CityLife

Sharleen's Misty-eyed over her Kyd

WITH her pitch-black, punk-inspired hair and forthright attitude, pop star Sharleen Spiteri is a 'don't mess' kind of woman.

The Texas singer has described herself as "a tough little so and so" and "a Scottish woman with strong opinions who gets stroppy".

If this battler with the uncompromisingly thick Glaswegian accent didn't like what you had to say, make no mistake, you'd know all about it.

But at the very mention of her little daughter, Misty Kyd, who's just celebrated her first birthday, she visibly relaxes, softens and becomes the adoring mum.

Having a baby is "amazing", she confides. "People say, 'Oh, it changes your life' - it really didn't change anything, it just made everything a lot better.

"It's like, you know, you wake up in the morning and your little girl's jumping on top of you, giving you a big cuddle.

"Within six months they become a wee person. I never thought it happened that early."

And, just like her mum, Misty knows her own mind.

"She's a pest," beams Spiteri, indulgently. "She's got a right little personality and knows what she wants. She's really head-strong, really determined. She always wants to try everything, she's into everything.

"She's really funny. She comes over in the morning when she's crawling around after she's had her breakfast and, if you're sitting having a cup of tea, she's got to have a sip of your tea. She wants to drink it out the cup."

Unsurprisingly, the toddler has equally strong views when it comes to pop.

"She's very fussy about her music. Some things she's just like, 'Waaa'," - Spiteri mimics a high-pitched crying noise - "she doesn't like it. Sometimes when music comes on she holds onto the table and dances. She likes R&B and hip-hop."

In true celebrity tradition, Spiteri and her long-term boyfriend Ashley Heath, who works in magazines, decided to give their first born an unusual name - and called their daughter 'Misty' in honour of a creepy, 70s film.

"It's after the movie Play Misty For Me, that's where it came from, it's a movie that we both love," Spiteri says. "And our surname's Heath, so it's Misty Heath, so it's kind of a bit Kate Bush-like, a bit magical."

But Texas fans need not fear - the songwriter and singer has no intention of letting motherhood interfere with her musical career.

Indeed the band is about to release a new album, Careful What You Wish For, their first - excluding 2000's Greatest Hits release - in four years.

Spiteri worked away on the tunes while she was pregnant and knuckled back down to writing within three weeks of Misty's birth in September last year.

By the time her daughter was two months old she was being wheeled along to recording sessions.

Spiteri

"You know, it's not like I do a nine-to-five job," says Spiteri, matter-of-factly.

"I just took her to the studio in her baby chair. She just sat there - they sleep for about the first six months of their lives."

Texas - made up of Spiteri, co-founder and fellow songwriter Johnny McElhone, guitarists Ally McErlaine and Tony McGovern plus Eddie Campbell on keyboards - may have sold more than 20 million records worldwide and Spiteri may once have been named the highest-paid director in Scotland, with a £1.6 million wage from the company set up to promote Texas projects, but she has never forgotten her roots.

Originally from Balloch, outside Glasgow, in 1986 she was earning just £2 an hour working as a hairdresser when she penned Texas's chart-topping hit I Don't Want A Lover.

Two years later, she was performing on Top Of The Pops and the band thought they'd made the big time.

But reality struck when Texas's popularity seemed to fizzle out almost overnight and it took an agonising six years for them to notch up another hit, lose the `one hit wonders' label and establish themselves as bona fide stars.

These days Spiteri lives in a posh part of north London and mingles with the celebrity A-list - her friends include Stella McCartney, Madonna and Blondie legend Debbie Harry.

But she still has a house in Glasgow and says: "I'm up there all the time. Scotland's always going to be my home and I can go there when I want. My parents are still there, my sister's there."

As for being a pop star, Spiteri says she would never have believed as a teenager that it could happen to her.

"It was nothing I'd ever considered. Never. I just sort of fell into it. I always sang but that was in Glasgow, growing up.

"I'd go round to my grandparents and they'd be having parties and everybody had to get up and do a song. And, you know, my cousins didn't sing all that different from how I sang. I never really stood out in the crowd at all."

In fact, some of her family still think it's funny she's come so far, she admits - including one cousin who used to be the star at those early singalongs and is now a British Aerospace worker and mum.

Spiteri grins: "My cousin used to do this song that was a real tear-jerker and she would get all the aunties crying - 'Aw, aw, aw. She's great. She's great'. And there would be me doing my little pop song and they would completely pass me by.

"We were talking about it one night when my cousin was over. You know, you're all grown up and I'm sort of like a successful musician. She burst out laughing and said, 'Is this not surreal?'."

Texas' new album, Careful What You Wish For, is released on Monday, October 20.