THE
EAST LONDON GIRL TREATED TO STARDOM BY DR LOVE
Tina
Charles was born in the London Hospital in Whitechapel
nearly fifty two years ago to actor Charles Hoskins
and his wife Hilda. There was an early scare for her
health when she contracted and then successfully fought
off meningitis.
From
the age of four, Tina was already showing signs of
wanting to entertain. Her parents would find her with
a hair brush in her hand singing in front of the mirror
for hours on end.
It
was at the age of fifteen that she made her first
public performance. She was the lead singer in a band
playing a concert for US soldiers at a military base
in Middlesex.
She
remembered how afterwards, despite not being allowed
in the bar, having her first Singapore Sling.
That
performance kicked things off. The CBS record label
got her to record three singles, none of which were
hits. At the same time, she got a starring role on
The Two Ronnies, where she covered original hits.
The Radio Times reported that her version of Ike and
Tina Turner's River Deep Mountain High was "as
good as the original."
Tina
was also performing six nights a week at the Empire
in Leicester Square and went on tour supporting Engelbert
Humperdinck and Tom Jones, both with the Decca label.
By
the age of nineteen Tina had worked with Kilburn and
the High Roads - later to become Ian Dury and the
Blockheads. Then in 1975 she had a share in her first
Number One. She was a backing singer, with Linda Lewis
on the single Come Up And See Me Make Me Smile.
That
led to her part on the single I'm On Fire by the chart
act 5,000 Volts, for which she received the sum of
two hundred pounds. But the financial fee wasn't all.
It helped introduce her to one of the decade's most
successful producers - Biddu.
A
new recording deal with CBS saw her release - You
Set My Heart On Fire. That didn't sell too well but
her second release took off.
It
was 1976. Tina was twenty two years old and I Love
To Love was Number One. It sold two million copies
around the world. Tina had made it.
Over the next two years, she toured the world, releasing
single after single and enjoying hit after hit, including
Dr Love which is featured in John's Journey Back In
Time today.
Tina
remembers that "it was like a whirlwind. I didn't
have time to think. The only country I never made
was Australia but I had a good reason."
That good reason was becoming a mother. Max was born
in June 1977 in London. To devote more time to her
son, Tina decided to stop touring at the end of 1977
and turned to session singing instead.
However
two years later, Tina and husband Bernard Webb were
divorced.
The
eighties were lean years music chart wise apart from
a remix of I Love To Love which sold well across Europe.
In France it made Number Two, but back in Britain
it made No.67 in the singles charts.
In
1993 Tina married again - this time to Tetoo. With
children Monty and Suzie, they live in Surrey.
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