BOOK : GAGA BY JOHNNY MORGAN

She slipped $10 into DJ’s bra with her teeth..and Lady GaGa was born
LADY GAGA is the world's biggest and most outrageous pop star. The Italian-American fame monster from New York is frequently compared to Madonna. But a new book, GaGa, by Johnny Morgan, features previously unseen photos, probes her early life and reveals the singer's inspiration came from the Brit glam rock stars in her dad's record collection, English disco and a soul mate steeped in Ziggy Stardust and glitter balls. In Day One of exclusive extracts from the book, here we tell the early story of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.

JUST as Madonna was amazing crowds in her adopted home town of New York, Stefani Germanotta was born in the city on March 28, 1986.

Twenty years later the girl who appeared to many as a blonde, flesh-flashing reincarnation of the original Material Girl was in her first band — but her early performances owed nothing to Madge. Instead the future Lady GaGa sang classic Brit rock and based her looks on Amy Winehouse. The style would soon change, but the music was already ingrained. "My dad's a Jersey-born Italian so I grew up listening to Springsteen albums that still had sand on them from the Shore," she would later reveal. "When I was in high school I was in a cover band that did Zeppelin, Floyd and Jefferson Airplane — that was his brainwashing coming to fruition.

" Stefi, as she was known at school, left home — from her dad Joe, an internet entrepreneur, mum Cynthia and younger sister Natali — to try to make it big in a band. Author Johnny Morgan writes: "Having decided to name themselves SGBand it was decided that all lead vocals would be handled by Stef. "She began to favour a look recently made hip by the British singer Amy Winehouse.

"Piling her long black hair atop her head in as messy a bunch as possible, Stef would twine fake flowers into the strands, which hung down almost to her waist. "Unlike Winehouse, though, Stef didn't go for revealing clothes on stage. SGBand were a 'serious' indie band with alt-country roots that preferred to be included in such musical company as Wilco or REM.

" At least it earned her a meeting with producer Rob Fusari, whodubbed her "Radio Ga Ga".

Then came a contract with the Island Def Jam label which got her disappointed parents off her back. She once recalled: "On my 19th birthday I just said, 'I'm going to get an apartment and a job'. "My mother started crying. My father was, like, 'If you don't make something happen within a year, you have to go back to school'. "A year later my production deal was signed, so I kept my word." The deal, however, lasted only three months, and she was dumped by her boyfriend at the time. Johnny writes: "Later she'd recall this period in her life as being a 'dark' one when she took drugs and came close to ruining her relationship with her parents." Disappointed GaGa moved back to the family home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for Christmas 2006. This proved a turning point as she made a new friend in the underground bars of the Lower East Side. Johnny writes: "The cross-dressers, drag queens, art students and artists who travelled through tunnels and over bridges from Queens and Brooklyn for a truly special night out in the Lower East Side felt like her kind of people.

"Meeting someone who was a soulmate, an innovator, mover, shaker and trend-setting glam-girl DJ proved that. Her name was Lady Starlight and the first night they met, GaGa put a ten dollar note into Starlight's bra — with her teeth.

"Lady Starlight, a smart, Seventies-obsessed former art student, was at the forefront of the Lower East Side performance art scene. "Lady Starlight could — and would — teach Lady GaGa a lot, not only about the kind of musical acts which GaGa hadn't heard her father play as she grew up. But also about the kind of cutting-edge, dramatic, brave entertainers and artists who inspired so many people into changing their lives. Just like Lady GaGa was changing hers." They met at Lady Starlight's "English Disco". Starlight recalled: "When we met she ran up to me and we instantly connected. Lady GaGa was in awe of what I was doing and asked me to be on stage with her. We then started blending ideas. "At the time she was already working on her album and a lot of what's on The Fame were songs that we've performed. We worked on these acts for Lady GaGa and The Starlight Revue, which had GaGa rocking the keyboard and me on beats. We also did go-go dancing and performances that featured disco balls and hairsprays being lit on fire.

" In 2007 Lady GaGa and Lady Starlight were booked to perform at the Lollapalooza festival, Chicago. GaGa appeared in a mirrored bikini top, short shorts and thigh high stockings. Johnny writes: "The Lollapalooza festival offered wholesome music, business-endorsed and supported entertainment, which is why GaGa earned her first police citation there, for public indecency.

  "It was handed to her by a Chicago policeman before she got on stage. 'There are children around here', he'd told her. Naturally, she was amazed. 'There's a huge festival with people doing drugs and he's busting me!'" At her school, the upmarket Convent of the Sacred Heart, the young Stefi had shown an enthusiasm for showing off her flesh. GaGa once said: "I was very naughty, wore awful things to school. I used to roll my skirt up really high so the nuns didn't know what to do with me." By 2007 Lady Starlight had set Lady GaGa in a new direction. She said later: "Fashion and attitude and style, that's what we breathe for. It's a party. "Everything my friends made fun of me for is what people want more of. More sequins, more spandex, yes please!"

By martin phillips , Senior Feature Writer Published: 04 Mar 2011