Turner’s Furniture on Beverley Road in Hull had an ad in its window in 1982. “On Sale: Everything But The Girl” (serving behind the counter). Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn took the name. They struggled, had modest success, then a big hit and a phone call to their Sydney hotel suite where Bono asked them to open for U2 on their North American tour. Tracey Thorn decided then and there to walk away, start a family and fade into obscurity.
She raised her children. No-one at their school knew she’d been a pop star. Until the day she stood at the school gates, waiting for the kids, chatting to the other mums and her cover was blown.
“Yoo hoo! Tracey!”
All heads turned as a grinning George Michael drove slowly past in his Range Rover.
From “Bedsit Disco Queen” by Tracey Thorn.