Monday 22 August 2011

Light at the end of the tunnel

Lisa Lee Dark's life changed when she met music manager / producer Chris Jenkins; he first spotted Lisa-Lee singing to herself in her local park, Ravenhill, he approached Lisa-Lee and told her that he wanted to record her, but Lisa-Lee was only six years old and she was very shy, she first of all thought that he was either lying or just having a laugh at her expense, so she just politely refused, but he kept on telling Lisa-Lee how good she was but she didn't believe him, as no one had ever paid her a complement, in fact everyone had told her that she was crap and useless and wouldn't amount to nothing in life. Lisa-Lee had never been encouraged, if she ever told anyone her dreams ambitions and goals in life, they would just laugh at her make fun, so she learnt to keep things to herself. Life was a horrible place for Lisa-Lee.

After around three years of seeing Chris Jenkins in her local park, he still kept on to her about how good her singing voice was, one day Lisa-Lee was so fed up with him and everyone else in life, she decided to give Chris a chance, she truly believed that he was just going to laugh at her like everyone else did, but he didn't, he really did believe in her and her singing voice. Deep down Lisa-Lee thought that Chris might of been a serial killer and if she went with him, he would kill her, on one hand this frightened her but on the other hand she really did want to die; that is the real reason she went with him because she thought he'd kill her!

At the tender old age of nine Lisa-Lee's recording career began, she discovered that not only did Chris believe in her, but her also encouraged her to go after her dreams, and she also discovered that not everyone was bad, maybe there were some kind and decent people in life. Lisa-Lee began her music career recording classical, sacred and modern music with her singing in a classical style for TV and film soundtrack, or background music; this then lead, by accident, to Lisa-Lee recording dance and alternative recordings.

The money wasn't great to start off with but she was earning between £40 - £75 per recording; that was a lot of money for a child. Lisa-Lee did discover later on that Chris was making a lot more money than that, but she was happy to take her small cut. The music gave her an escape from her difficult life, it took her away from her troubles and showed her that life might be worth living.

Chris discovered that Lisa-Lee had a very unique voice, not only did she have the ability to perfectly mimick other singers, but she also had an amazing 8 - 9 octave range. Lisa-Lee was aware that she had a big voice but she started to study other singers because she wanted to be a better singer, she wasn't aware that she was perfectly mimicking other singers until Chris pointed this out to her.

Chris decided to take full advantage of this unique and rare voice; he recorded Lisa-Lee mimicking and copying certain dance chart hits, he then released these recording on the mid priced budgeted music charts / shops. This brough Lisa-Lee and Chris a lot of success as these recordings went on to sell over a million copies all over Europe. Lisa-Lee had wisened up by then and told Chris that she should have more money as it was more work and these recording were making a lot more money, he reluctantly agreed, and this deal became Lisa-Lee's first recording deal, she was around 14 at the time. This deal just meant that Lisa-Lee would get a small percentage of the profit from the record sales, on top of her small fee for recording the song.

Chris opened up a trust fund for Lisa-Lee, she would of had £50,000 when she turned 21, and then the additional £200,000 when she turned 25, but things never turned out so simple for Lisa-Lee, her mother threw away her contract / agreement for the first £50,000, so the people looking after Lisa-Lee's money refused to give her what was owed to her, they told her she would have to wait until she was 25 and then get the full £250,000, this frustrated Lisa-Lee as it kept her trapped in home, it took away her freedom and independence; but things were set to get a lot worse, as before Lisa-Lee turned 25, the people looking after her money went bankrupt, so she ended up having nothing!

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