be given it.
Last Sunday, in the presence of family and some very very dear friends, I married the love of my life, David J Howe in a ceremony that took place atThe County Assembly Rooms in Lincoln.
We had 150 of these exclusive books printed and now have 40 remaining which we offering on a first come, first served basis.
