You were winning talent show contests from a phenomenally early age.

Yes the first time when I was 10 on a family holiday in Blackpool then two years later I won Spot The Stars in Bradford but I was too young by law to go up and collect the prize from the stage! My show at the time comprised songs like Paul Anka’s Diana and Sweet Nothings by Brenda Lee. I first heard music through my older brother, he had great taste. He played me Cliff, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Brenda Lee. But it was a real family thing. I was born in 1947, on March 6 to a very down to earth family. My mum was a stay at home mum, she looked after us. I was the youngest of three. My father was salt of the earth, and very aware of my ability as a singer as a little girl. Mum was a lot more reticent and hesitant, which provided a very good balance. There was no room to become bigheaded.
I discovered early on that I could hold a tune and harmonise with my big sister. By the time I was 13 I was asked to join the Baron Knights. How bizarre is that! I guested with them a couple of times. I can’t remember how I bumped into them.

Is it true you got signed to Phillips thanks to a very enterprising fan?

I was 16, 17, had just left school and I got a job at Boots the chemist for three months on the men’s counter. I was singing three nights a week with a dance band in Leeds at the Astoria ballroom, I used to do big band stuff, ’40s standards and pop songs of the day. I had built up quite a local reputation as a singer under my own name Pauline Matthews. Then one day I got a phone call from Phillips/Fontana telling me how someone had heard me sing and did I want to do an audition? Turns out a sales rep had been at one of my shows and put a tape player over the balcony, taped me then sent the tape to London. I didn’t know him, it was off his own back and I only met him many years later when he introduced himself to me. Well I went down to London with my dad, we stayed at a B&B in north London, I went off to Marble Arch studios, passed the audition and they put me in touch with my manager Vic Billings. He immediately suggested a name change – a cross between Kinky Boots and Sandra Dee. I said no to being called Kinky though, Kiki was the compromise.
Two weeks later he was also managing Dusty Springfield. She was my heroine, I adored her.