ON THE GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP
In this month's editorial, John Woodford looks at young musicians, parents and responsibility.

Some years ago I had the misfortune of being the musical director of a professional run of the show Annie. It was quite an experience: small children of no more than nine and ten years, all slightly too big for their boots, flounced and pouted their way through a gruelling rehearsal schedule. There were tears, there were fights and, worst of all, there were parents, who were to become a constant bane from the first audition, in which we had to lose approximately three hundred potential Annies, to the closing-night party. Growling and snarling, they fought with each other, spat invective and were unbelievably foul. Amidst a scene of near-carnage, carers, directors and stage personnel took flight, dreading the moment when, armed with yet another series of complaints, they would come in with a tirade of hate against some poor so-and-so who failed to give their children the limelight. The language was foul, the atmosphere continually tense and the children, the product of their parents' warped sense of duty and twisted aspirations, aped the scenes they witnessed in a display that would make even the most hardened entertainer retch with embarrassment.

In another instance, a friend who stewards for the Associated Board was horrified when a young ten year-old turned up to take his first piano exam, a Grade 8. Although any teacher worth his salt should perhaps have serious reservations about entering someone for such a difficult exam at that age, one cannot help but feel sorry for this particular boy's teacher. He was evidently forced into entering the child, whose parents, continually proclaiming their son's genius, seemed more interested in fulfilling their personal ambitions than allowing their son some semblance of a childhood.

And now it seems that young Charlotte Church has been sued by her one-time manager, and word has it that they settled out of court for approximately two million pounds. The sight of a fourteen year-old going into a courtroom to give evidence can do little other than fill decent people with a sense of horror, since this is a kid who should only just be beginning to learn the art of being an adult, not a sophisticated litigant in a million pound lawsuit. What sort of parents are prepared to subject their child to this sort of publicity and pressure? They might be loving, and, given Church's personal income, probably very doting (let's face it, she's a pretty good meal ticket), but should one not question what really motivates the parents of any starlet, prospective or otherwise?