Post by rachel on Mar 7, 2008 0:50:15 GMT 5
Richard in Liverpool Daily Post on 29th Feb
Richard Fleeshman is wise to the pitfalls of a star's life
Emma Johnson finds Richard Fleeshman is enjoying whatever celebrity throws at him
I REALLY thought I had Richard Fleeshman pegged. Teenage lad, grew up on the cobbles of Coronation Street, won a TV talent show, got himself a record deal and now he wants to be a bona fide popstar.
This was what I was expecting when I caught up with him as he was preparing to start his first solo tour.
I was not expecting to find him intelligent, mature and really rather down to earth.
In fact, none of the things you really expect of an 18-year-old lad who spent his formative years being beamed into the nation’s living rooms four or five times a week.
It may be less than two years since he quit our best-loved soap, but Richard seems to have come a long way from his eyeliner days as “Craig the Goth”, getting up to no good with the Websters’ minx of a daughter, Rosie.
He has produced his first solo album and his new single, Hold Me Close, was released on Monday.
“I have played music since I was really young and sang, and that is all I ever wanted to do,” he explains. “Coronation Street came about when I was a kid. I went up for the audition, aged 12, and what kid of 12 would turn down going into Corrie?
“I am glad I took the part because I had a great four years there.”
Richard’s street life came to an end shortly after he got the chance to showcase his vocal talents in the prime time TV show, Soapstar Superstar. Pitted against various other actors from Corrie, Emmerdale, EastEnders, etc, he was eventually crowned the winner.
“When it came around, I was seriously in two minds about whether to do it,” he recalls. “I thought I could lose a lot of credibility by doing it. But then again, when else do you get the chance to sing to 10m people every night live? Never.
“It was a real chance for me to show the side of me that I wanted to show, and it turned out to be one of the most amazing things I have ever done.
“There were lots of things offered to me immediately after it, but I didn’t want to do an album of covers or be a cliché. I didn’t really know what to do – I was only 16.
“I knew this was a great chance for me to take the bull by the horns and do what I wanted to do, and it was so hard to turn down record deals when that was all I had ever wanted but I knew I wanted the chance to try to write my own album.”
So, instead of signing his life away, Richard stayed put on Corrie a little while longer, before deciding when the time was right to go. Even so, it could have all gone very wrong. “When I left, I didn’t have anything on the table. It wasn’t like I left to go to a record deal, I left because it was the right time for me to leave. I had been so fortunate with the storylines that I thought I might as well quit while I was ahead.”
It turned out to be the right move, and shortly after Craig went off to start a new life in Berlin, leaving behind a tearful Rosie, Richard was snapped up by Universal.
But he is under no illusions that choosing not to capitalise on the success of Soapstar Superstar and pen his own album (all but two of the 11 tracks are his own) is a risky strategy.
“I have had to start on rung one, maybe if I had done an album straight after Soapstar Superstar, I would have been on rung three or four by now. Who knows whether that was a good idea or not? But I didn’t want to do that cliché thing. However successful it might have been at first, it doesn’t often carry so I had to do what was right for me.
“I am not claiming to be Bob Dylan, I was 17 when I wrote the album so it was a real learning curve. Maybe next time, if there is a next time, there will be things I do differently.
“You live and learn from whatever happens to you.”
Richard is also aware that the soapstar turned popstar tag can be a hard one to shake. “A lot of people still feel I have a lot to prove and that is quite understandable,” he offers. “But the way I look at it is I know people are immediately sceptical. I have been guilty of that myself in the past but it’s like saying, if you had always worked in a bank, would you be any less good at being a teacher?
“People in America do this all the time, it’s just over here people seem to find it harder not to pigeonhole you.”
That Richard is so philosophical about fame could well be down to his upbringing. The son of former Coronation Street actress turned Brookside favourite Sue Jenkins (Jackie Corkhill) and noted director and stage actor David Fleeshman, he has grown up in green rooms and rehearsal rooms and knows the pitfalls of celebrity well.
Says Richard: “A few years ago, when things were starting to take off and there were massive good things going on, my mum said to me ‘if you are making money, you have to pay tax on it – that is the downside of earning a lot of money. If you have fame and are well known, you have the fame, tax, all the bad stuff that goes with it’.”
Some of the bad stuff that Richard has already experienced was the press coverage of his relationship with Emmerdale actress and John Moores University graduate Roxanne Pallett, seven years his senior. The pair met on Soapstar Superstar and dated for two years, but split last year citing their work schedules.
“You have got to learn very quickly in life and more so in this business, to grow a thick skin and know that you do what you do for the people who are fans and you are not doing it for the people who aren’t,” adds Richard. “Otherwise you fall apart.”
