Clare Grogan
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Clare Grogan (born Claire Patricia Grogan, 17 March 1962, in Glasgow) is a Scottish actress (credited when acting as C. P. Grogan) and singer.
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[edit] Biography
Already in the band Altered Images, Grogan was discovered by film director Bill Forsyth when she was waitressing in a Glasgow restaurant. She shot to fame at 19 as Susan, the girl who finally got her man in the film, Gregory's Girl.
She appears in the video for Peter Kay and Matt Lucas's charity single I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day 2007.
[edit] Singing
Her first love was singing, and Grogan decided to develop her career in that direction as the lead singer of Altered Images, with a five piece including Johnny McElhone (later of Texas), and later a four-piece after two members left, with the addition of Stephen Lironi who played both guitar and drums (not at the same time :-) The band had a string of hits in the 1980s including "Happy Birthday", "Don't Talk To Me About Love", "I Could Be Happy" and "Bring Me Closer". The group split up after the mixed reception of their third album, Bite.
Grogan did attempt a solo career, but after her single "Love Bomb" flopped in 1987, her album, Trash Mad was never released. In 2000 she contributed vocals to the song "Night Falls Like A Grand Piano" on the Magnetic Fields side project the 6ths album, Hyacinths and Thistles. She recorded a version of "Angels With Dirty Faces" for the Frankie Miller Tribute album. The track "Her Hooped Dream" appears on The Ultimate Celtic Album.
Altered Images reunited in name only, as just Grogan performed, in a Here and Now tour in 2005.
[edit] Acting
Obliged to appear as C.P. Grogan because there was already a Clare Grogan (who is now a portrait photographer) in British actors union Equity, in 1985 she was the receptionist in the BBC Television version of Blott on the Landscape. She had a recurring role playing Dave Lister's would-be love-interest, Kristine Kochanski, in series 1, 2 and 6 of the TV show Red Dwarf, (when the character became a permanent role in later series of the show it was taken up by Chloë Annett). She has also appeared in Father Ted (episode "Rock-a-Hula Ted", and more recently in EastEnders as Ian Beale's love interest.
In recent years, she has been a talk show host in the UK. She will play control-freak office manager, Sandra Reeves, in the forthcoming motion picture, The Penalty King. She also appeared in the Comic Relief red nose day in 2007
[edit] Radio
From 26th February to 2nd March 2007, Clare Grogan is sat in for DJ Nemone on the British digital radio station 6 Music.
[edit] Personal life
An ex-girlfriend of Volaro founder David Blackwood, she married fellow band member Stephen Lironi in Glasgow in 1994. The couple live in the London Borough of Haringey, and in 2005 the couple adopted daughter Lucia. Trevor Molloy, Motherwell footballer and former partner of Grogan's has responded angrily to comments made in the press by Claire. Speaking to an incoherently drunk Chris Evans, he shouted that, 'Grogan's a total and utter dickhead'.
[edit] External links
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