AS A CHILD, I always loved music. My parents were always playing reggae, soul and disco on vinyl records and my sister and I used to dance at children’s parties, getting paid 50p! My music teacher at Downhills Primary School in Tottenham, north London, was Mary Shepherd – a woman who had a vocation for teaching in the inner-city environment of the 1970s. She saw the passion in me, and was inspirational. This was the age of Aled Jones and his recording of “Walking in the Air”. Mrs Shepherd decided that I should apply to be a cathedral chorister. I can’t tell you how far outside my experience, and that of my family, that idea was. But off I went to The King’s School, Peterborough, to become a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral.