Vanessa Mae - How I broke free of the gilded cage my mother kept me in

Best-selling violinist Vanessa Mae reveals that she sacked her manager mum to break free of her domineering influence.

The sensational pictures of the Oriental beauty rising provocatively out of the sea, a skimpy, diaphanous dress clinging to her wet body and waves lapping around her bare legs, shocked the staid world of classical music. A little-known violinist called Vanessa Mae had arrived in style.

The impact of those controversial pictures, taken in 1994 for the cover of her "techno-acoustic-fusion" album The Violin Player, was such that Playboy snapped them up. Even more remarkably, the shoot had been engineered by her mother and former manager, Pamela Nicholson. And Vanessa was still only 15.

Seven years on, Vanessa is worth around pounds 25million, has racked up sales of six million and is about to release her ninth album, Subject To Change, which propels her further into a pop market. At 22 she enjoys a lavish lifestyle, but she has paid a heavy price for her success.

Eighteen months ago she sacked her mother as her manager, marching up to

Pamela in the kitchen of the family home with her P45. Sick of her mum's domineering influence over all aspects of her life, from the moment she first picked up a violin at the age of five, Vanessa finally snapped.

"All those years I was a control freak, managed by a control freak," she says. "Every single day I marvel at how life has changed so dramatically. Every day I think, `Gosh, I could still be in that position I was in without the freedom which makes the work so much more of a pleasure. Only yesterday it was all so different. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted."

Until now, Vanessa claimed that the split was a simple parting of the ways. But as we chat in the basement office of her new manager, Richard Ogden, who used to manage Paul McCartney, the truth becomes clear.

The ambitious Pamela, a lawyer and talented pianist, controlled every aspect of Vanessa's life. Her daughter couldn't go on holiday or to the cinema without a bodyguard, and wasn`t allowed to see friends or boyfriends. Skiing trips were permitted only with a personal instructor and never with her school, Francis Holland in London.

Pamela managed everything from her daughter's bank accounts, to choosing her clothes and make-up. Vanessa wasn't even allowed to slice bread in case she hurt her hand. Perhaps hardest of all, she was forced to drop every one of her school friends.

"I never had any rebellious, drug-taking friends or anything," says Vanessa, quietly. "It was just that my mother and I had different perceptions about what friends actually are.

"It was the same with clothes. I was much more of a fashion victim back then. There was the feeling of, `Oh, it's in the magazines. It must be good'. My mother was very much into designer clothes and make-up. She wears make-up a lot more than me and goes shopping a lot more."

Despite the flourishing career, top labels, exotic holidays and her own gold card, Vanessa felt increasingly trapped and desperate to break free from the narrow restraints of her world. There's a song on her new album called White Bird, about a bird trapped in a gilded cage. You don't have to be Freud to see how much it reflects her own childhood.

"Yes, it's very much about my life, although I didn't write the lyrics myself. It's a 1960s song," admits Vanessa, choosing her words carefully. "The cage is golden. It might be beautiful and kitted out, but a bird would still rather be free. The lyrics attracted me very strongly because they were so true. All my life, until I broke free, I was in a sort of cage. I lived in my own little bubble. Although I worked hard and enjoyed my work there were elements which needed to be changed. It was very claustrophobic.

"My mother has listened to the album and she said she liked it," she adds, diplomatically. "I didn't want to involve anyone whom I wouldn't benefit from in a creative process, but out of courtesy I've let my family hear it before it goes on sale."

Nowadays Vanessa is her own woman, both on stage and off, and is relishing every second of her new-found independence. She's moved into a flat in Kensington, West London, handpicked her staff and looks after her own financial affairs. What's more, she's in love. Her boyfriend is Lionel Catalan,31, a ski shop proprietor. They met two years ago in Val d'Isere where his father is Mayor.

"I'm totally in love," smiles Vanessa, whose first serious boyfriend was racing driver Jacques Villeneuve. "It's wonderful because he loves me for me, not for being Vanessa Mae, the violinist. It's a relationship which gives me a lot of back-up and support.

