A star called David01/02/2008
By Paul Lester
He is a black soul singer with a reputation as a ladies’ man. So how come Craig David seems like such a nice Jewish boy? Paul Lester finds out
Many things spring to mind when you think of Craig David — R&B supremo, Bo! Selecta TV comedy target, tabloid lothario possibly; but nice Jewish boy? Probably not.
It is a fact, though — David was born almost 27 years ago in Southampton to a Grenadian father and an British-Jewish mother. Her mother, in turn, had converted to Judaism after marrying David’s grandfather, Reggie Loftus, who owned a chemist’s in Golders Green, North London, and was related to the family who founded the Accurist watch company.
Furthermore, David, who recently returned to his roots when he bought a house in Hampstead — bang in the middle of the North-West London Jewish heartland — could not be more Jewish if he hung a Star Of David round his neck and spent Friday nights saying kiddush.
“Actually, he wears the Star Of David round his right wrist,” says Colin Lester, David’s manager, who is keen to have a word with the JC before his charge is interviewed.
Lester [no relation to this writer] also looks after Arctic Monkeys and rising black-Jewish female singer-songwriter Remi Nicole. But he is more like a family member than a manager, which is why David often spends Shabbat round at his place. “He comes round for Friday-night dinner,” Lester says. “We do a great chicken soup with lockshen.”
The singer confirms this when he says: “I often go to Colin’s on Friday nights. We say the prayers and we’re good to go.”
David is delighted to be in the epicentre of British Jewry, especially as, despite his 13 million and rising record sales, numerous awards and status as probably the best-known soul singer in the country, he can make the walk from Hampstead to Golders Green without too much hassle from fans.
“I go down to Blooms for kosher food,” he says. “I can go anywhere. People don’t notice you if you go about your business. It’s only if you make a big scene.”
There has been quite a big scene around David since his career took off. “It’s been a busy eight years,” as he understates, “with lot of ups and downs on the way.”
When he first emerged in December 1999 with Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo! Selecta), David was hailed as the saviour of homegrown R&B. His fourth single and first Number 1 hit, 7 Days, with its gently boastful lyric (“I met this girl on Monday/Took her for a drink on Tuesday/We were making love by Wednesday/And on Thursday and Friday and Saturday/We chilled on Sunday”), seemed to fix him in the mind of the nation, and more crucially the media, as a self-adoring lover-man.
It also made him ripe for satirising. Which is exactly what happened when Leigh Francis, a.k.a. Avid Merrion, turned him into a figure of ridicule for his Channel 4 lampoon-fest Bo! Selecta. David was portrayed, complete with grotesquely inflated head, trademark goatee and beanie hat, as a dumb northerner wittering on about his lost pet kestrel. For a vulnerable man barely out of his teens who had grown up overweight and bullied, it was hard to take.
“It was a form of obstruction. And I decided I could either go round it or over it. So I tried to get round it,” says David. “I wasn’t affected by it at first. I just thought it was some cult Spitting Image thing and I wasn’t going to let it bother me. After a while, though, it felt as though people were quoting lines at me from the show more than they were from my music.”
Trusting in that old adage “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”, he invited Francis onstage at his Royal Albert Hall show during his performance of Re-Rewind, believing it would be the self-debunking move that would end the televisual mockery. Instead, it served to fuel the farce, and David remains an object of Bo! Selecta’s derision. But it did inspire the singer-songwriter to record Trust Me, his latest album and arguably his strongest collection to date.
“I needed to put things back in line,” he says, “to get a record out. I had to redress the balance. Now I’m focusing on the music again.”
He recorded the album over three weeks last year in Cuba, a period he thoroughly enjoyed despite occasional wagging fingers if he even dared vaguely to discuss the country’s regime.
But then, he could probably do with a more stringent approach to freedom of speech over here, where his private life has been subject to scrutiny in the press, whether it is intimations about his sexual preferences (one minute he is a ladies’ man, the next he is gay) or kiss-and-tells from self-serving ex-lovers.
“If you play the tabloid game you get burned,” he says. “I’d rather say nothing at all and let things roll. You just have to ride those things out.”
Has it made him suspicious of women? “You always have to have your wits about you,” he says. “Sometimes a girl who wants to forward her career will see you as leverage and abuse your position — but it’s always been that way. You just have to be careful. Sometimes someone will slip through the net.”
It is his fault for being such a babe magnet, surely? “Well, a lot of it comes from 7 Days, that bravado attitude. I love that song, but there’s a stigma attached — people thought I must be some playa Casanova guy. But I’m proud of all my songs.”
He compares himself to George Michael, another artist who has been hurt by the media but continues to enjoy massive mainstream success.
“He’s recognised as a musician, first and foremost. People buy his records. That’s what I want. I’m one of the few artists to have a career that’s lasted so long, especially now with the industry changing… I want people to buy a Craig David record without hearing it, because of the name on the sleeve, the way they do with Elton John or Sting.”
Meanwhile, he is enjoying being part of the Jewish community. “It seems very straight and natural and down the line; there’s no bullshit,” he says.
So does he feel more affinity with his black or Jewish heritage? “I feel like I’m me. As a kid, one minute I’d be in church or round at dad’s for jerk chicken, rice and peas with his family, or round at mum’s for chicken soup.
“When I was in Austria [on tour], I wanted to see the concentration camps because people are quick to forget. But then on my father’s side there was slavery. I feel very privileged to have both [heritages]. It makes me proud.”
But when the day of reckoning comes, where would he like to finally rest in peace — in the grounds of a church or a synagogue? “To be honest, after my gran passed away, I got a whole new understanding of what it was like going to synagogue, so I’d probably veer on the Jewish side of things,” he admits. “The community has embraced me and I can see that they look after each other well.”
Plus, you get the uniquely helpful process that is sitting shivah. “Well, I wouldn’t be there, I’d be in the ground, under the soil,” he laughs. “But I know what you mean.”
6 of 1 Thing, the second single to be taken from Trust Me, will be released by Warner Bros on February 18
Snapshot: Craig David
Born: Craig Ashley David
Date of birth: May 5, 1981
Place: Holyrood, Southampton
Career: David has released four albums (2000’s Born to Do It, 2002’s Slicker Than Your Average, 2005’s The Story Goes... and 2007’s Trust Me)
and has had 18 Top 20 chart entries, including last year’s David Bowie-sampling Hot Stuff (Let’s Dance)
On being Jewish: “My grandfather Reggie was Orthodox and my gran used to explain the process of converting. It was serious! You had to be prepared, learn Hebrew… The tests were really hard. It wasn’t like some week-crash-course or passing your driving test. I could see what she went through.” In 2004, David participated in a bike ride for Norwood. At a subsequent concert, which raised £35,000 for the charity, he told the audience: “Make some noise if you’re Jewish”
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