Clipping 9

He was plain Pete Smith, a lanky, ordinary looking person you'd pass in the street without noticing, when he made his first appearance on stage at the age of 15...to pull the curtains apart in a Swanley, Kent, cinema where he worked as a projectionist.
Today he's 23, still lanky, still somewhat ordinary in appearance and he's still getting the cheers, for plain Pete Smith has become impressive Crispian St Peters.
"A lot of pop singers say they wish they could go back to being ordinary people now and again, but I love all this fame," says Crispian, "having money is a marvelous feeling."
Crispian's past life is a bit of a mystery. He suddenly came on the scene at the start of this year with 'You Were On My Mind', consolidated with 'The Pied Piper', yet nobody seems to know where he came from or what he was doing before his hectic arrival as a sort of latter-day Jim Proby.
"I began as a cinema projectionist but I got fed up with that and went to London where I didn't find fame - just a job as an order clerk with a coffee firm.
"I was picking potatoes on a farm when I met my manager, David Nicolson who heard me singing in my spare time at a local pub. He came on all big-time and I laughed at him and agreed to do a demo disc with tongue in cheek.
My first two records died a death and I kept on thinking of giving it up and going back to driving fork lift trucks or something. I did actually pack up for one whole week and didn't touch my guitar but to me a guitar is as necessary as a pair of shoes.
Instead manager Nicolson dressed him from head to toe in black and played up a big, sad image. "I was a sad, lonely type, then" says Crispian, "I'd had a bad time with a girl who broke my heart by leaving me. I wrote the best song I've ever done about her but I've never let anyone hear it."
NOW HE'S FAMOUS HE'S ALSO LOST THAT SAD FEELING. "NOW I'M A HIT, I'M CHEERING UP AND ENJOYING ALL MY MONEY," HE LAUGHS.
                                                                'Disc'  21/5/66

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