Earl Carpenter sings "Love's a Game"

With experience you come to understand the industry and how trend-driven it is, and how little you are… not respected, but how little you are taken for who you are. You’ve got to slot in with an adapting and manipulative creature. You’ve got to find a way of longevity, and by being a little bit unrealistic you will soon be left behind. I’ve been working non-stop since 1997, because I’ve made sure I’m realistic, at the end of the day. I actually do get a lot of inspiration from Cameron Mackintosh; I’ve been very lucky over the last couple of months to sit with him and chat and share a glass of wine, something that I never thought I’d be doing twenty-odd years ago. He wouldn’t be where he is without the kind of sheer, focused passion that he has. People like that, people who have been within this industry a number of years, who are still constantly inventing – I find that very inspiring.