16 The Sunday Times May 1, 2022
MONEY
The ‘prince of romance’ pianist has three
ex-wives, a weakness for trainers, but he still
rents his flat in Paris, he tells Nick McGrathR
ichard Clayderman, 68,
(real name Philippe Pagès)
has sold 90 million records
since his first hit in 1976.
The son of a piano teacher,
he was accepted into the
prestigious Conservatoire
de Paris at the age of 12 but
when he turned 17, he
swapped his classical
training for contemporary music and
formed a rock band with friends before
making a modest living as an
accompanist and session musician for
French music stars including Johnny
Halliday. His breakthrough came when,
performing under the name Richard
Clayderman for the first time, Ballade
pour Adeline sold 22 million copies in 38
countries. He has earned 267 gold discs,
70 platinum discs and was named “the
prince of romance” by Nancy Reagan.
He has a son, Peter, with his second wife,
Christine, and lives in Paris with his
fourth wife, Sophie.How much money is in your wallet?
I have €80. I might spend the cash
on lunch at a restaurant and on tipping
the server.What credit cards do you use?
I have two. One for personal things
and one for my professional account
for music-related purchases. I hear
about people running up bills of
thousands of pounds but so far that’s
not happened to me.Contact us Money,
The Sunday Times,
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GFOne in four people do not
shop around for a bank
account because it is too
complicated and they do not
have time, according to a
survey of 2,000 people by
Virgin Red, a shopping
rewards scheme.
This is despite the fact that
there is a government-backed
Current Account Switch
Service, which guarantees a
seamless move between2002 03 2006 07 2010 11 2014 15 2018 192627282930%Source: Gov.UKTax receipts as % of GDP Rishi Sunak, the
chancellor, is under
renewed pressure to
cut taxes after revealing
record-high tax
receipts this week. In
his spring statement
the chancellor had said
that his “tax plan
delivers the biggest
net cut to personal
taxes in over a quarter
of a century” but taxes
now represent 30 per
cent of GDP, a record
high, up from 27 per
cent last year.CHART OF THE WEEK THE TAX TAKE
Switching banks is easy, but 25% don’t agree
accounts within seven
working days. It was
launched in 2013 and more
than 77,000 people used it to
switched in March alone.
About one in five people
do not switch accounts
because they are worried
about their direct debits or
other payments being
disrupted, according to the
survey.
Under the switch service
the bank that you want you
want to move to does all thehard work. This includes
moving all standing orders,
direct debits and cash
balances. Your new bank will
be liable for any missed or
bounced payments as a result
of the switch.
Virgin Red is part of Virgin
Group which has its own
bank called Virgin Money.
The bank is offering 20,000
Virgin Red points, which can
be spent on rewards such as
flights, if you switch to its
current account.Ali HussainA credit union in Devon has
folded owing its 2,348
members more than £1
million.
City of Plymouth Credit
Union went into
administration last week but
its members can expect a
total of £1.2 million from the
Financial Services
Compensation Scheme,
which is capped at £85,000
per person.The credit union collapse goes on
It is not the first credit
union to go bust this year. In
January All Flintshire, a union
in northeast Wales, entered
administration with its 2,614
members owed £2.25 million
in compensation. Since 2012,
55 credit unions have gone
bust and between 2016 and
the third quarter of 2021, the
number of credit unions
shrank from 469 to 398,
according to the Bank of
England.
Credit unions are similar tocommercial banks, but are
member-owned, non-profit
institutions. They pool their
members’ money and use it
to offer services such as
loans. They are struggling to
attract customers because
they can only offer a limited
product range — mainly
personal loans and savings
accounts. Few offer
mortgages. In the pandemic,
many members paid off
debts, reducing the money
unions make from loans.Yasmin ChoudhuryThe value of the fixed-rate
mortgage deals that will
end this yearIf you would like the
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or call him on 07917 598422I’ll buy six identical ones. A bit like Elton
John with his suits.What is your financial priority?
