Eighties pop star, 63, has barely aged a day as she reflects on iconic career that left her ‘penniless’ despite topping the charts

Eighties pop star Clare Grogan looks like she hasn’t aged a day as she prepares to tour the UK with her band Altered Images to celebrate the 45th anniversary of their biggest hit.

The 63-year-old Scottish singer first rose to fame as the frontman of the New Wave band, best known for reaching No. 2 with the song Happy Birthday in 1981, before leaving two years later.

However, despite their success in the UK with top 40 singles and three top 30 albums, Clare said they were still ‘broke’ at the height of their fame.

‘Despite three successful albums, I had never made any money. Ask any band from the 80s and they’ll tell you someone made some money, but that’s a very rare band. Even at the top of the charts I was earning £75 a week.

‘The music business is notoriously messy and we were at an age where we desperately wanted to be a part of it, so we didn’t ask any questions. Besides, talking about money seemed vulgar.’

He went on to say that not asking questions was a ‘big mistake’ and admitted that the group had ‘blind trust in people’ in the industry.

The 63-year-old singer and actress first rose to fame as the lead singer of the New Wave band, best known for reaching Number 2 with the song Happy Birthday in 1981, before breaking up years later (pictured 1982)

Still as young and charismatic as ever, the star and his bandmates toured European festivals last summer before announcing shows closer to home later this year.

Clare said Mirror on the track’s upcoming anniversary: ​​’If you’d told me I’d still be singing Happy Birthday in my 60s, I’d have been so upset!’.

The band’s original line-up also included Gerard McInulty, Michael Anderson and Tony McDaid, later joined by Stephen Lironi, who would marry Clare in 1994.

After six miscarriages and four failed in vitro fertilization treatments, the couple adopted their daughter Ellie in 2005.

Clare, who has made a name for herself as an actress as well as a singer, is mostly famous for her role in the iconic 1981 comedy Gregory’s Girl.

He has also appeared in EastEnders and Red Dwarf and has written his own children’s novels.

Clare previously told the Daily Mail that even now, after her rocky start in the music industry, she ‘panicks’ when she thinks about her own financial future.

He said: ‘When Altered Images signed a record deal for around £50,000 in the early 1980s – which seemed like a huge amount of money at the time – we could hardly believe anyone would pay that much.

However, despite their success in the UK with six top 40 singles and three top 30 albums, Clare said they were still ‘broke’ at the height of their fame (pictured in 2024)

He went on to say that not asking questions was a ‘big mistake’ and admitted that the group blindly ‘trusted people’ in the industry (pictured in 2022)

Still as young and charismatic as ever, the star and his bandmates toured European festivals last summer before announcing shows closer to home later this year.

‘We’ve had success in countries as far away as Australia and Japan, but have we made any money? Not exactly. At the height of our success I was paid just £75 a week.’

This was just £15 more than she earned from tips in her first job as a waiter when she was at sixth-form university.

Gregory’s Girl has such enduring appeal that to this day it sits shoulder to shoulder with Grease and Fame in the top 30 ‘best ever’ high school movies, and counts Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese among its biggest fans.

‘It’s a really nice thing to have in my life,’ Clare said, ‘I think the reason Gregory’s Girl still resonates with people after all this time is because it’s a story that everyone can relate to… imagining someone who doesn’t like you.’

In this classic portrayal of coming-of-age awkwardness, set in and around a secondary school in Abronhill, Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, Sinclair plays Gregory, a clumsy 16-year-old who falls in love with Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), the female forward of the school football team.

Altered Footage taken in 1981

But Susan, played by Clare, eventually captured his heart; However, the film was almost a missed opportunity after the director initially declined the invitation to take on one of the leading roles.

The manager, a regular customer at the Glasgow restaurant where he worked as a waiter after school, asked for his number and he refused.

‘I had no idea who he was or what he did,’ he recalls. ‘My mother told me that I should never give my number to strangers.

‘I was 17 and I was thinking in my head: ‘He’s a guy with trousers and a camera, so I think I’ll say no to that.’

‘But it was all very legitimate and he persevered; Oh my God, thank God he did. She contacted the manager of the restaurant and he said, ‘He’s a really nice guy Clare and he’s really going to make this movie and I think you should meet him.’