Cruz

VICTORIA Beckham was in the biggest girl group of all time but her son Cruz is taking inspiration from another brilliant British band for his debut album — The Beatles.

The budding musician’s close friend Luke Pritchard has unofficially helped guide the project thanks to years of experience in the industry, along with his ten UK Top Ten singles with his band The Kooks.

In an exclusive chat, Luke revealed Cruz was heavily influenced by the Fab Four’s ninth record, The White Album, which gave us iconic songs including Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Blackbird.

“He’s brilliant. He’s got all the right things,” Luke told me at the Iconic Images Gallery in London, where we were invited to celebrate a new exhibition of The Cure ahead of their headline slot at Isle of Wight Festival.

“I think he’s a rockstar, I really do.

“It’s got a kind of White Album psychedelia sound, with warm tones.

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“I think he’s a great guitar player – it’s kind of what I want to hear in my head.”

In March, Cruz took to social media to tease a self-penned track inspired by his love for The Beatles.

In the short clip, he sang: “I wanna be John Lennon.”

Last week, as the showbiz world imploded thanks to his brother Brooklyn’s bombshell statement hammering his family, Cruz was locked away in a north London studio putting the finishing touches to the record.

As speculation about the family rift circulated the globe, Cruz took to Instagram to reshare a shot from the studio with the words “Loneliest Boy” along the top of a song sheet, leading some fans to wonder if it will be about his estranged brother.

Luke, who has released a new live version of The Kooks’s 2014 song See Me Now today, explained: “We were actually in the studio with him.

“His album sounds so good, so authentic. It’s really refreshing.

“You know, he’s recording everything completely authentically and trying to pick up that magic to some parts. I think that’s amazing.”

And he is determined to prove himself as an artist in his own right, breaking free from the nepo baby label.

Luke continued: “He’s the real deal. He wants to do things properly and he wants to gather his fan base the right way and he wants to go out and just play. It’s been a mad few days for him.”

Cruz has sold out his first headline show in London in March and has announced a UK tour with his band The Breakers which went on sale on Friday.

As well as their own tour this year, The Kooks are performing at Isle of Wight Festival alongside The Cure, Calvin Harris and Lewis Capaldi.

“I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private.

“Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed.

“I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.

“For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family.

“The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into.

“Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade.

“But I believe the truth always comes out.

“My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped.

“My mum cancelled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh hour despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress.

“Weeks before our big day, my parents repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name, which would have affected me, my wife, and our future children.

“They were adamant on me signing before my wedding date because then the terms of the deal would be initiated. My holdout affected the payday, and they have never treated me the same since.

“During the wedding planning, my mum went so far as to call me ‘evil’ because Nicola and I chose to include my Nanny Sandra, and Nicola’s Naunni at our table, because they both didn’t have their husbands.

“Both of our parents had their own tables equally adjacent to ours.

“The night before our wedding, members of my family told me that Nicola was ‘not blood’ and ‘not family’.

“Since the moment I started standing up for myself with my family, I’ve received endless attacks from my parents, both privately and publicly, that were sent to the press on their orders.

“Even my brothers were sent to attack me on social media, before they ultimately blocked me out of nowhere this last Summer.

“My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song.

“In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead.

“She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life.

“We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment.

“My wife has been consistently disrespected by my family, no matter how hard we’ve tried to come together as one.

“My mum has repeatedly invited women from my past into our lives in ways that were clearly intended to make us both uncomfortable.

“Despite this, we still travelled to London for my dad’s birthday and were rejected for a week as we waited in our hotel room trying to plan quality time with him.

“He refused all of our attempts, unless it was at his big birthday party with a hundred guests and cameras at every corner.

“When he finally agreed to see me, it was under the condition that Nicola wasn’t invited. It was a slap in the face.

“Later, when my family travelled to LA, they refused to see me at all.

“My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first.

“Family ‘love’ is decided by how much you post on social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo opp, even if it’s at the expense of our professional obligations.

“We’ve gone out of our way for years to show up and support at every fashion show, every party, and every press activity to show “our perfect family.”

“But the one time my wife asked for my mum’s support to save displaced dogs during the LA fires, my mum refused.

“The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards. I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety.

“For the first time in my life, since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared. I wake up every morning grateful for the life I chose, and have found peace and relief.

“My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press, or manipulation.

“All we want peace, privacy and happiness for us and our future family.”