60 segundos con Dan Tracey (TV Personalities)

El hombre habla sin tapujos de sus adicciones, de su vida como homeless y de su estancia en la cárcel en metro.co.uk.

Además confirma que Ed Ball es miembro oficial de nuevo de los TV P y que la chica es la dependienta de la tienda Reckless ("I'm back with Edward Ball from The Times. We went to school together and he's been my best friend for years. Then there is Victoria [Yeulet] who works in Reckless Records on Berwick Street in London. She's worked there for years. I used to go in for ages to see this other girl who worked there that I fancied but Victoria and I became friends. I was always a bit shy with her when we first met as she can be very imposing. But she's actually very cool. I was in there one day and said we were going back to the studio for the first time in 11 years. She said she could sing a bit, so we asked her along and she's been amazing")

 

What was prison like?

 

I did not pick up a guitar for years as I spent time being homeless or in hostels. I've been in prison four times now for things like shoplifting to feed my drug habit. I got transferred from Brixton to what I called The Good Ship Lollipop [floating HMP, The Weare]. It was the best thing that could have happened. Brixton was horrendous. I was not in a cell but in a cabin and could look out of the window over Weymouth Bay. The prison warders were pretty cool and there were computers. I found fan websites. At the same time, I got a letter from my friend, Xfm DJ Iain Baker, and he said he'd heard I was dead. I wrote back to him and he announced on the Web that I was alive and well.

 

We had heard the ‘Dan is dead' rumour.

 

I didn't actually see it myself but my sister had heard it. I don't know why anyone would write things like that. I was certainly at death's door a couple of times with the drugs but that's something I'm not proud of. When I showed the websites to the education people in the prison, one of the nuns brought me a guitar. I was supposed to give it back at lock-up in the evenings but they let me keep it in the cell with me. There was a guy in the next cell – an ex-mod – who had a four-track recording studio in his. I had the guitar and so we did some jamming together. When I'd first been given the guitar, I didn't want to pick it up. I kept a journal while I was in prison but I never really wrote seriously. People are saying that I wrote the album while I was in prison but I didn't. I didn't want to get into some kind of Johnny Cash-style thing. There was nothing to write about in that prison anyway. As I said, it was quite nice. I could have written songs about being in Brixton or Pentonville, which were much, much worse. I don't want to fall into writing that much personal stuff. Although, having said that, I have written All The Young Children On Crack. I wouldn't write songs about being homeless. There are loads of people who are homeless. I had no greater insight into it than them.

 

Were you recognised in prison?

 

A couple of times in Brixton and Pentonville – and there was one guy on the boat who recognised me. He sidled up after staring for ages and said: ‘Are you who I think you are?' The websites really boosted me, though. When Iain published I was alive, I started getting 30 letters a day. The officers couldn't believe I was so well-known. Thinking about it all really upsets me – not the fact that I went to prison but the fact it was drugs that pushed me. I cannot even imagine doing that kind of thing now. It's a really horrible spiral to fall into.