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Betsy premieres video for new single, 'Waiting'

  • Published in News

Down below this text there’s a video. Do yourself a favour and press play. Your day will be made by this woman with an incredible voice, singing a self-penned song that sounds like it came from the notebooks of Bacharach & David. Fun and playful, even when singing of serious topics, get Betsy into your ear canal.

Betsy is now putting the finishing touches to her debut album, which will dig deeper into her unlikely musical background. She was born on a goose farm in rural Wales, finding her voice from campfire sing-alongs and the local eisteddfod (where she boldly covered Rage Against The Machine) to the powerhouse vocalists within her parents’ vintage record collection.

Keen to pursue a career in music she was encouraged by her hard-working family to find a fall-back, and moved to London to study fashion design at Central St Martins. One distraction led to another when Betsy was invited to design catwalk for the esteemed Balenciaga in Paris: an intense, exhilarating experience filled with fascinating characters, but one that ultimately ate into her songwriting.

And so Betsy returned to Wales, swapping what many of her peers deemed the job of a lifetime for a grotty caravan in her brother’s garden (which you can glimpse across much of her artwork). Soon, there was no stopping her – Betsy furiously set about making music again, teaching herself the art of GarageBand and essentially challenging herself to write her way out of the caravan.

People got an early glimpse via a collaboration with Joe Goddard of Hot Chip, who reworked Betsy’s early solo demo of ‘Endless Love’ into the pair’s acclaimed single. The caravan’s door was then firmly kicked down in 2016, with acclaimed early singles 'Fair', 'Lost & Found' and 'Wanted More'. Blowing up vulnerable, intimate moments into widescreen and empowering pop, 'Waiting' confirms Betsy as one of the year's stand-out new voices.

 

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Festival Coverage: Love Supreme Jazz Festival - A Preview

  • Published in Live

This weekend sees the welcome return of the Love Supreme Festival.  Nestled snuggly into the sleepy Sussex village of Glynde this is rapidly becoming one of the best small festivals around.

Situated close to Brighton and now boasting four main stages, it's moving away from a strictly Jazz-orientated line-up, to include a wide ranging collection of acts.

This year is no exception with headliners featuring the enigmatic Grace Jones on Saturday, followed by the smooth sounds of the wonderful Mr Burt Bacharach on Sunday evening. With a positive forecast and after a rather unsettling week we predict a love festival is the perfect antidote to a week we would all rather forget.

There is more to offer outside the headline acts.  This year's festival hosts a selection of great names. We are particularly looking forward to the vocal talents of Lianne La Havas who has consistently delivered since her explosion via BBC Sound. She is joined by two other exciting songbirds in the frm of Caro Emerald and Kelis who both appear on the Sunday.

Caro is a stunning performer whose jazz vocals and distinctive sounds are sure to go down a storm.  Kelis on the other hand has had a huge musical transformation.  Forget her milkshake days, since her amazing album ‘Food’ released in 2014 she has transformed her sound and her soulful groove are sure to be greatly received.

Aside from the main stages the festival has an arena for a more dance related vibe. Top of the bill is Mr World Music himself the wondrous Gilles Peterson.  Other notable highs we hope will blast away our blues come from the wonderfully named GoGo Penguin who signed to Blue Note records and now the success of their album Man Made Object has catapulted them to a wider audience.  To compliment this we see the legendary Average White Band whose string of disco and funk hits are sure to get the whole festival moving.

There are a very few tickets left and we urge you to heal you broken hearts and minds and indulge yourself in a wonderful festival that will aim to heal us all.

You can visit the festival's website here.

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