Reproduced from Club Land (Channel 4 Teletext) October 1998

Now 24-year-old Tina has cut The Sash! (geddit?) and looks primed to launch an explosive, hip-wiggling, toe-tapping solo career with her new single Pray.

But how DID she get from the catwalk to Top Of The Pops? Clubland pulls up a prayermat and melts into the arms of the diva extraordinaire to find out...

She's a young, beautiful, blonde former model, but Tina Cousins was coughing and choking like a granny when Clubland caught up with her to talk about her new single Pray!

"It's the lurgy!" she cried. Could this be a result ot burning the candle at both ends with too much clubbing?

"Nooo," howled Tina. "It's all gone so crazy lately that I don't get time to party any more. All I do when I'm not working is SLEEP!!"

Tina Cousins, the voice and face of the Sash! hit Mysterious Times, is praying that her new solo single will follow suit. It's called... er, Pray!

"It's quite different to what I've done before so I'm hoping it'll be a hit," she says. "It was important to do something different. It's grown on me!

"Doing the Sash! stuff was great, and also extremely enjoyable. It got me known and was a rehersal for my own career. But now the time is right!"

Tina Cousins is the ex-model turned club queen/dance diva - and boy does she have a hard time living it down!

"I just did the modelling for a year because I needed the money!" she moans.

"I didn't want to do it and I never liked it. Somebody from an agency saw me on a train and asked me to do it.

"People think I'm not a proper singer 'cos I was a model, but I was always in bands before and I just want to sing!"

Before making it as a singer, Tina Cousins was not only swanking about as a fashion model, but she got to star in a Rolling Stones video!

She spent most of the day shivering after being told to dive into a swimming pool fully clothed. She also had an argy bargy with Mick Jagger!

Tina explains: "He walked past me on the set and elbowed me... so I pushed him back! Then I ran off and hid in case he wanted to sack me from the video!"

Former Sash! singer Tina Cousins, about to roar up the charts with Pray, is an Essex girl - and you can stop all that sniggering at the back. "I'm from Essex and proud of it!" she announces.

"People always judge you in a certain way and assume you've only got two brain cells, but we're not so stupid and Essex is a great place to live."

Gorgeous Tina is also a great cook. "Thai's my speciality," she says. "Yep, I have a love life but that's private!"

The single Pray is out now