Arriving in this world at the Mile End Hospital in London on the fifth of April 1950 (the same day that Abba's Agnetha Faltskog took her first breath of air), the event was of no great significance to anyone other than my mother until sixteen years and ten days later. It was on that day that Carole Fox gave birth to her first child Samantha Karen under the same roof as myself, and as a result put the East End of London well and truly on the map.
Of course there were other events and personalities that made it famous too. Jack the Ripper, Michael Caine, Naomi Cambell and Bob Hoskins to name but a few. Sam was the big one that everybody was talking about in the eighties. Not only did she share her birthplace with me but we also have the same birth sign.
My life, as you will read in The Man, The Songs or The Books has taken some strange twists and turns that in one way or another have resulted in my brushing with fame on more than a few occasions, but I've never quite made it all the way. Maybe it was karma or fate, or destiny or god's will, or any other form of mystic mumbo jumbo that we put our lack of success (or otherwise) down to. Nonetheless, in my mind I've achieved more in my limited years than most people dream of, and the first person you have to please in this life is yourself. I mean, if you don’t believe in yourself you should never expect anybody else to believe in you.