‘I needed to be locked up’: how Kavana went from 90s pop stardom to smoking crack in a skip – and bounced back

He was a teen singer with his dream career. But then his life fell apart. Anthony Kavanagh talks about sex work, addiction and the years he spent being forced to hide his sexualityNobody could say that Anthony Kavanagh does not know how to laugh at himself. The day he was fired from his record label, he trudged across London in the rain, walking and walking, as the realisation sank in that he was no longer a pop star. Soaked, he went into a pub and the woman behind the bar offered him a grubby tea towel to dry off. Washed-up indeed, he thought.His memoir, Pop Scars, is sprinkled with darkly comic takes on what his life had become after 90s pop stardom. Known as Kavana, he had a Top 10 hit in 1997 with his cover of Shalamar’s I Can Make You Feel Good. “I’ve always somehow been able to find the humour, even at some of the darker times,” he says. Continue reading...

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