Dominic Grant and Julie Forsyth interviewed
Above: Dominic Grant and Julie Forsyth
Above: Promotional material from The Guys and Dolls
Above: Bruce and Julie Forsyth, Dominic and baby Luke
As introductions go, it wasn’t my finest. I had arranged to meet country singing duo, Dominic Grant and Julie Forsyth, at their soon-to-be-former home in Chislet, but managed to get myself hopelessly lost down narrow country lanes. I had to phone for help. Then face the ignominy of Bruce Forsyth’s daughter, no less, insisting she came to ‘fetch me’ from the pub car park I’d managed to hole myself up in.
But neither seemed to bat an eyelid, Dominic cheerfully agreeing that they lived in ‘the back of nowhere’ and he couldn’t wait to be settled in their new home in.
Despite the timing, both seemed remarkably relaxed, and we settled in the comfy lounge, overlooking a massive deck and stables beyond – really the only place left that wasn’t awash with boxes of memorabilia Julie had found in the loft. "I never throw anything away," she laughs.
As a couple who got together very young, and have shared most of life’s highs and lows, they inevitably start stories somewhere in the middle, contradict each other and finish each other’s sentences all the time. But then theirs is quite a story to tell.
Julie and Dominic first met when they both answered an ad in the NME for a new girl/boy band that was being formed – the first of the manufactured bands that have since become commonplace in the pop industry.
"I wanted to be Doris Day," Julie admits
Initially, they were pretty horrified by each other. Julie, still blonde and gorgeous, was just 16, and what she lacked in life experience she more than made up for in sheer theatrical know-how, growing up with a famous dad in showbiz and having attended the Italia Conti stage school for two years. "I wanted to be Doris Day," she admits.
Dominic was something else altogether. At 25, he was nine years her senior, and had enjoyed a solo career from the age of 18, when he was spotted in a talent contest, and tipped for stardom by the Beach Boys. "Jack Good, the music producer, thought I was the next best thing – I was really big headed," says Dominic.
However, after a year or two "it all went a bit wrong", and he went to live in Rome and was quite happy – until the day he got a call from George Martin, asking him to return to England and do some records. "I left my Fiat Maserati soft-top outside the flat and just came home," he recalls. "Years later, we saw pictures of the car with plants growing out of it!
"I did a couple of singles, and was also working at Cecil Gee in the King’s Road, as I was so into fashion. I’d done the audition for George Michael and was just waiting for it all to happen. But, I thought, I could wait for ever."
So when Dominic saw the ad for singers, he thought he might as well have a go. "I borrowed every bit of expensive clothing I could from the shop and went over to the audition in my beat-up Mini and parked it round the corner."
Both he and Julie were among three boys and three girls chosen from more than 600 hopefuls. Dominic remembers their first encounter well: "We didn’t meet until the evening in a restaurant, and I was a bit horrified really, because I was 25 and much older than the others. I was disappointed, too, I felt it wasn’t serious anymore."
Julie was even more taken aback: "I remember seeing Dominic for the first time, sitting in the corner, with his shirt all open down to here ("I was Medallion Man 2 back then", quips her husband) and I was absolutely petrified and thought, oh my God, what’s that? He can’t be in the band!"
The times we grew up in were quite naïve compared to now
It got worse. "Over dinner, we were told we were going to be called Guys and Dolls, and I hated it, I thought it was so twee," says Julie. "But the record company loved it and we realise now, of course, that everything was planned to the last detail. The times we grew up in were quite naïve compared to now."
The band was catapulted straight into the big time. They released their first single on the Magnet label in March 1975, There’s A Whole Lotta Loving, and it became a huge hit, reaching number two in the UK singles chart and championed by DJ Tony Blackburn on Radio 1.
It wasn’t all glamour and riches, though. "We were on a production deal and only had two per cent between the six of us. We were on tour all over the world, doing TV shows, selling millions of records, and we didn’t get a penny," says Julie, ruefully.
"But it wasn’t just us. It was what went on back then. I always say to Louis Walsh now, I wish you’d looked after Guys and Dolls. He always gets the best people, the best writers, he’s brilliant, and he’d have known what to do with us."
Dom adds: "Louis told us a few months ago he watched all our shows when we went to Ireland, and when they did Pop Idol there, he recreated Guys and Dolls. He got three girls and three guys, dressed them up in white and recorded There’s A Whole Lotta Loving. We went to see them at Wembley supporting Westlife and it was nice. We met all their parents, but it didn’t get released. Everyone felt it was too old-fashioned, which is a load of crap. Louis knows what he’s doing!"
The band was booked immediately onto the cabaret circuit, and the young singers literally learnt their act on the road. "We did our first album of the week, and they put us into a studio at Chipping Norton where you could sleep as well – we’d be woken up at 3am to do some more recording," says Julie.
"But when you’re 16, you’re eager and loving it. We became like a little family."
Inevitably, some friendships grew quicker than others. "We sort of veered off into groups," says Julie. "Paul, myself and Dominic would eat quietly together, while David, Teresa and Martine would go off," she searches for the right phrase, "starring it up," suggests Dominic, with a grin.
