This lady won't sing the blues

to reach the highs in her own

career. Lucy Adamson meets the latest pop music wannabe

IT'S not funny, it's a serious business. Currie pow(d)er is sweeping the nation again, only this time, it's daughter Debbie. Not content with just one spicy lady in the limelight, Currie junior has now decided to get in on the act with the release of a new single next week.

Outrageous you cry, but yes, Debbie Currie, 22, is currently whisking through Scotland with pop band The Mojams, promoting their cover version of an American band's 1973 single, You Can Do Magic. Depending on which account you read of what she describes as ''a bright, cheery record you want to roll your car windows down and sing along to'', you might think she's going to need a bit more than magic if she wants to thrash the famous five girls at their own game.

''I like the Spice Girls,'' she says. ''They're having really good fun and making a lot of money and hey, I'm right behind them.''

But what about creative im-pulses as an artist, her integrity as a performer? She retorts: ''Well I'm hoping to make a lot of money out of it, but just enjoy myself basically.''

Currie junior graduated from Huddersfield University last summer and was all set for a career in the police force, although how any constabulary would react to a new recruit who is alleged to have indulged in some of the more adventurous aspects of rock and roll lifestyle is another question entirely.

Ms Currie faces a motherly grilling from Kaye Adams on Scottish Women tonight as she criticises Currie for alleged four-in-a-bed romps and overtly using her feminine wiles to get what she wants. But let's face it, some women have been doing that for years.

It wasn't student debt that forced Debbie to enter the music industry, but the progression of a desire that began with the old dancing-with-a-hairbrush-in-front-of-the mirror excuse.

''Every little girl does that don't they?'' she asks. Fair enough, but at least some of us know when to stop.

She defends her new job thus: ''Okay, I've been very lucky (the single is produced by Stock and Aitken of nasty eighties disco fame - remember Rick Astley?) but surely everyone would give it a shot if they had the chance?''

She is philosophical about the odds of it being a one-hit no-wonder, but also believes she could become the ''Mrs Cliff Richard'' of the pop world. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Celebrity offspring are often accused of using their parents' success to forge their own careers. Currie toes the party line and defends her position reaffirming all such people merely have to work significantly harder to earn the same amount of respect.

''I was always used to people asking me about my mother from a very early age, so all this publicity and dealing with the attention is nothing that new for me. I've grown up in the public eye.

''Whatever we do, people will always say we got where we are because we have a famous parent and it has been a help because it helps open doors for you, but once you step through that open door you have to work much harder to prove yourself.''

The ''famous parent'' in question, the familiarly frank Edwina, even managed a priceless plug for her daughter's new single after her almost inevitable pasting in her South Derbyshire seat in the General Election. What more could a parent do for their child when viewing figures must surely have been high and potential advertising rates higher?

Currie junior admits: ''I was actually giving my support to the candidate for the Monster Raving Loony Party in Sellyoak because he was a DJ at a club I was performing at.'' Has this woman no shame? ''My mother has been a bloody good MP for 14 years and she's done a lot for the local area.

''I couldn't vote because my vote was in West Yorkshire and I'm living out of a suitcase at the moment, but if I did, then I would vote for someone who had been good for the local people. Even though she's a Conservative, I wouldn't vote for her because of a party but because of what she had done.''

There was a touch of concern in her voice as she pondered upon what her mother would do next. The Conservative Party managed to significantly add to their own unemployment figures after their landslide defeat but signing on at the dole queue will not be an option for Currie senior.

Her daughter says: ''I can't see her going out of politics completely. She's so pro-Europe she may well get involved in something along those lines. She's actually been watching a lot of daytime television which is quite funny. When I speak to her on the phone, she tells me about it and asks me what is it with all these people shouting at each other and talking to each other all day.''

Returning her mother's favour, she adds: ''She's got a book coming out in the Autumn.'' This family publicity thing is surely getting out of hand.

The pride both mother and daughter seem to have for each other is obvious. Debbie describes her mother as ''the most beautiful woman of her age in the country''. Aren't all mothers? But she misses her dad Ray and her friends in Huddersfield who think the whole thing is highly amusing. ''That's why I bought a mobile phone - so I could keep in touch with everyone and that's mainly what I do when we're travelling.''

By the way, You Can Do Magic, which reached number three in the UK charts in 1973, was originally performed by Limmie and The Family Cookin'. They sank into obscurity after its release and many will be hoping Ms Currie does the same. But there's always the Eurovision Song Contest.

n You Can Do Magic is released by Gotham Records on Monday, May 19.