Like I said, wise words for one so young.
Richard Fleeshman is wise to the pitfalls of a star's life
Emma Johnson finds Richard Fleeshman is enjoying whatever celebrity throws at him
I REALLY thought I had Richard Fleeshman pegged. Teenage lad, grew up on the cobbles of Coronation Street, won a TV talent show, got himself a record deal and now he wants to be a bona fide popstar.
This was what I was expecting when I caught up with him as he was preparing to start his first solo tour.
I was not expecting to find him intelligent, mature and really rather down to earth.
In fact, none of the things you really expect of an 18-year-old lad who spent his formative years being beamed into the nation’s living rooms four or five times a week.
It may be less than two years since he quit our best-loved soap, but Richard seems to have come a long way from his eyeliner days as “Craig the Goth”, getting up to no good with the Websters’ minx of a daughter, Rosie.
He has produced his first solo album and his new single, Hold Me Close, was released on Monday.
“I have played music since I was really young and sang, and that is all I ever wanted to do,” he explains. “Coronation Street came about when I was a kid. I went up for the audition, aged 12, and what kid of 12 would turn down going into Corrie?
“I am glad I took the part because I had a great four years there.”
Richard’s street life came to an end shortly after he got the chance to showcase his vocal talents in the prime time TV show, Soapstar Superstar. Pitted against various other actors from Corrie, Emmerdale, EastEnders, etc, he was eventually crowned the winner.
“When it came around, I was seriously in two minds about whether to do it,” he recalls. “I thought I could lose a lot of credibility by doing it. But then again, when else do you get the chance to sing to 10m people every night live? Never.
“It was a real chance for me to show the side of me that I wanted to show, and it turned out to be one of the most amazing things I have ever done.
“There were lots of things offered to me immediately after it, but I didn’t want to do an album of covers or be a cliché. I didn’t really know what to do – I was only 16.
“I knew this was a great chance for me to take the bull by the horns and do what I wanted to do, and it was so hard to turn down record deals when that was all I had ever wanted but I knew I wanted the chance to try to write my own album.”
So, instead of signing his life away, Richard stayed put on Corrie a little while longer, before deciding when the time was right to go. Even so, it could have all gone very wrong. “When I left, I didn’t have anything on the table. It wasn’t like I left to go to a record deal, I left because it was the right time for me to leave. I had been so fortunate with the storylines that I thought I might as well quit while I was ahead.”
It turned out to be the right move, and shortly after Craig went off to start a new life in Berlin, leaving behind a tearful Rosie, Richard was snapped up by Universal.
But he is under no illusions that choosing not to capitalise on the success of Soapstar Superstar and pen his own album (all but two of the 11 tracks are his own) is a risky strategy.
“I have had to start on rung one, maybe if I had done an album straight after Soapstar Superstar, I would have been on rung three or four by now. Who knows whether that was a good idea or not? But I didn’t want to do that cliché thing. However successful it might have been at first, it doesn’t often carry so I had to do what was right for me.
“I am not claiming to be Bob Dylan, I was 17 when I wrote the album so it was a real learning curve. Maybe next time, if there is a next time, there will be things I do differently.
“You live and learn from whatever happens to you.”
Richard is also aware that the soapstar turned popstar tag can be a hard one to shake. “A lot of people still feel I have a lot to prove and that is quite understandable,” he offers. “But the way I look at it is I know people are immediately sceptical. I have been guilty of that myself in the past but it’s like saying, if you had always worked in a bank, would you be any less good at being a teacher?
“People in America do this all the time, it’s just over here people seem to find it harder not to pigeonhole you.”
That Richard is so philosophical about fame could well be down to his upbringing. The son of former Coronation Street actress turned Brookside favourite Sue Jenkins (Jackie Corkhill) and noted director and stage actor David Fleeshman, he has grown up in green rooms and rehearsal rooms and knows the pitfalls of celebrity well.
Says Richard: “A few years ago, when things were starting to take off and there were massive good things going on, my mum said to me ‘if you are making money, you have to pay tax on it – that is the downside of earning a lot of money. If you have fame and are well known, you have the fame, tax, all the bad stuff that goes with it’.”
Some of the bad stuff that Richard has already experienced was the press coverage of his relationship with Emmerdale actress and John Moores University graduate Roxanne Pallett, seven years his senior. The pair met on Soapstar Superstar and dated for two years, but split last year citing their work schedules.
“You have got to learn very quickly in life and more so in this business, to grow a thick skin and know that you do what you do for the people who are fans and you are not doing it for the people who aren’t,” adds Richard. “Otherwise you fall apart.”
Like I said, wise words for one so young.
