MANY CH pupils, we're told, believe chart-topper and Brit Award winner Taio Cruz is an Old Blue. But is he?
It's true his name appears on Wikipedia's list of Old Blues, but his own Wikipedia entry says nothing about the school.
Several young Old Blues who would have been contemporary with him at CH have said they don't remember him, and the administrator of the CH Association (now renamed CHOBA) can find no trace of him in the records under either of his supposed "real names", Tayo Oluwaseyi Cruz da Silva and Adetayo Ayowale Cruz Onile-Ere.Moreover he has this to say about his schooldays "in rural Sussex":
"At that age I didn't even have any concept of colour… It's only now that I look back and think 'Oh, I was pretty much the only black kid in the whole school'".Doesn't sound much like CH to me.
If anyone reading this is aware of hard evidence that Taio Cruz is indeed an Old Blue, please share it. If not, perhaps it's time we laid this appealing myth to rest.
3 comments:
I think that perhaps Taio Cruz is being confused with Tayo (Popoola), successful breaks DJ, who left CH in the early 90s.
If he was born in 1985, as his wikipedia entry states, then that would make him approx 10 years older than Tayo Popoola, who was on the year above me at CH (I was born in 1975), therefore I don't think people could easily be confusing these two people except by the name.
However if Taio Cruz really had been to CH then he would not have left very long ago, and surely the school / CHA would have records of him.
Back when I was a contemporary of Tayo, he was "pretty much the only" black child at the school, the only others I can think of offhand being his brother Olu and a chap in Leigh Hunt on the same year as Tayo whose name escapes me. I admit that CH is much more diverse these days however!
Tim said...
"If he was born in 1985, as his wikipedia entry states, then that would make him approx 10 years older than Tayo Popoola, who was on the year above me at CH (I was born in 1975), therefore I don't think people could easily be confusing these two people except by the name".
Surely 10 years younger.
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