I kept quiet for the first couple of years and just watched, listened and learnt
Julie, who was at first playing night clubs she wasn’t old enough to be in, admits: "I kept quiet for the first couple of years and just watched, listened and learnt." And it was during that time she and Dominic became a couple – making him her first and last boyfriend - "you’re bloody lucky, then!" laughs her husband, from the depths of the sofa.
Guys and Dolls toured the world and worked with most of the greats in the recording industry, including Frank Sinatra and country music giant, Johnny Cash. They decided to leave recession-hit England and move to Holland to concentrate all their efforts into making records and touring in Europe. During the next six or so years, they recorded several albums and had countless hit singles, including a cover of Cilla Black’s classic, You’re My World.
The couple’s son, Luke, was born in 1980, and he came everywhere with them. It was less easy, however, for other band members like Paul, juggling travelling and a young family, and in 1986, Guys and Dolls disbanded.
Initially, Julie thought she’d just stay at home and write songs – "but that lasted about 10 minutes!" It was decision time. "We decided to carry on, just the two of us, but we didn’t know what to call ourselves. Our Dutch producer said everyone knows you as Dominic Grant and Julie Forsyth, so we became Grant and Forsyth – even though it does sound like a firm of solicitors."
The duo made their first mark on the charts in 1988 with a hit recording of the Walker Brother’s classic, The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore and The Ronettes’ Be My Baby. However, they also got duped into believing they were being handsomely paid to have an independent video made of them performing the songs, but it all turned out to be a con.
"The guy didn’t turn up with the money, we’d spent about £40,000 to 50,000 and had to write out a lot of cheques," admits Dominic. "We phoned our bank manager and said we’d have to sell our house in Blean to raise the money. The lucky thing was the single was a hit all over Europe and it started us off.
"We only had our beach hut at Tankerton left and we sat in it and thought, that’s it – we’re screwed. But it taught us a big lesson, and it really fired us up. We had the best time when we had nothing."
That same year Julie had written a song, Go, for Eurovision, performed by their friend, Scott Fitzgerald. It won the English leg, but, controversially, came second in the final to the Swiss entry, sung by the then-unknown Celine Dion.
"It was the first time in the history of Eurovision that Holland hadn’t given any points to England, so we all knew something had happened," says Julie. "But there was nothing we could do about it, it would have sounded like sour grapes, although we do know who was behind it. I just felt sorry for Scott – but it was an amazing experience."
To date, Julie and Dominic have sold more than three million albums in Holland alone
The couple have now sold more records together than they did with the band, with 1990 proving their turning point. They had fallen in love with country music and their first album, Country Love Songs, went platinum in Holland that year and was followed by a string of Country Love Songs albums, all of which earned gold and platinum award status.
To date, Julie and Dominic have sold more than three million albums in Holland alone, making them the most successful husband and wife team in Europe. Dominic laughs: "Julie is the ultimate pro now, before she was this shy little blonde thing."
In 2004, the duo released The Platinum Country Collection, and their first commercial DVD. The following year saw the release of their latest album, Most Beautiful Country Love Songs, featuring a selection of songs that were big hits in Holland. And in spring 2008, they are all set to do a series for Dutch TV with Warner Brothers – despite scuppering plans by moving from their Chislet home that was all set to be the base for ‘a live at the barn’ show.
And they have competition at home, too, in the shape of their daughter, Sophie, 16, and son Luke, 27, who is in rock band Reculver and, says his mum, is like a second father to his little sister.
"When Sophie sings now, she sounds like me when I was her age. It’s really emotional when she joins us on stage for our history tour," says Julie. "Luke used to come on with a guitar and dance around like a maniac while we were changing in between songs."
And while Julie has two strings to her bow, as a singer and songwriter, Dominic has also developed a second career as a sculptor over the past 12 years and now exhibits his bronzes in Mayfair and Monte Carlo, Amsterdam and Portafino. "It’s amazing driving up New Bond Street and seeing my stuff for sale in the window next to Ralph Lauren. It’s a real buzz," he says.
One of his best-known pieces is the life-size bronze he did of Bruce Forsyth for the Palladium, which sits in the Cinderella Bar - which brings me to ask Julie what’s it been like, following in the footsteps of a famous dad?
"I always felt very much at home on the stage," she says. "I remember being a little girl in a Father Christmas scene with dad and the Bee Gees as special guests in the 1960s. But other than that, we didn’t do the stage thing – we were always backstage and knew where to stand so we weren’t in the way".
The publicity for Guys and Dolls was initially hard to handle, it was the first thing the press picked up on. "That’s why Holland was so good for us," says Dominic. "Although people knew of her dad, over there, she’s bigger than he is, and it’s Bruce who gets asked, are you Julie’s father? The joke in England was always ‘didn’t she do well."
Julie adds: "It’s a bit like that for Luke now – but he is brilliant, and we wouldn’t have encouraged him if we didn’t think he could stand up there and deliver.
"Our priority has always been the kids and we’d rather have them around, and make our own choices, and enjoy life. We have no regrets, though sometimes we haven’t always taken the right turns at life’s crossroads.
"Our getting to know each other was a real slow process, a growing, slow-burning sort of thing. We’ve always looked after each other."
For a dedicated Guys and Dolls fansite, click here