My aim is to have enough money to
pay my rent in Paris and have some
cars and to go to restaurants without
checking the cost of the meal. I have
one son, who works in a pharmaceutical
lab and is doing very well financially,
so I don’t have to provide any money
for him.What would you do if you won
the lottery?
If I won the €2 million Super Lottery
I would keep a good portion of it to
buy a house and I’d give the rest of it to
some musician friends who need money
and some other friends who are not so
well off and would appreciate the
money.What is the most important lesson
you’ve learnt about money?
That inflation never stops. It seemed
to slow down for ten years or so and
in the past few months it’s skyrocketed
again, all of which, combined with
the poor interest my money in the
bank is earning, makes it harder and
harder for me to buy that apartment.
It’s a big worry.Richard Clayderman’s new album
Forever Love is out now‘I have had
various wives.
It has cost me
a lot of money’
FAME AND FORTUNE RICHARD CLAYDERMAN
father was a piano teacher so I think it’s
fair to say I’ve become a lot more
wealthy than my parents. My father died
40-odd years ago and my mother lives in
a retirement home about 100km north
of Paris and I still visit her from time to
time. When I started to have some
success I was able to help her financially.
My parents were not poor, but they were
definitely not rich either.Do you invest in shares?
When I had more money earlier in my
career, I didn’t invest in the stock market
at all. I did invest in life insurance
though, so I’ll be able to transfer money
to my son without paying taxes.Do you own a property?
I’ve moved from one house to another
every couple of years for the last 20
years, which has been very stressful. The
problem is I have had various wives, and
sometimes they wanted to stay in the
same house and I had to move on. Other
times I’ve had problems with my
neighbours being too noisy and in theend, today, I’m back where I started all
those years ago, renting an apartment in
Paris. I don’t own any property. I’m
waiting for a good opportunity to buy an
apartment in Paris or outside.What’s better for retirement —
property or pension?
Regrettably I have no pension. If I stop
working today I will have enough money
to live until the end of my life, but if I buy
an apartment then the money I have
saved will not be enough to get me
through my retirement.What’s been your best investment?
I can’t really think of one. My main focus
now is to use the money I have in the
bank to buy an apartment and to start
performing again so I can start building
up some money.And the worst?
I’ve had four weddings and three
divorces, but hopefully no more now.
The problem is that when you divorce at
least half, sometimes 60 per cent, of what
you earn goes to the woman. So that
means I’ve lost a lot of money. The most
important thing for me though is that my
new wife is a happy wife. And if my ex-
wives are happy then I’m happy too.What’s the most extravagant thing
you’ve bought?
Even at the height of my success I didn’tAre you a saver or a spender?
I navigate between being a saver and
being a spender. I might suddenly need
two shirts and two pairs of pants, but
then other times I have nothing I need to
buy, so I save.How much did you earn last year and
what impact has the pandemic had?
For the last two years I’ve been living off
my savings. Over the last 45 years I’ve
sold 90 million albums and royalties for
historic music I’ve released continued
during the pandemic at roughly the
same rate, but my concerts have been
more important than the royalties for a
long time and they stopped so it’s been
difficult. The peak of my earning powers
came in 1976 when Ballade pour Adeline
sold 22 million copies, back when
France still had the franc. I certainly
made good money from that track.Have you ever been really hard up?
Once I started to accompany various
French singers then my income
improved and I could live more
comfortably. It was only when I started
my career as Richard Clayderman the
solo artist that my finances improved a
lot. Before things took off I had to live
with my parents at their apartment on
the outskirts of Paris. Then I was able to
move into a bigger apartment on my
own, closer to central Paris.Are you better off than your parents?
My mother was a caretaker and mydo crazy things, but in the 1980s I did
buy three or four collectable cars for a
lot of money, including a Chevrolet that I
brought back from Mexico. I then paid a
huge amount on repairs for it in France,
which cost a fortune.I sold them for a
fraction of what I’d paid for them. I was
not very happy.What’s your money weakness?
I’m not a crazy guy who will buy 50 bags
or 32 pairs of shoes but sometimes when
I really like a T-shirt or a pair of sneakers,Richard
Clayderman,
above, at
home in
1989, and,
right, in 2010£324bn