‘When the cash dries up you regret the trips, cars and houses’

Musician Greg Kane struggled to pay his mortgage despite making millions as part of pop duo Hue and Cry in the 1980s. He splashed out on Ferraris, Porsches and luxury holidays at the height of his fame, making – then spending – a fortune. His car insurance alone cost £10,000 a year. Having spent most of his money, Greg then worked as a sound engineer to make ends meet before making thousands using powerful music production computers to mine cryptocurrency bitcoins at night. He released a critically successful comeback album in 2008 and now earns money on tour playing his old hits, including Labour Of Love.

What did your parents teach you about money?

My dad taught me to save it, my mum to spend it. My parents were aspirational and working class. My father worked as a personnel manager while mum was a district midwife who delivered 4,500 babies, sometimes for families who had nothing.

Every now and again, she would give away my clothes to them or tell my father: ‘Give this man a job, it could solve all their problems.’ My poor dad had to succumb to my mum’s persuasions.

Even to this day, I will meet a train driver in a pub and they will buy me a drink and say: ‘This is for your dad, that job turned my life around.’

What was your first paid work?

Playing saxophone for a band when I was 16. I got paid £20 a gig and did two a week.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Yes. There was a period between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s that was a struggle. That was when people stopped buying CDs and the arrival of illegal music file-sharing meant the revenue streams began to dry up. Fortunately, the money for the songs I had written still generated royalties, but nowhere near as much as I had earned in the 1980s.

I was only 20 in the summer of 1987 when I was handed the world. I owned some nice houses and a

Ferrari and a Porsche. I went on lovely holidays but when you do not have any money you regret all that.

How did you cope when the money dried up?

I spent time working as a sound engineer and a tour manager for other bands.

I made enough to get by, but I remember some shaky months. Luckily, the bank allowed me to take mortgage payment holidays and I got help from PRS For Music, the organisation that grew out of the old Performing Rights Society. So I was not on the streets, but it was close.

Have you been paid silly money?

Yes. The craziest fee was £5,000 for a song. A lot of the Hue and Cry fans who fell in love with our music in 1987 have done well financially. They want to support us. They will say: ‘Come and play at my birthday party.’ You can basically charge whatever you want within reason.

What is the most expensive thing you bought for fun?

It was a red Ferrari 248 GTS, costing £68,000. I was 23 and had to pass an advanced driving course and pay a £10,000 motor insurance premium before I could drive it.

What is your biggest money mistake?

Investing in a recording studio in the 1990s, just before software came on to the market allowing you to do it all on your computer. It was costly to maintain all the equipment and staff and I lost a five-figure sum.

The best money decision you made?

Reforming Hue and Cry 11 years ago with a manager who understood the marketplace. Now we play more than 50 gigs a year and some 100,000 fans subscribe to our email updates.

Do you save into a pension or invest in the stock market?

No. I have never thought about investing in pensions and I don’t trust them. I have got my royalties and I did the whole Bitcoin thing. I had multiple computers in my studio 10 years ago. So for six months, because I love technology, I allowed them to be used at night to mine Bitcoins.

I am not going to say how many I now have, but trust me, it’s enough.

I was shocked when I discovered recently that each coin was worth €16,000 [the current price is around €6,700 per coin].

They were all on a computer I had left at my mum’s.

Luckily I found it, sold immediately and made $20,000, but found the process difficult – it took all day – so I still have the rest. That is my only investment.

What is your financial priority?

To provide for my six-year-old daughter and two teenage boys. I want to make sure they have a cushion when they become adults. Young people face a lot of challenges.