I thought of suicide, says Lloyd Webber

WEST END supremo Andrew Lloyd Webber has opened up about a past battle with depression which led him to consider suicide.

The celebrated composer contemplated killing himself as recently as three years ago, a new book reveals, a thought which had plagued him since adolescence.

In his memoirs, Unmasked ,he also identifies a troubling episode of sexual assault as the genesis in his journey to theatre greatness.

The 69-year-old wrote: “A saddo tried to fondle me under cover of the tight standing crush on the Tube train. I was too shocked to make a fuss. But I was furious. So furious that it gave me an idea that maybe was big enough to call an epiphany.”

That same afternoon he performed at an end-of-term concert at Westminster Under School, ditching a planned recital for his own cheeky composition which mocked the masters and earned a rapturous reception.

His book lays bare the depths of despair which countenanced staggering heights of success reached with musicals such as The

Phantom of the Opera and Cats. In 1963, aged 15, he recalls first considering taking his own life after becoming “deeply depressed” by how his mother – a piano teacher – became infatuated with the musical talents of another young pianist. A visit to Suffolk, and the local church, convinced him “things weren’t so bad after all”.

Another attempt followed in the 1960s when he was barred from attending an appointment to have a song recorded after failing an army test in the school corps.