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| www.goodbyeleslie.com |
| Leslie Cheung Autobiography Chapter 6 : Going into Show Business ? Taking part in Asian Singing Contest Learning Chinese was very difficult, but it allowed me to I understand the language at a deeper level. It was during that time when I studied in a certain school for over a year. There I met a group of friend who liked play folk songs, and music. And there was an opportunity where I joined a competition that was my introduction into show business. A turning point in my life. That was May 1977, a classmate and my friend had a folk band and I was the lead singer. The band was called Onyx, a strange black stone that is shiny. Onyx competed in many competitions, where we came second or third, but never first. Then the old station RTV, which is now ATV, had an Asia Wide Singing Contest. My friend signed us up, but he was disqualified right at the beginning and I managed to hang on until the finals. I was very lucky and came second in the Hong Kong leg of the competition and attended the pan-asia finals where eight countries participated. The scoring of the competition wasnÕt very fair, in regards to the Filipino judge. I remember it was a very tight competition between me and a Filipino singer, but at the very last round, the Filipino judge gave me the lowest score in the whole competition which was 77 points, while the Hong Kong judge gave the other singer 93 points. So when it was averaged out in the finals, I came fifth, while the Filipino singer came first. If you are aware of Hong Kong music history you will know the winner of that competition was Marcado Ding. But really, the winner and the competition didnÕt make a huge impact in my life at all. Signing contract with RTV and Polygram Record Not winning created notoriety because people felt that the Filipino judge wasnÕt fair and therefore I got more publicity from it. It felt like an overnight success. The next day after the competition I met MR. Zhong Gin Fai, who signed a contract with me, giving me $1000 a month as an actor in the RTV variety shows. That money was very attractive, and I signed a three year contract without thinking because I so wanted to be independent away from my family because I was so not used to live with them after being in England alone. The time there wasnÕt bad. With that, I rented a room near Broadcast Drive that cost $500. (laughs) So you ask, Leslie how did you spend the left over $500? I ate in the RTV Canteen morning, evening and night. In the end I borrowed a few thousands dollars from King Sir, which allowed me to buy furniture, and rent the room while over the months he subtracted $100 a month back from me. So I had $900 to spend a month. I still managed to save a few dollars every month. But after I came into the limelight, the public response was not ideal. In a way I was lucky as I signed a contract with Polygram as their main singer. At the same time Chan Mei Ling, not the Japanese one but Hong KongÕs Pat Chan was also signed. We ended up in a compilation album. I remember the producer was a Dutch-English producer. We created a song, ÒI like Dreaming.Ó It was not well received. The critics said I was immature and had a chicken voice. In 1977 in the Pop Folk Music Festival, It was during that time when the Wynners and Sam Hui was very popular and in competition. It was so memorable because it was the first time in my life where I had a few thousand, probably 2000, people booing me. Taking part in RTV drama series I went back to spending time in the RTV variety show, doing not much and biding time. The variety show format was declining. The reason was they didnÕt have enough singers. So I sat on the bench for three months. At the same time the series format took rise, because Mac Dong Hong started gaining prominence, and RTV was doing a lot of shows. He transferred me into the drama department because he felt I had some talent, and was quite a good actor. where I worked on Crocodile Tear. I also made some teen love series. Which was better received. In those two years I met Danny Chan, through Roman TamÕs manager who was mine also for a while. They wanted to make teen movies, so I made two with them. I was playing the bad guy in those movies, and I suppose the girls and audience was na•ve because if one played a negative role, then people felt you were ÒbadÓ and you remained in that role. In terms of my singing career, nothing was going on. Polygram let me go, as I they felt they put two new albums out and it hadnÕt done well. They told me feel free to pick a different record company. I didnÕt tell anyone about it. For a long time people thought I remained in Polygram. Then after a while I found a new challenge. |