"It was my first professional singing," she says, "and from there I just went round Europe, which was a big eye-opener for me. "I wasn't properly bullied but they had it in for me," she says with a dry little laugh. "And then I got into make-up and Tippex and was well at home." Tippex? For correcting homework? "Inhaling," she laughs. "Then I ended up doing community service, just for being generally bad.
There was Sister Therese-Marie who wore this big crucifix with a stiff skirt - a bit dykey in a way - and I thought, 'Wow!' It seemed very glamorous because it was in beautiful surroundings, these fantastic long, cool corridors with sparkly bits in them And the nuns were from all over the world. I was in awe."But the idyll came crashing down when Alison failed an important exam and was forced to move to the dreaded local comprehensive, where she was picked on as the posh girl. It's not that her family was Catholic, it's just that her deeply Christian mum thought the school would be good for her "I loved those nuns," she says "I saw them as really strong. "I thought the nuns were dead cool with their headdresses and their black polo necks.
I was on cloud nine," she says, looking back on her happy childhood days (which makes for a refreshing change in a world where so many stars can only talk about their formative years in therapist-speak). "I'm not one of those people who grew up dreaming of being on Top of the Pops," she says. She did, mind you, get to meet her childhood pin-up David Cassidy when she appeared on TOTP2 a while back. "I used to kiss his album every night when I was a little girl," she says, rolling her eyes.