"Obviously, because Lionel's in France and I'm busy working we don't see as much of each other as we'd like to, but I feel so lucky. He loves music and we enjoy doing ordinary things together - going to restaurants and the cinema, or watching DVDs at home. I'm too young to say, `Yes, he's the one', but I'm very happy and very much in love."

Born in Singapore on October 27, 1978, Vanessa came to England when she was three. By that time her parents' marriage had collapsed. Although she keeps in touch with her natural father, an affluent hotelier, she was raised by Pamela's second husband, Graham Nicholson, a lawyer. She is extremely close to her step-dad, who also plays the viola. Much closer, one suspects, than she currently is to her mother.

"I owe him a lot. He gave me so much emotionally, love-wise, taking over from my first father," she says. "He invested hugely in my education, buying me a violin and so on."

Vanessa started playing the violin at five. By eight she was the youngest child to study at the famous Central Conservatoire of China. And at 11 she was admitted to the Royal College of Music, where she was seven years younger than most of her peers. She had made three albums and was touring the world by the age of 12, and her 1994 album The Violin Player sold three million copies.

Today, in her Levi's and a black, sleeveless Firetrap top, her tiny, 5'3" frame looks as fragile as a china doll's. But looks can be deceptive. Vanessa has an iron will, without which she could never have got to the top or taken on her formidable mother.

"I'm not rebellious. I just don't see the point in having tantrums. It's a total waste of time and energy and doesn't get you anywhere," says Vanessa. "But I was getting more and more frustrated because I wasn't playing the music I wanted to play. I was frightened of having to repeat a formula over and over again. I knew I had to find my own identity, away from my mother, in order to express myself through music.

"Mum and I are both very strong-minded people, but it's my name on the ticket and it has to be a reflection of what I want to do. I had to have a career that was only about me, and that only voiced my opinions and tastes which were getting stronger as I got older.

"The trouble was that mum and I were very different in what we wanted and how we wanted to achieve it. She just didn't understand or support what I was trying to do. We talked and argued, but there comes a point when you can't force an adult - particularly your own mother - to see things your way. When I realised it wasn't possible to work together on something we'd both be proud of, it seemed better to go solo.

"I'm not someone who makes spur of the moment decisions and it didn't happen quickly. I had thought about it quietly to myself. It had been building for a long time."

Vanessa twists a lock of her long, glossy hair between her fingers and adds, "I don't feel at all guilty about the sacrifices my mother made for me. A parent has to make decisions too. You can never be responsible for a parent's actions. I thought if we separated it would give her more time to be an attentive wife and perhaps a mother again. She always told me if she wasn't working on my career she would have time to be a wife and mother. So I thought this would give her the opportunity."

You wonder whether Pamela sees things quite the same way, particularly as she still works in the music industry. And when I ask whether they've got a better relationship now they no longer work together, Vanessa's tone is clipped as she answers carefully.

"There's been a lot of clearing up to do because it was a working relationship and we had to round things up and finish off," she says. "We are still in contact, but we don't see much of each other because I am off working and she is busy with other projects. She has always been very ambitious and is working harder than ever."

It's obvious that Vanessa doesn't want to say any more, and her relief is evident when we're interrupted by the sound of a frog croaking. It's her mobile phone.

When our conversation resumes, she talks about her latest, all-pop album. She has written nearly all of the 12 songs herself and three are vocal, although she insists the violin will always be important to her.

"Working in the studio the atmosphere is so different. It's so happy," she says. "Everyone is excited to be contributing which is a different feeling from before. I always used to be a perfectionist and a bit of a whip-cracker, now I've learnt that you can't work alone. You need to take other people's advice and criticism because they have things to offer you that can be very helpful. That's something my mother couldn't do and I couldn't do for a long time.

"The thread running through my album is all about change. And that's exactly what's happening in my life right now."

Soon she starts a world tour and she's also working on her autobiography. Although only 22, Vanessa has certainly had a bizarre life, and she's sharp enough to realise it has made her who she is.

"If you gave me a choice of ending up differently to how I am now I would still choose to be here today over every other possible version of me. I believe that life is too short for regrets or for wondering `what if'?"