IN DEPTH
Arriving at FBF The Thunder Girls
religious cult. TV, magazines and books (bar the Bible) were banned from the house and Blake’s father gave almost all of his money to his new church. Blake says: “Almost overnight we went from a happy, ‘Coronation Street’-watching family to being dirt poor. We were living on food banks and charit shop clothes.” She struggled for several years and her only escape was books—which she had to read on the sly. She got a library card, and in her local library would hoover up titles by the likes of Collins, Judith Krantz and Shirley Conran: “I read these books when my life was hell and they were able to take me out of it. I think I wanted to read about how these women survive in life.”
The moment she turned 16, Blake fled her house, eventually going to London to start a life on her own. Things did not turn around immediately—she was homeless for a time, sleeping in a shed for months. But when she was 19, she landed a job on “Top of the Pops”, helping to stage the performances, and her fortunes changed. She loved it, not least because she was music- mad and she got to be up close and personal with many a popstar: “I was 19, I was fearless. So I would go up to some of the stars and chat to them, be direct and honest with them about what was and wasn’t working. I’d tell Westlife that the wind machine didn’t work with the silk shirts they were wearing, or say, ‘Kylie [Minogue], do you know the lighting you’re using is really unflatering?’” The stars appreciated the straight-talking—as their own minders oſten stepped carefully around them—so much so that one, Claire Richards from the band Steps, asked Blake to be her manager when she embarked on a solo career. Blake quickly started building a roster of other clients from TV, fashion and music and launched an agency, now called Urban Associates. By 30, the former homeless teen was head of a company turning over £4m a year.
Once is not enough Books were not the main part of her agency, but Blake has been involved in a number publishing deals for her clients, such as The Nolans singer-turned-TV presenter Coleen Nolan’s memoirs, which were sold to Michael Joseph. It is no surprise, then, that publishers have asked Blake to write her own story: “I’ve been offered six figures, and I mean major six figures, for my autobiography. But I thought, ‘I lived it, I escaped it, I’m not sure I want to relive it.’” Instead she was moved to write fiction, of the escapist tpe she turned to as a kid. She actually first started The Thunder Girls almost 20 years ago when she was in the thick of the pop scene. It was aſter a heartbreak of her own that she decided to pick it up again, and rewrite it from an older woman’s perspective. Obviously, partly this was because she was at a different time of her life, but she is convinced that there is a huge market for stories about, and for, women of this age range. Partially this was from her experience of trying to set
up a Nolans reunion tour in late Noughties. She explains: “I went to almost every promoter in Britain and no one would back the tour because it hadn’t really been done before. It was for a market [the promoters] really didn’t understand. It was kind of how the music industry—and to be frank, a lot of our societ—relegates and puts
30 17th October 2019
Book Extract
Bodyguards steered Carly Hughes past thousands of screaming hysterical Thunder Girls fans and safely into Shine Records. On the fourth floor, Roxanne Lloyd, in the glass-fronted meeting room was alone looking bored. As Carly stepped from the lift with fellow bandmate Anita Owen she yanked open the door and called out. ‘Thank god! I was
starting to think I’d got the wrong day.’ The girls hugged.
Anita flopped onto a gold beanbag as Carly pulled a magazine from her bag. ‘We’ve made it onto the cover of The Face. We’re officially cool’. She laughed as the girls cheered. It hadn’t been easy
but over the course of two crazy years the Thunder Girls had proved the critics wrong with a string of number one singles, triple- platinum albums and record-breaking tours. Now, on the brink
of the new decade, they were ready to go even bigger. Anita studied the
magazine cover, her expression darkening. ‘Chrissie’s at the front making us look like backing singers.’
middle-aged women to one side. And I said, ‘No, you’re wrong, this is going to be huge.’” The Nolans and Blake funded the tour themselves, and it turns out she was right. Marketing it squarely at the demographic that grew up with the Nolans during their 1970s and ’80s heyday with the tag line “The Ultimate Girls Night Out!”, the entire 23-night tour sold out. Part of that experience is why Blake has also adapted The Thunder Girls for the stage, with a well-received sold-out run—starring Nolan and directed by Joyce Branagh, sister of Sir Ken—just completing at the Lowry in Manchester. “We were on at the same time as the Conservative Part conference,” Blake deadpans. “I don’t think we had the same audience.” Blake had a two-book, world English-language deal with
Macmillan, but she has bought the rights for the second title back as she “wanted to switch gears”. Translation rights to The Thunder Girls and the next title are being sold at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair by The Bks Agency, the firm launched by former Hachete rights director Jason Bartholomew, who also serves as Midas PR c.e.o. There is “serious” film interest in The Thunder Girls, and a publishing deal for book two is “around the corner”. The next novel, as yet unnamed, is in its final stages—in fact, Blake has a printed manuscript of it next to her as we talk. It is set around another
Pictured, above Melanie Blake centre at the launch of her novel The Thunder Girls, alongside “Loose Women” stars, and clients, Coleen Nolan and Saira Khan
part of the entertainment world she knows well: the soap opera. It is slightly different in tone, she says. “The first one is full of bitching, the second one is full of bonking. But there is also bitching in book two; the soap world is so ‘All About Eve’ it’s untrue.” Blake has approached the whole publishing experience
with a hungry agent’s hustle. She has promoted The Thunder Girls endlessly, even manning the book stall during intermissions of the play to sign books and speak to fans. “I don’t want to be cool, I want to be popular, I want to be read,” she pauses and says with a laugh: “I want to be well thumbed.”
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